ANN ARBOR – The Arbor Opera Theater has announced its 2018-2019 Opera Season.
It is the first season artistic director Austin Stewart is leading, and he is bringing three new productions never before performed in Michigan: "Moondrunk Madness," Ricky Ian Gordon's "Orpheus & Euridice" and Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann."
Recommended Videos
The productions will run from September 2018 through May 2019 in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.
"It was my great privilege to recently take the role of artistic director with Arbor Opera Theater in Ann Arbor," said Stewart via email. "This is an exciting moment for the company, one of reinvention and re-commitment to our mission. We are presenting three new productions that promise to entice new audiences and keep seasoned operagoers on their toes. We look forward to the contributions we can make to Michigan’s cultural achievements."
Austin Stewart (Credit: Arbor Opera Theater)
This season, AOT will be featuring fine musicians and emerging artists, including tenor Robert Stahley; sopranos Amy Petrongelli, Mary Martin and Monica Dewey; pianist Kathleen Kelly; directors Austin Stewart and Daniel J. Brylow; and conductor Daniel Brottman. Casting for the productions will continue through the fall.
George Shirley, world-renowned tenor and the J. Edgar Maddy Distinguished University Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Michigan, said in a press release, "I am encouraged by the vision and skill that Austin brings to the helm of AOT and the promise that augurs well for continuing the company's trajectory of theatrical innovation in lyric theatre.”
Tickets
Single tickets, available Aug. 1, start at $15 per person.
Subscription tickets to all three productions start at $65.
For more information, visit arboropera.com or call the box office at 734-707-1021.
Here's the press release for this season's productions:
"Moondrunk Madness": A Duo of Monodramas
- Sept. 7, 2018 at 7:30 p.m.
- Sept. 8, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
- Riverside Arts Center at 76 N. Huron St., Ypsilanti
Arbor Opera Theater in collaboration with ÆPEX Contemporary Performance present "Moondrunk Madness," a duo of monodramas featuring Arnold Schoenberg’s "Pierrot Lunaire' and Peter Maxwell Davies’ "Eight Songs for a Mad King." Strange works -- for their content and music -- are tamed by an intimate theatrical experience, a nuanced contemporary translation, and a captivating staged exchange between clown and king as they traverse the space between poetic genius and madness.
Amy Petrongelli, soprano, will sing the role of Pierrot, and King George III will be sung by baritone John Daugherty. ÆPEX Contemporary Performance will provide the augmented Pierrot ensemble under the direction of new music specialist, conductor Daniel Brottman. Amy Petrongelli has been hailed by the New York Times for her “admirable fluidity,” and John Daugherty’s “resonant voice and stagecraft” have left the audiences “spellbound” (The Michigan Review). Austin Stewart has curated and will direct the production.
Ricky Ian Gordon’s Orpheus and Euridice
- Jan. 11, 2019 at 7:30 p.m.
- Jan. 13, 2019 at 2:30 p.m.
- Kerrytown Concert House at 415 North Fourth Ave., Ann Arbor
Ricky Ian Gordon, music and text
Performed in English
Arbor Opera Theater co-produces with the Kerrytown Concert House Ricky Ian Gordon’s "Orpheus & Euridice," a tender song cycle in two parts for soprano, clarinet, and piano. Gordon’s astoundingly beautiful work is his own take on the Orpheus myth, written as his partner was losing his battle to AIDS. “What could I have really understood in that story?” Gordon asked of the myth, “But something lingered. Because one night, at 4 in the morning, I rose from sleep, went to the dining-room table, and wrote the entire text. It seemed I suddenly had a deep identification with Orpheus; only my Euridice was not bitten by a snake, but robbed slowly by an incurable virus.”
Soprano Monica Dewey, who begins her 18–19 season competing in Plácido Doming’s Operalia Competition in Lisbon and has been described by Opera News as having “an endearing timbre bursting with warmth. . . as close to perfect as opera gets,” sings Euridice alongside Kathleen Kelly, pianist, opera coach, conductor, and master teacher. Of Ricky Ian Gordon and his Orpheus and Euridice, Kathleen commented “[Ricky] has such a unique lyric voice and speaks particularly of loss and eternity in a way that almost no one else can. His work is emotionally huge and yet physically intimate. I think Kerrytown is a great space for the piece, and Kerrytown is all about this kind of collaboration. We are thrilled to have Arbor Opera Theater as our partner in this project.”
"The Tales of Hoffmann"
- May 17, 2019 at 7:30 p.m.
- May 18, 2019 at 7:30 p.m.
- May 19, 2019 at 2:30 p.m.
- Arthur Miller Theatre at 1226 Murfin Ave., Ann Arbor
Jacques Offenbach, music
Michael Carré and Jules Barbier, original text
Daniel J. Brylow, adaptation/translation
Performed in a new English adaptation from Skylight Music Theatre and Milwaukee Opera Theatre
Blind dates can be the worst, especially when you’re paired with a mechanical doll, a ghostly apparition, or a shadow-stealing courtesan.
Arbor Opera Theater is pleased to present a brand new reimagined production of "The Tales of Hoffmann" from Skylight Music Theatre and Milwaukee Opera Theatre, which BroadwayWorld hailed as “ethereal and uplifting,” with a dreamlike setting that “highlights the fantasy in this opera fantastique.” It tells of poet E.T.A. Hoffmann’s unending search for true love, doing so with humor, a dose of magic, and some of Jacque Offenbach’s most memorable melodies, including the “Doll Song” and the "Venetian Barcarolle."
Performed at the Arthur Miller Theatre on the University of Michigan’s North Campus, this enthralling adaptation by director Daniel J. Brylow is sung in English, with a reduced cast, musical ensemble, and playing time from the original—still a complete work of musical art that instead of smaller feels “essential and more concentrated.” The ensemble of singers now numbers only 13, and as there are more parts than people, the villain is played by the previous lover in each subsequent tale—a topsy-turvy yank toward the present day for these old tales. Though Hoffmann’s pursuit of love is foiled by sinister figures at every turn, he is rewarded in the end with the never-ending admiration of his Muse and a newfound love for his art.
Local favorite Mary Martin is among the sopranos playing the lover-turned-villainesses, and tenor Robert Stahley, who has recently made role debuts at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, and Wolf Trap Opera, will sing Hoffmann. Casting will continue through the fall with audition calls in Ann Arbor during early September.
Learn more at arboropera.com.