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TOLEDO, OH – Toledo
Opera will celebrate its 50th anniversary during the 2008-2009
season. The Opera was founded by a dedicated group of Toledeans
who felt that a city without an opera company was a city
devoid of color, life and excitement. These are ingredients
that opera can easily supply.
A story of aristocratic arrogance, fatherly
love and a terrifying curse comes to the stage on November
8, 14, and 16, 2008 with Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto. Rigoletto's
anguished attempts to rise above his weakness to save his
daughter make for a heart-rending and riveting story. The
title role in Rigoletto is one of the most difficult
for any singer. Baritone Jason Stearns makes his debut with
Toledo Opera as the twisted, vengeful court jester. Following
his performances with Toledo Opera, he will go on to reprise
this role in his Metropolitan debut. Soprano Rachel Watkins
will perform the role of Rigoletto’s vulnerable daughter
Gilda. Tenor Yoonson Shin makes his Toledo Opera debut as
the womanizing Duke of Mantua.
The production is sung in Italian with English translations
projected above the stage. A pre-performance artistic discussion – free
to ticket holders – is held one hour prior to each
performance at The Valentine Theatre.
“Rigoletto was Verdi’s
first major revolutionary work, dealing strongly as it does
with the violation of accepted moral code, the misuse of
power and the abuse of women,” comments Renay Conlin,
artistic director of Toledo Opera. Rigoletto is a normal
man with a superior wit, born into a society where the pleasures
of the upper class are tantamount and the poor simply live
and die.
Rigoletto becomes a victim of his own ambition, bent by his
hatred of his job and his employer. His clothes weigh him
down; they are the tattered remnants of what he might have
been were he not trapped in a class structure over which
he has no control. He tries desperately to micromanage his
personal life, to keep it, and thus his daughter, totally
cut off from the corrupt world in which he is so deeply entrenched.
This, of course, results in the opposite of what he had intended:
his teenage daughter rebels, culminating in her physical
destruction and his emotional demolition.
On March 14, 20 and 22, 2009, Salome takes
the stage, bringing one of Richard Strauss’s most riveting
operas,filled with brooding beauty and evocative music. This
is a production that no one can afford to miss. The opera,
with a libretto translated into German by Hedwig Lachmann
from the original French of Oscar Wilde, has raised eyebrows
since its world premiere in 1905. A combination of nudity,
sexuality, gore and biblical subject matter—though
only loosely related to the Bible—led censors to ban
it from the stages of London and Berlin for many years. American
audiences were so scandalized by the Metropolitan Opera’s
first performance of Salome that the company closed
the production, which lead to its absence from their stage
for 27 years. Modern audiences, however, have embraced the
opera for what it truly is; exceptional music and dynamic
drama.
The story is one of deceit and desperation
revealing one young woman’s dark soul. By concentrating
on the conflict between the sensual figure of Salome and
the ascetic John the Baptist, Strauss further heightened
the already considerable dramatic force of the original play
by Oscar Wilde. John the Baptist’s unusual personality
exerts a peculiar attraction on the beautiful stepdaughter
of Herod. Incensed at being rebuffed by the prophet, Salome
demands his head. Soprano Amy Johnson, will sing the demanding
role of Salome, and tenor Adam Klein will return to Toledo,
following his recent triumph in Toledo Opera’s production
of Carmen, to sing the role of Herod. This production
is sung in German with simultaneous English translations
projected above the stage.
The season will close with a spectacular
celebratory performance of Leonard Bernstein’s immensely
popular operetta, Candide, featuring
a dynamic roster of young American singers and a very special
guest artist in the acting role of Pangloss. Toledo Opera
invites its audience to enter a world of fantasy and imagination
as the tale of the optimist, Candide, comes to life. Candide’s
philosophy of optimism (instilled by his teacher and mentor,
Pangloss) is put to the test as he faces trials, war, and
an ongoing struggle to reunite with his beloved Cunegonde. Candide is
cherished by lovers of both opera and musical theatre and
is one of the career highlights for composer Leonard Bernstein.
This production is sung in English. The performance will
be followed by a 50th Anniversary Party at The Toledo Club.
Season subscription renewals for 2008-2009
are being sent in mid-March. New subscriptions will be accepted
after the company’s production of Cavalleria Rusticana on
May 2, 3, 4, 2008. For information, call 419-255-7464 or
visit www.toledoopera.org.
Single tickets for the 2008-2009 season go on sale the second
week of September and can be purchased through the website
or by calling the Toledo Opera office. |
