Press Releases
Contact:
Colleen Flanigan
Director of Marketing and Public Relations
312-704-8420 ext. 25
cflanigan@chicagooperatheater.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Chicago Opera Theater Opens Inaugural 2004 Season in Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance on February 18, 2004
Chicago, IL – Chicago Opera Theater opens its 2004 Season on February 18, 2004 and features three all-new productions -- all showcased in the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park. This past spring the company garnered rave reviews and unprecedented national attention from such media as Time Magazine and National Public Radio for its 2003 Season. Chicago Tribune critic John von Rhein hailed 2003’s Agrippina as “Chicago Opera Theater in its glory.” The Chicago Reader called Chicago Opera Theater (COT) “sexy, smart, edgy, luscious looking, in-your-face, and…musically superb.” The 2004 Season promises to bring that same artistic edge and thrilling energy.
The 2004 Season opens with Claudio Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea). The opera tells the story of Poppea, mistress to the Roman emperor Nero, who plots to become his empress, and features a new edition of the score by conductor and Baroque specialist Dr. Jane Glover. Glover and director Diane Paulus, were the amazing creative team behind Monteverdi’s Orfeo in 2000, which was
remounted to great critical acclaim at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of its Monteverdi Festival in 2002. Glover and Paulus also created COT audience favorites
Cosi fan tutte (2002) and The Turn of the Screw (2003). The production features sets from designer Robert Brill. Though already known to Broadway, Goodman, and Steppenwolf
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Chicago Opera Theater 2004 Season 2-2-2-2
audiences, this is his COT debut. With recent engagements in Amsterdam, Paris, Tokyo and at the Met, soprano Danielle de Niese makes her Chicago debut as Poppea. Michael Maniaci, winner of the 2003 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and hailed as “the best performance of the year by a male soprano” by The Washington Times, appears as Nero. Soprano Ingela Bohlin, who Opera News hailed as “utterly compelling in vocal and dramatic prowess” in 2002’s production of Cosi fan tutte, returns as Drusilla. The opera also features Mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabo as Ottavia. Opera magazine called Szabo “an arresting stage presence” while Opera News hailed her voice as a “noble, rich beauty.” Counter-tenor Matthew White, who has performed lead roles at Houston Grand Opera, Cleveland Opera and the Glyndebourne Touring Opera, stars as Ottone. The role of Seneca will be sung by bass Robert Pomakov, who recently appeared as Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Washington Opera under the baton of Plácido Domingo. L’incoronazione di Poppea opens on February 18, 2004 and runs through February 28.
COT’s second production of the season is the Chicago premiere of Benjamin Britten’s last opera Death in Venice. With Venice, COT continues its commitment to Britten’s works in a production conducted by COT resident conductor and music advisor Alexander Platt and directed by Ken Cazan, who directed Hagen’s Shining Brow for COT in 1997. Based on the novel by Thomas Mann, Death in Venice tells the story of a writer tormented by his conflict between reason and beauty, even as it brings him slowly to the brink of death. Leading British tenor Robin Leggate, who audiences will recognize from 2003’s The Turn of the Screw, stars as Gustav von Aschenbach. The production also features Chicago audience favorite David Holloway. The Voice of Apollo will be sung by Australian counter-tenor Tobias Cole, who will be in Baz Luhrmann’s production of the Britten opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Opera Australia this fall. Death in Venice runs from May 5 - 15, 2004.
The 2004 season closes with the boisterous vocal fireworks of Gioachino Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims (The Journey to Rheims). Rossini’s last Italian opera was written for the coronation of King Charles X of France. After the coronation, the score disappeared and was eventually presumed as lost. It was not until the 1970s that pieces from the original score began to surface in various European libraries, allowing for the full score to be reconstructed. The opera tells the tale of a group traveling to the coronation, whose voyage must be cancelled. They decide to spend the evening entertaining one another – resulting in some of the most challenging and beautiful vocal works in the opera
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Chicago Opera Theater 2004 Season 3-3-3-3
repertoire. Il viaggio a Reims is conducted by Raymond Leppard in his COT debut. Leppard’s extensive career with the world’s leading opera companies and orchestras has included major engagements at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera and with the major orchestras in every European capital city. The opera is directed by Christopher Cowell, known to COT audiences for Handel’s Semele (2002). The international cast features some of the best and brightest vocal talent to be found today. Viaggio runs from May 19 – 29, 2004.
After 30 years at the historic Athenaeum Theatre on the city’s north side, COT is moving downtown to the newly constructed Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph Street. With the company’s blazing artistic reputation and growing audience, the move to the new theater gives COT the ability to keep expanding – and solidifies its role as a major player in the cultural life of Chicago.
Chicago Opera Theater (COT) is a mid-sized arts organization dedicated to producing high quality opera in Chicago and around the country. Since its inception in 1974, COT has staged 86 operas, given 33 Chicago professional premieres, and reached an audience of thousands through its main-stage performances, regional tours, outreach programs, and telecasts. Under the dynamic leadership of General Director Brian Dickie, COT’s mission is to provide first class productions of small to middle scale opera repertoire in the Chicago area, to develop young artists, and to educate, expand and diversify its audience. For more information, visit our website at www.chicagooperatheater.org.
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Chicago Opera Theater 2004 Season 4-4-4-4
L’incoronazione di Poppea
MUSIC BY CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI
Libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello
Based on Tacitus, Suetonius, Dio Cassius, and Seneca
Sung in Italian with English supertitles
ARTISTIC:
CONDUCTOR: JANE GLOVER
DIRECTOR: DIANE PAULUS
SCENIC DESIGNER: ROBERT BRILL
COSTUME DESIGNER: DAVID WOOLARD
LIGHTING DESIGNER: ALLEN HAHN
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: ANDREW EGGERT
CAST INCLUDES:
POPPEA: DANIELLE DE NIESE
DRUSILLA: INGELA BOHLIN
OTTAVIA: KRISZTINA SZABO
NERO: MICHAEL MANIACI
OTTONE: MATTHEW WHITE
SENECA: ROBERT POMAKOV
ARNALTA: MEREDITH ARWADY
VALETTO: RALPH DANIEL RAWE
DAMIGELLA: KELLI HARRINGTON
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Chicago Opera Theater 2004 Season 5-5-5-5
Death in Venice
MUSIC BY BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Libretto by Myfanwy Piper
Based on the novel by Thomas Mann
Sung in English with English supertitles
ARTISTIC:
CONDUCTOR: ALEXANDER PLATT
DIRECTOR: KEN CAZAN
SCENIC DESIGNER: PETER HARRISON
COSTUME DESIGNER: KEVIN KNIGHT
LIGHTING DESIGNER: ALLEN HAHNASSISTANT
DIRECTOR: ANDREW EGGERT
CAST INCLUDES:
ASCHENBACH ROBIN LEGGATE
THE TRAVELER DAVID HOLLOWAY
VOICE OF APOLLO TOBIAS COLE
Il viaggio a Reims
MUSIC BY GIOACHINO ROSSINI
Libretto by Luigi Balocchi
Based on Corinne, ou L'Italie by Madame de Staël
Sung in Italian with English supertitles
ARTISTIC:
CONDUCTOR: RAYMOND LEPPARDDIRECTOR: CHRISTOPHER COWELLPRODUCTION DESIGNER: BRIDGET KIMAKLIGHTING DESIGNER: ALLEN HAHN
CAST INCLUDES:
CORINNA: RACHELLE DURKINLA CONTESSA DI FOLLEVILLE LEAH HUNTMADAMA CORTESE MONICA COLONNA
LA MARCHESA MELIBEA LINDA PAVELKAILCAVALIER BELFIORE MICHAEL COLVINIL
CONTE DI LIBENSKOF SCOTT RAMSAYIL BARONE DI TROMBONOK ALEXANDER TALLDON
ALVARO JESPER TAUBELORD
SIDNEY MATTHEW ARNOLD
DON PROFONDO FREDRIK ZETTERSTRÖM
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Chicago Opera Theater 2004 Season 7-7-7-7
TICKETS:
Tickets range in price from $30 - $97. Students receive a 50% discount.
All performances are at the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St.
L’incoronazione di Poppea
February 18 7:30 p.m.
February 20 7:30 p.m.
February 22 3:00 p.m.
February 26 7:30 p.m.
February 28 7:30 p.m.
Death in Venice
May 5 7:30 p.m.
May 7 7:30 p.m.
May 9 3:00 p.m.
May 13 7:30 p.m.
May 15 7:30 p.m.
Il viaggio a Reims
May 19 7:30 p.m.
May 21 7:30 p.m.
May 23 3:00 p.m.
May 27 7:30 p.m.
May 29 7:30 p.m.
BOX OFFICE INFORMATION:
To buy tickets or for more information, contact the Chicago Opera Theater Box Office, M-F 9am – 5pm.
Phone: (312) 704-8414
Fax: (312) 704-8421Web: www.chicagooperatheater.org
