The Metropolitan Opera and The Juilliard School Present a Semi-Staged Concert Performance of Gluck's "Armide" on Wednesday, February 8 and Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 8 PM in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater
The Metropolitan Opera and The Juilliard School present a semi-staged concert performance of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Armide, the second co-production between the two arts institutions, on Wednesday, February 8 and Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 8 PM in Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater (155 West 65th Street). The libretto is by Philippe Quinault. Fabrizio Melano directs the semi-staged concert version, with Kate Ashton as lighting designer and David Moody as chorus master. Jane Glover conducts the Juilliard Orchestra and a cast featuring current members and graduates of both the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts at Juilliard. Armide will be sung in the original French with principal music and language preparation by Denise Massé.
Tickets for Armide at $30 will be available beginning January 11, 2012 through the Janet and Leonard Kramer Box Office at Juilliard, through CenterCharge at (212) 721-6500, or online at www.juilliard.edu. For further information, call (212) 769-7406 or go to www.juilliard.edu.
The cast features: Emalie Savoy (Armide), Alexander Hajek (Hidraot), David Portillo (Renaud), Alexander Lewis (Artémidore), Luthando Qave (Ubalde), Noah Baetge (Le Chevalier Danois), Wallis Giunta (Phénice), Devon Guthrie (Sidonie), Evan Hughes (Aronte), Renée Tatum (La Haine), Soo Yeon Kim (La Naïade), Raquel González (1st Coryphée), Pureum Jo (2nd Coryphée), Deanna Breiwick (Une Bergère), Lilla Heinrich-Szász (Lucinde), and Naomi O’Connell (Mélisse).
Armide premiered in Paris in 1777. Despite its reputation as one of Gluck’s finest works, the Met has only presented it in 1910 and 1912. Those performances, which marked the opera’s United States premiere, featured an illustrious cast led by Arturo Toscanini and included Olive Fremstad, Enrico Caruso, Alma Gluck, Louise Homer, and Pasquale Amato.
Gluck’s Armide is based on Torquato Tasso’s 16th-century epic poem Jerusalem Delivered, which also served as inspiration for operas by Lully, Handel, Vivaldi, Rossini, and Dvořák, among others. The essential story is the same in all the operatic adaptations: the sorceress Armide seduces a Christian knight with witchcraft and trickery, but ends up falling in love with him. When he awakens from the spell and does not reciprocate her affection, she flies into a destructive rage.
Jane Glover is currently music director of Chicago’s Music of the Baroque and artistic director of Opera at London’s Royal Academy of Music. She is best known for her conducting of operas by Mozart, Handel, and Monteverdi, but her repertoire is very broad, encompassing many works of Britten as well as pieces by contemporary composers such as Oliver Knussen and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Ms. Glover has regularly appeared in major opera houses such as the Royal Opera Covent Garden, English National Opera, Berlin State Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Royal Danish Opera, Opéra du Rhin (Strasbourg), Bordeaux Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Opera Australia, and La Fenice, Venice, as well as with many major international orchestras. Her book, Mozart’s Women, was published in 2005 and nominated for both the Samuel Johnson Prize and the Whitbread Prize for Non-Fiction. She is currently writing a book on Handel.
Fabrizio
Melano is an established figure on
the international opera scene, having worked with leading opera houses
throughout the world for more than 25 years. He began a long-standing
relationship with the Metropolitan Opera in 1970, and has since staged new
production premieres of Pelléas et Mélisande, Norma (with
Renata Scotto), and Puccini's Il Trittico, La Bohème, and Madama
Butterfly. The director's extensive work also includes new productions for
Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Florida Grand
Opera, Washington National Opera, and Opera Company of Philadelphia. In April
2010 he directed Juilliard Opera’s fully-staged production of Francis
Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites.
This performance is part of Juilliard Opera, a program dedicated to the education and training of future generations of singers at Juilliard. Juilliard Opera is supported by the vision and generous lead funding of the International Foundation for Arts and Culture and its Chairman, Dr. Haruhisa Handa.
About the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program
Founded in 1980 by James Levine, the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Program, named after benefactors Mr. and Mrs. George Lindemann, has served as a training program for many well known artists, including Stephanie Blythe, Dwayne Croft, Anthony Dean Griffey, Paul Groves, Nathan Gunn, Aprile Millo, Heidi Grant Murphy, and Dawn Upshaw. Participants receive a yearly stipend in addition to musical and language coaching with the Met’s artistic staff. Through the partnership with Juilliard, the Met’s Lindemann Program and Juilliard’s Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts share some full-time faculty, guest faculty, master classes and a host of other resources, offering a rich educational environment to educate the next generation of opera singers.
About the Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts at Juilliard
One of America’s most prestigious programs for educating singers, The Juilliard School’s Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts offers young artists programs tailored to their talents and needs. From bachelor and master of music degrees to advanced artist diploma programs in voice and opera studies, Juilliard provides frequent performance opportunities, featuring singers in its own recital halls, on Lincoln Center’s stages, and around New York City. Juilliard Opera has presented numerous premieres of new operas as well as works from the standard repertoire.
Juilliard graduates may be heard on recordings and in opera houses and concert halls throughout the world; diverse alumni artists include well-known performers such as John Aler, Faith Esham, Simon Estes, Renée Fleming, Anthony Dean Griffey, Barbara Hendricks, Hei-Kyung Hong, Ana María Martínez, Susanne Mentzer, Leona Mitchell, Leontyne Price, Florence Quivar, Neil Rosenshein, Risë Stevens, Tatiana Troyanos, Shirley Verrett, Veronica Villarroel, and Robert White. Recent alumni include: Paul Appleby, Julie Boulianne, Sasha Cooke, Isabel Leonard, Emalie Savoy, and Jennifer Zetlan, among others.
FOR LISTINGS:
ARMIDE
Semi-staged concert performance featuring singers from the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts at Juilliard and the Juilliard Orchestra
Music by Christoph Willibald Gluck
Libretto by Philippe Quinault
Conducted by Jane Glover
Directed by Fabrizio Melano
Lighting by Kate Ashton
Chorus Master: David Moody
Production Stage Manager: Joe Gladstone
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 and Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 8 PM
Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 155 West 65th Street, NYC
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