All Roads Lead to Spain for Cincinnati Opera Summer Festival
Cincinnati Opera’s 2009 summer festival is full of Don’s: Don Jose (“Carmen”), Don Carlo (“Don Carlo”), Federico Garcia Lorca if
he had chosen to use the Spanish honorific (“Ainadamar”) and you need not
count Almaviva, because he was a Count.
It’s a very Spanish season, with all four operas set on the Iberian peninsula.
What moved Cincinnati Opera to make Spain its locale this year? The popularity of “Carmen” and “Figaro,” no doubt, plus the opportunity to present a work new to Cincinnati, Golijov’s “Ainadamar” about poet Federico Garcia Lorca, who was martyred during the Spanish Civil War.
The festival opens with Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” June 11 and 13 in Music Hall under the distinguished baton of Sir Roger Norrington, advocate of historically informed performance practice. (Will there be string vibrato or not? Wait and see.)
Considered by some the greatest opera ever written, “Figaro” is based on the revolutionary 18th-century play by Pierre Beaumarchais -- so revolutionary that it was banned in Vienna for a while.
Considered offensive to the aristocracy, it is about challenging their prerogatives, one of them being the lord’s right to spend the first night with his servant’s bride. The lecherous Count Almaviva gets foiled by his servant Figaro and Figaro’s fiancée Constanza with help from Almaviva’s wife Donna Anna.
Singing Susanna will be soprano Nicole Cabell, with soprano Sarah Tynan as Susanna and baritone Jonathan Lemalu as Figaro, all making their Cincinnati Opera debuts. Baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes sings the Count, with mezzo-soprano Marie Lenormand as Cherubino. James Alexander will direct in his Cincinnati Opera debut.
Don Carlo, son of King Philip II of Spain, is the unfortunate hero of Verdi’s “Don Carlo" June 25 and 27. In it, Don Carlo is betrothed to Elisabetta of France, but the pair actually fall in love before Philip decides to marry her himself. Carlo gets involved in political intrigues against his father on behalf of freedom fighters in Flanders -- not a good idea with the fires of the Inquisition raging in Spain.
Famed bass James Morris returns to Cincinnati Opera to sing Philip, tenor Frank Porretta is Carlo, soprano Angela Brown is Elisabetta, mezzo-soprano Michelle De Young sings Princess Eboli, with baritone Marco Caria as Carlo’s friend Rodrigo and bass Morris Robinson as the sepulchral Grand Inquisitor.
Veteran opera conductor Richard Buckley will take charge in the pit. Former CCM opera department chair Sandra Bernhard will direct. The production, a massive, imposing one, says the opera, is by Hawaii Opera Theatre, Opera Hong Kong and Vancouver Opera.
“Ainadamar,” to be performed July 9 and 11, means “Fountain of Tears,” the spot in Granada where Garcia Lorca was gunned down in 1936 on the eve of the Spanish Civil War. His life and death are recalled through the prism of one of his early plays by the actress who played the leading role, Margarita Xirgu.
Renowned soprano Dawn Upshaw, for whom the opera was written, will sing Xirgu. Soprano Jessica Rivera is her student Nuria, with mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor in a pants role as Lorca. Also appearing will be flamenco vocalist Jesus Montoya as Ramon Ruiz Alonso.
Making his Cincinnati Opera debut will be the celebrated young conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, who led the world stage premiere of “Ainadamar.” The director is CCM graduate Jose Maria Condemi, who directed Cincinnati Opera’s 2004 “Don Giovanni.” The production is from Santa Fe Opera where “Ainadamar” premiered in 2005.
Bizet’s “Carmen,” likely the most popular opera ever written, returns to Music Hall July 22, 24 and 26 with Romanian mezzo-soprano Ruxandra Donose as the lethal gypsy, tenor William Burden as the officer Don Jose who falls fatally for her, soprano Sandra Lopez as Jose’s hometown sweetheart Micaela and bass Dwayne Croft as the matador Escamillo.
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra music director Andreas Delfs will conduct. Mark Streshinsky, director of the opera’s 2008 “Lucia di Lammermoor” will direct, with choreography by Cincinnati Ballet artistic director Victoria Morgan. The production is by Utah Opera.
All operas are sung in the original languages with English supertitles. Chorus master is Henri Venanzi. Lighting designer is Thomas C. Hase. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is the official orchestra for Cincinnati Opera.
All performances are at 7:30 p.m. at Music Hall, except the July 26 matinee of “Carmen,” which at 3 p.m. “Opera Insights,” pre-performance lectures by opera artistic director Evans Mirageas and guests, begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Music Hall auditorium, 2 p.m. July 26.
Tickets are $26-$152 at the Cincinnati Opera box office in Music Hall, call (513) 241-2742, or visit the opera web site www.cincinnatiopera.org