Washington Concert Opera

“REPERTORY WE DON’T

OTHERWISE GET,

SINGERS

WE MIGHT NOT OTHERWISE HEAR AND

OPERA WITH A SENSE OF

FUN!”

Anne Midgette, The Washington Post

Join us for the 2012-2013 Season

WASHINGTON

CONCERT

OPERA IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC

“Feisty Whose Two Annual Co Wco Is A

Perfor

Must-See Eve Dear Washington Concert Opera Supporter, WCO had a wonderful year celebrating our Silver Anniversary. Now I invite you to be a part of our glorious 26th season that is entirely devoted to the elegance, virtuosity, and lyricism of the Bel Canto period.

We will begin with Vincenzo Bellini’s richly melodic, charming and virtuosic La Sonnambula. Bellini’s first mature masterpiece is filled with arias and ensembles that are in turn spectacular and hauntingly beautiful.

Cuban-American soprano Eglise Gutiérrez will perform the title role. She has sung this particular role to enormous acclaim, most recently at Covent Garden.

Joining her as her former fiancé is exciting young tenor René Barbera, who recently won all three first prizes in the Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition.

Then in April we will complete the season with Gaetano Donizetti’s arresting and passionate Maria Stuarda, famous for its incredible confrontation scene between Queens Mary and Elizabeth. Declared daringly innovative and controversial at its premiere, Donizetti’s work has established itself as a powerful and poignant masterpiece.

Singing the role of Queen Mary, and making her WCO debut, is stunning soprano Georgia Jarman, who has just triumphed in London as the four heroines in The Tales of Hoffmann. Ms. Jarman is a young singer of great flexibility and nuance who has been a highlight of many great Bel Canto performances at Caramoor. And Brenda Harris returns to WCO after her stunning interpretation of Odabella, the warrior maiden, in Attila, to sing another fiery role, that of Queen Elizabeth.

I am thrilled to present a season of early romantic Bel Canto operas of the kind that have been the core of WCO’s operatic offerings for a quarter of a century.

I look forward to seeing you at our performances.

Antony Walker Artistic Director & Conductor P.S. Please note La Sonnambula begins at 2 pm on September 16.

Little Company oncert

mances Have Long Been

ents.”

— Terry Ponick, Washington Times

Bellini’s

La Sonnambula SUNDAY • SEPTEMBER 16, 2012 • 2:00 P.M.

Bellini’s score for La Sonnambula is full of extraordinarily difficult vocal challenges. Singers definitely can’t sleepwalk their way through this music. In fact, as well as being vocally adept they must also be first-class musicians. And who better to navigate the vocal fireworks than the fabulous Eglise Gutiérrez and marvelous René Barbera?

Donizetti’s

Maria Stuarda SUNDAY • APRIL 7, 2013 • 6:00 P.M.

Donizetti’s operas, Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, and Roberto Devereux are often referred to as the “Donizetti Queens,” since they deal with Tudor England and the queens Anne Boleyn, Mary, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I. Like Bellini’s La Sonnambula, navigating Maria Stuarda’s vocal rapids can also be treacherous and it takes two vocal virtuosos like soprano Georgia Jarman and soprano Brenda Harris to do justice to this tragic story of England’s dueling queens.

Join us for the 2012-2013 season and purchase your subscription by August 1, 2012, to receive an Early Bird discount and the best seats!

THE VOICES

Son Eglise Gutiérrez In addition to winning the Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition in 2004, the Cuban-American coloratura Eglise Gutiérrez has also won the Montserrat Caballe International Singing Competition and the Marian Anderson Prize for Emerging Classical Artists. She made her European debut in October 2005 in the title role of Maria di Rohan at Wexford Festival Opera. On September 7, 2009, she made her house debut at London’s Royal Opera House in the title role of Linda di Chamounix (recorded by Opera Rara and released in 2010), and in 2011, she appeared as Amina in La Sonnambula at the Royal Opera House.

Ms. Gutiérrez has performed in some of the most prestigious venues of the world including Rome, Zurich, Trieste, Florence, Carnegie Hall, Tel Aviv, Hamburg, Athens, the Santa Fe Festival, Cincinnati Opera and the Seattle Opera in roles such as Lucia, Gilda, Elvira in I puritani, Violetta, Amina, and Lakmé.

She studied voice in Cuba, in Miami with Manny Pérez, and at the Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA) in Philadelphia from which she graduated in 2004. She presently works with the voice teacher Bill Schumann. This marks her debut with Washington Concert Opera.

SUNDAY • SEPTEMBER 16, 2012 • 2:00 P.M.

La onnambula René Barbera Also making his WCO debut, tenor René Barbera, a third-year member of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, has swiftly established himself as a young artist on the rise. At Plácido Domingo’s Operalia 2011 in Moscow, he was awarded First Prize for Opera, First Prize for Zarzuela, and the Audience Prize. He is the first artist to be the sole recipient of all three awards since the competition began in 1993.

Mr. Barbera is a 2008 winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was a member of the San Francisco Opera’s prestigious Merola Opera Program that same year, where he performed on the Schwabacher Concert Series and the Grand Finale Concert.

In 2007 he won the Grand Prize of the Charles A. Lynam Vocal Competition, which led to his performance with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. In 2006 he won first place in the Heafner/Williams Vocal Competition and First Place in the Charlotte Opera Guild Vocal Competition.

Mr. Barbera studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts from 2004 to 2008 and further studies include the American Institute of Vocal Arts in Graz, Austria, and the Vocal Arts Symposium of Colorado Springs.

THE VOICES

Maria Georgia Jarman Soprano Georgia Jarman received a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music and her Bachelor of Music from Boston University. Since then she has appeared with English National Opera (singing all the heroines in Les contes d’Hoffmann), Polish National Opera, Dallas Opera, Minnesota Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, New York City Opera, and many times with Caramoor Music Festival. Additionally, she has also sung with Metropolitan Opera productions of Il barbiere di Siviglia and La rondine.

On the concert stage, she has appeared with Robert Spano conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in performances of Musetta in La bohème (released commercially on the Telarc label) and returned for Orff’s Carmina burana and excerpts of Il barbiere di Siviglia. She made her Avery Fisher Hall debut as Rozenn in Lalo’s Le roi d’Ys with the American Symphony Orchestra. She has also joined the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for Handel’s Messiah and the Portland Symphonic Choir for Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem.

Future engagements for the soprano include debuts with Welsh National Opera and Opéra National de Bordeaux in addition to a return to the Metropolitan Opera roster. This is her Washington Concert Opera debut.

SUNDAY • APRIL 7, 2013 • 6:00 P.M.

iaStuarda Brenda Harris A Washington Concert Opera audience favorite, soprano Brenda Harris returns as Elizabeth l in this production of Maria Stuarda. This past season she performed as Odabella in WCO’s production of Verdi’s Attila, prompting Washington Post music critic Anne Midgette to write that “Not only did she nail tricky coloratura passages, she shaped her lines so that she delivered the most at climactic moments.”

Brenda Harris has appeared in leading roles with opera companies and orchestras throughout the world. In North America, she has been heard at the Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, Minnesota Opera, New York City Opera, Atlanta Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and others.

In Canada, she has sung leading roles with the Canadian Opera Company, Montreal Opera, Edmonton Opera, Opéra de Québec, and Vancouver Opera. In Europe, she has appeared in Spoleto, Italy, with Opera du Rhin in Strasbourg and with Teatro Massimo in Palermo.

She returned to the Minnesota Opera in 2010 as Elizabeth I in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux, a role she previously sang with Washington Concert Opera in 2004.

Donor Levels and Benefits

Enhance your enjoyment of Washington Concert Opera by joining us as a donor. Donating to WCO is mutually beneficial.

Your contribution not only ensures the continuing quality of our performances, it also grants you the opportunity to enjoy lectures, rehearsals, parties and dinners with our artists and Maestro Walker. Please consider a donation to WCO today.

Whatever you contribute is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

MAESTRO’S CIRCLE $5000+ PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE $2500–$4999 DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE $1500–$2499 PATRON’S CIRCLE $750–$1499 BRAVO CIRCLE $500-$749 SPONSORING MEMBERS $250-$499 SUSTAINING MEMBERS $100-249 FRIENDS $50-$99

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Why Subscribe?

Here’s what Washington Concert Opera audience members had to say in a recent audience survey:

YOU DEFINITELY HAVE THE BEST VOICES IN THE CITY, AND THAT COMMENT COMES FROM SOMEONE WHO LIVED FOR YEARS IN VIENNA, AUSTRIA AND IS TOTALLY SPOILED.

I LOVE EVERYTHING WCO DOES. THANK YOU FOR BRINGING THIS INTIMATE FORM OF OPERA TO WASHINGTON.

THIS ORGANIZATION IS FIRST CLASS IN EVERY

ASPECT. ITS CHOICE OF SINGERS IS UNIFORMLY EXCELLENT.

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Michelle DeYoung in Samson et Dalila

Ticket Prices SUBSCRIPTIONS (two performances)

regular

after August 1, 2012

early bird

by July 31, 2012

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$180

Center Terrace

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$153

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LISNER AUDITORIUM Stage

D

D

A A A A A A A A B B B B C C C C

Mail or Fax your order to: Washington Concert Opera 1808 Connecticut Avenue, NW Suite 101 Washington, DC 20009 PHONE: 202.364.5826 FAX: 202.364.5836 Performances held at the Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st Street NW Washington, DC 20052

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• 202-364-5826 • www.concertopera.org The fine print: Subscribers receive priority seating and a discount (reflected in prices in chart above). Tickets and donor benefits will be mailed to the address you provide on the order form. Please include your telephone numbers and email address. Tickets not used may be returned to WCO for a tax-deductible contribution credit minus handling fee. All sales are final, no refunds or exchanges. Casting is subject to change.

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La Sonnambula Maria Stuarda

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La Cenerentola

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