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 Press
release
Green Mountain Opera Festival
January 11, 2010
Contacts:
Sally Molnar,
802-496-7442
Taras Kulish,
Artistic Director GreenMtnOpera@aol.com
Green
Mountain Opera Festival Announces 5th Season
”Vermont’s first and
only professional opera company” -
OPERA AMERICA
Nestled in the scenic Mad River Valley of
central Vermont, the Green Mountain Opera Festival is
now celebrating its fifth anniversary and has announced plans
for its 2010 season. The artists will begin arriving in
Vermont on May 27 and will spend the next three and one half
weeks rehearsing for the festival’s two opera productions. The
mainstage production will feature Donizetti’s Lucia di
Lammermoor, pinnacle of the belcanto repertoire, which
will be performed at the Barre Opera House on June 18 and 20,
accompanied by festival orchestra and chorus. The Emerging
Artist production will feature Handel’s Orlando
accompanied by chamber ensemble and will be performed in two
venues, Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater on June 13 and in
Waitsfield’s Neill Barn on June 17. Other events and
performances include a festival opening concert, open
rehearsals, master classes with the Emerging Artists, and an
outdoor picnic concert.
Founding
Artistic Director Taras
Kulish says “With last year’s production of The
Marriage of Figaro, I believe we reached a new
level of excellence, and I am confident we have matched this
high quality with the artists assembled for this year’s
festival. I am also very excited about our ever expanding
Emerging Artist production for June 2010.”
The conductor for Lucia di Lammermoor
is Leonardo Vordoni, a native of Italy living in the
United States. Last season, he was an assistant conductor at
the Metropolitan Opera and worked on a number of productions
across the United States. Other venues include Minnesota
Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Colorado, Lyric Opera of Chicago
and Chicago Opera Theatre. In 2011, he will conduct Il
barbiere di Siviglia for Houston Grand Opera.
Garnett Bruce,
artistic advisor and principal stage director for Opera Omaha,
will direct the mainstage production. His many credits
include directing Turandot and La Traviata and
collaborating with Peter Sellars on Doctor Atomic at
Lyric Opera of Chicago, Aida and Samuel Barber’s
Vanessa for San Diego Opera and new productions of La
Clemenza di Tito and La Cenerentola for Wolf Trap
Opera.
San
Francisco based soprano Nikki Einfeld
will take on the lead role in Lucia di Lammermoor.
Having sung the role with Syracuse Opera, she has been widely
recognized for her
“high
flying virtuosity”
(New
York Times). A San Francisco Opera Merola Program
graduate, she has performed throughout the United States and
Canada.
American tenor Scott Ramsay will
sing the role of Edgardo, a role he has sung with the Lyric
Opera of Chicago. This season he will perform with Opera New
Jersey, Eugene Opera and Opera Boston and Arizona Opera. He
trained at the prestigious Ryan Opera Center of the Lyric
Opera of Chicago, Florida Grand Opera and Glimmerglass Opera.
Warren resident and set designer Gary
Eckhart, who designed the set for last season’s production
of The Marriage of Figaro, will again design the set
for this year’s mainstage opera. Eckhart has designed more
than 200 productions for the theater and opera stage.
The festival’s training component continues
to grow. This year, the festival is offering a two tiered
training experience for highly talented young singers, the
Emerging and Resident Artist Programs. More than 300 singers
applied for eight positions. These aspiring opera singers come
to Vermont to perfect their craft and to gain much needed
performing experience. They also gain valuable insight from
interacting with professionals in the opera world. Last year
for the first time, the emerging artists staged an abridged
version of Donizetti’s Elixir of Love to an
enthusiastic audience. This year they will present Handel’s
Orlando. Bruce Stasyna is returning for his third
year as program director, and Sanford Sylvan, renowned
American baritone, will serve as director in residence as well
as teach master classes. These free public master classes will
again provide an opportunity for audiences to observe the
arduous training that opera singers must undergo to succeed in
a highly competitive world.
The Green Mountain Opera Festival is
located in the beautiful Mad River Valley in Central Vermont
USA and has a full calendar of events in June with details
soon to be posted on its website. A gala fundraiser is
scheduled for March 7 at the Joslyn Round Barn in Waitsfield.
Reservations for the gala may be made by calling 802-583-3184
after January 23.
Sponsored by the Green Mountain Cultural
Center, the festival is funded in part by a grant from the
Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts
and is a professional member of OPERA America, an association
of recognized opera companies in the United States. For a full
schedule of opera festival events, go to
www.greenmountainoperafestival.com.
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