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att th the Clyfford Still Museum ““To “T To stand s an st nd in i a gallery gal alle lery ya he Cl C Clyf lyffford ford fo dS t ll M ti useum us useu best art museum will will wi l be be among am mon ng the the be th est st a rtt m mus useu us eu um experiences ex xpe perien nccees anywhere.” an a ny yw whe here r ..”” - Peter Plagens, Smithsonian Magazine Peter P Pe Pet Pl la ag gen ens,, Sm S i hs it hsonia hson an Ma aga gazinee
“Everything ““E Eve E ery yth thin in ng a museumgoer muse mu seum seum se u g gooer er could cou ulld d hope hop ope for. for. fo for r. There The T he erree could coul co uld be ul be no no better beett b tter setting tter setttiing ng for forr Still’s Sti till ill’ss coruscated cor orus uscca ate ted d poetry.” poettry y.” . Perl, The New - Jed dP Pe erl rl, T he N ew w Republic Rep epub ublliic
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STORIES THAT SING: Be the voice of Opera Colorado Campaign pera Colorado is a vital member of Denver’s cultural community and along with the region’s other leading arts institutions, we help make the city a vibrant place to live, work and thrive. For 30 years we have presented exciting productions in downtown Denver and we have served the Rocky Mountain Region with education and community programs that engage young minds and inspire new generations of opera and arts lovers.
O
Opera Colorado has a long history of careful fiscal stewardship. However, as we approached the end of fiscal year 2012 we found ourselves facing a serious shortfall in year-end fundraising, leaving us with an untenable deficit. We have thoroughly evaluated our financial situation and have already made serious changes to our operations to stabilize the company financially, ensuring that we continue to serve our community. These cost cutting measures significantly help our position, but do not fully address the challenge we face now and in the future. Therefore, we are embarking upon a $1.2 million STORIES THAT SING fundraising campaign focused on fully funding our 2013 productions of Romeo and Juliet and Don Giovanni and helping us to reorganize the company for a healthier financial future. Our Board of Directors is leading the way with a 1 for 1 challenge grant of $350,000.00. Fiscally strong and artistically vibrant opera, symphony, ballet and dance companies are hallmarks of great cities - and we live in a great city! Arts institutions like Opera Colorado are not a luxury, they are a necessity and a catalyst to some of our most life affirming moments. I hope you will join our Board of Directors and other patrons in supporting our STORIES THAT SING campaign. Raising $1.2 million in 70 days is critical to our future success, so act now and be the voice of Opera Colorado and let your voice sing!
You can make a gift to the STORIES THAT SING CAMPAIGN online OperaColorado.org/support Thank you.
Greg Carpenter, General Director
Page 5 | Winter 2013 | OVATION!
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Arts for the Next Generation By Meghan Benedetto, Manager of Development
W
e’ve reached a milestone today in Education & Community Programs: the last day of Generation OC at Rocky Heights Middle School (RHMS). I can’t believe it. What a journey it’s been! I know some of you might be wondering, “What is Generation OC?” Generation OC is Opera Colorado’s residency program where the arts are used as a catalyst to teach 21st Century Workforce Readiness Skills, a major emphasis under the Colorado Department of Education’s new standards. Our goal is to provide students with the tools they need to be successful in the workforce and to expose them to different career options in the arts. The beauty of “Gen OC,” as we like to call it, is that it is completely customizable to the teacher’s goals and students’
Cherity Koepke, Director of Education & Community Programs, talking to students at Rocky Heights Middle School.
needs. No two programs are exactly alike. RHMS is the pilot school where this program was first started, and we have been working with their fabulous Language Arts Teacher, Colleen Holub, for the past three years in order to create a well rounded program. This year’s eighth grade students were tasked with marketing the opera Romeo and Juliet to their peers. You might ask how the students get from point A, which is thinking opera is a bunch of big ladies singing at the top of their lungs wearing horned helmets, to point B, which is acting as savvy professionals and creating an original marketing campaign? It’s a process and all part of the program. Take a look at the session outline below and you’ll see how Gen OC works. Session #1: Gen OC Intro Session one begins with a Gen OC introduction and final project expectations. Some students have heard about the class before and are excited when I show them photos of last year’s students with their final OVATION! | Winter 2013 | Page 8
projects. A guiding criterion for their projects will be to address the 4 Elements of Marketing: Audience, Information, Emotion, and Action. To introduce the elements, we play a game by taping examples of each of the elements onto the students’ backs and they have to ask yes or no questions to figure out which element they belong to. The room erupts into chaos as the students scramble to find out what is on their back. Some clearly have a questioning strategy while others take stabs in the dark. It’s a creative and interactive way for us to engage the students in their own learning. As we are getting ready to leave for the day, I hear some students talking and overhear, “that was fun……. this opera thing won’t be too bad.” Session #2: What is Opera? “Has everyone seen the game show Jeopardy?,” I ask the students during session two. Some look at me like I have asked them to provide me with the square root of 23; others nod and tell me yes, and that their
grandmother watches it daily. I tell them that today we are playing Gen OC Jeopardy. The questions are sourced from the Opera 101 WebQuest that they completed the day before. A WebQuest is an inquiry based activity in which the information that the students research with comes from resources on the internet. They visited the Opera Colorado and Opera America websites to learn about Romeo and Juliet as well as different jobs in opera. They watched movie clips and commercials featuring opera music on YouTube. The idea is to give the students an interactive learning experience in order to get a base knowledge of opera and then reinforce this knowledge with a fun game. This fun game ended up turning out to be quite competitive! To be clear, it was boys versus girls and they were competing for chocolate. Jeopardy questions included: Opera star Dmitri Hvorostovsky was named one of the “50 most beautiful people” in what publication? What singer belted out “La Habanera” from Carmen to sell Pepsi? The character of Stephano is played by which gender? Do you know the answers? After completing the WebQuest, our Gen OC students do! Session #3: Mapping the plot of Romeo and Juliet Cherity Koepke, our Director of Education & Community Programs, has her work cut out for her today. She needs to cover the Romeo and Juliet plot in just 40 minutes and then repeat it for five classes throughout the day. Since the students have already seen the play and done the WebQuest, she decides to contrast different treatments of the work by showing clips from the movie, play, and opera. I’m excited because she’ll be showing the Leonard DiCaprio movie version of Romeo and Juliet. As Cherity sets up each of the clips, I notice that no one flinches when she says Leonardo DiCaprio…finally Ms. Holub interjects and reminds them that he was also in the movie Titanic. The students begin to talk amongst themselves about Titanic like it is some old Hollywood classic. I suddenly feel old. We move from watching movie clips to watching the death scene from the opera. As the initial shock and giggles wear off from watching someone sing as they die, the students are genuinely interested. To keep the students on task, we end the class by discussing possible symbols that they could use in the final projects. I could see the light bulbs going off in their heads about the endless possibilities of what images to include in their posters…roses, candles, wedding dresses, daggers, hearts, family rivalry.
Session #4-6; The 4 Elements of Marketing Now that we have Opera 101 and the plot of Romeo and Juliet covered, it’s time to delve deeper into the 4 Elements of Marketing. As we walk into the classroom Cherity and I are greeted by a new addition…a giant hand! Ms. Holub will be using the 4 Elements of Marketing throughout the year for persuasive essays and speeches so she wanted to create a visual aid to reinforce the concept. A genius idea, and the pink nail polish is a nice touch. Camille Spaccavento and Erin Acheson from Opera Colorado’s Marketing Department are on hand to help the students analyze Romeo and Juliet ads from other opera companies. Wow, the students are critical and they don’t hold back. They think that the tags lines are corny. I thought they were clever. Ouch. During the next few sessions, we cover other topics that they can utilize as they are creating their final projects, including color harmony, font selection and hierarchy, as well as copyright law, image usage and credit. Session #8-#10 Get to work! The students are paired in groups of two to work on their projects. Cherity and I are on hand to give feedback and support and this time we’re the ones who aren’t holding back. We make it a rule to be very honest with our students in our feedback, while also being encouraging. During the final session, we view the projects as a class before the posters are sent to the printer. We’re blown away at their concepts and the choices they have made throughout the process. We will be awarding a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place as well as an audience choice winner based on the number of “likes” that each ad gets on Facebook. So that, in a nutshell, is Generation OC. We’re very proud of this program. It’s the only program of its kind in the state of Colorado, and based on the responses we’re getting from teachers and students, Gen OC is in high demand. In fact, we’re fully booked for the rest of the 2012-2013 school year. Upcoming Generation OC programs will be at Elizabeth Middle School, Frontier Academy in Greeley, and Noel Community Arts School. You may view the students’ final projects on Opera Colorado’s website and Facebook page.
Generation OC is sponsored by the Sidney E. Frank Foundation – Colorado Fund. Page 9 | Winter 2013 | OVATION!
Varied Views of Don Juan
By Betsy Schwarm
T
he name alone evokes clear images in most minds: Don Juan, the journeying to Rome, the great German writer Goethe observed “no one Spanish womanizer and adventurer. He may have only could bear to live without having fried Don Juan in Hell, or seen been a legend, but certainly he came to life on the the Commendatore, as a blessed spirit, ascend to page and in music. His most famous musical Heaven.” With a tale so popular and so familiar, it was appearance is in Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, perhaps inevitable that Mozart would give it a try. which Opera Colorado will present this spring. Yet Mozart’s Don Giovanni – the shift in name Mozart was neither the first nor the last to tell his due to its Italian text – was written for one of the version of the tale, and each interpreter gave it major theaters in Prague, where his previous a somewhat different spin. opera The Marriage of Figaro had enjoyed immense success. The new work came to Don Juan first appeared in print in 1630 the stage October 29, 1787. Unlike previous in the Spanish play El Burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra (The Playboy of Seville settings of the tale, which tended to be dark and the Stone Guest). The playwright, who or moralistic or wryly humorous, Mozart’s went by the nom de plume Tirso de Molina, version blends all of the above, apparently was also a monk and the church, taking because Mozart favored a serious mood and offense to the cleric’s side employment, had his librettist Lorenzo da Ponte a brighter one. ordered him to stop writing. Molina ignored Moreover, this Don Juan is a more moderate that command, and within a few decades, his action hero. Less reckless than earlier Don Juan had reached the stage throughout incarnations of the man, this one wants pleasure, Europe. New settings of the story quickly followed, not confrontation. He prefers to talk – or sing – his Christoph Willibald Gluck notably one by Molina’s younger French contemporary way out of conflicts, rather than drawing his sword. Molière in 1665. He is also rather less successful with women. For all From France, it came to Restoration England. There, that his servant Leporello has cataloged conquests including playwright Thomas Shadwell was accustomed to reworking Molière’s 1003 women in Spain alone, in the course of Mozart’s opera, Giovanni plays for English audiences, and one of these would be his telling of the is driven away from his goals again and again. It seems that his Don Juan story, which he retitled The Libertine. For a revival of the play reputation now precedes him, and that somewhere his picture is on a in the 1690s, composer Henry Purcell wrote a variety of songs post office wall. Yet he never ceases to try, and Mozart’s music and instrumental interludes. Here, the protagonist is vividly paints that determination. Even the overture makes more violent than Mozart’s and possesses a cadre of that clear, as its ominous opening chords – which like-minded cohorts with whom he shares the reappear with the arrival of the stone guest near the ladies of whom he has wearied. When the opera’s close – are immediately followed by quick “stone guest” – ghost of a murdered opponent and spirited melodies suffused with the – appears, Purcell provides a somber song for protagonist’s energy. the accompanying devils who are there to This charismatic score remained influential bear Don Juan off to “feel the hottest flames for decades. Many Romantic composers, of hell.” notably Chopin and Liszt, produced piano Don Juan’s next major musical pieces inspired by the great opera. Their appearance came in the mid-18th century, works are variations on its themes, when Mozart was yet a lad but Christoph paraphrases of the masterpiece. They are, in Willibald Gluck (whom some of you will a way, Mozart’s musical children, and they recall from Opera Colorado’s 2001 staging present no new concepts to further the of Orfeo et Eurydice) was actively at work in legend’s development. They testify more to the Vienna. His ballet Don Juan premiered in popularity of the opera than that of the story Vienna October 17, 1761. Its most dramatic itself. scenes are vividly shaded. When the stone guest New musical interpretations of Don Juan began Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart interrupts a dinner party, Don Juan’s guests scatter to to appear late in the 1800s, when apparently there was music of broken and nervous rhythms, and when the enough distance from the Mozart opera for composers to protagonist is carried off to hell, Gluck sends him there with a dare tackling the story for themselves. Russian composer whirlwind of descending runs. Contemporary accounts attest that the Alexander Dargomizhsky crafted an opera, The Stone Guest, using as his immediate inspiration a telling of the tale by Alexander Pushkin. Its stage action was no less lively. At one performance, the flames of hell music shaped to match the rhythms of the Russian language, The Stone got out of hand and burned the theater to the ground. Guest would not premiere until 1872, a few years after the composer’s Despite that catastrophe, Gluck’s ballet enjoyed wide-spread death. popularity, even reaching Salzburg where Mozart saw it. Other More familiar to non-Russian audiences is Richard Strauss’ composers were inspired to take on the tale in operatic form, and in the 1770s and 1780s, at least five different Italian versions appeared. After Continued on page 15 OVATION! | Winter 2013 | Page 10
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Behind the Scenes “I grew up with no TV, so I spent much of my childhood reading books like The Three Musketeers, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Kidnapped, Treasure Island, and Lord of the Rings.”
By Erin Acheson, Marketing & Promotions Coordinator
O
ne of the most entertaining aspects of any production of Romeo and Juliet is the sword fighting. Our production of Gounod’s operatic telling of Shakespeare’s tale is no exception. But, not just anyone can pick up one of the weapons and start fighting like a pro. We talked to Benaiah Anderson, the professional fight choreographer for our February performances, about his specialized craft. What prompted you to become a fight director? I grew up with no TV, so I spent much of my childhood reading books like The Three Musketeers, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Kidnapped, Treasure Island, and Lord of the Rings. When I went outside to play, those were the games I played…swinging on ropes and climbing trees and sword fighting imaginary villains. I would even make swords out of pieces of wood I found in our barn and paint them silver. Then I found the theater and found out that there are people who get to do those things for a living! What was your training process? Since very few universities offer Stage Combat as a major, I attended hundreds of classes equaling thousands of hours at Stage Combat workshops in Canada, New York, Maine, Las Vegas, North Carolina, and right here in Denver. I am a member of an organization called The Society of American Fight Directors. Most of the workshops I have taken have been offered through the SAFD. I am currently the Regional Representative for the SAFD for The Rocky Mountain Region and I have choreographed or performed violence for high schools, universities, and theaters all across the Front Range. I worked at Central City Opera for three summers, which was my introduction to the world of opera, and I had the opportunity to work with some fine opera directors, Catherine Malfitano, Ken Cazan, and Marc Astafan. Are the swords you use onstage real? The swords are real, but they are dull. The swords, scabbards, and swordbelts were actually made right here in Colorado by a masterful sword cutler named Dennis Graves. His company is called No Quarter Arms and I work there whenever I am not acting in or choreographing a show. Are there different styles of fighting? One of the best things about this job is that I get to research the different ways people have used swords and other weapons all over the world through just about every major time period. We do
plays set in Rome, Greece, Italy, and Germany, and all of these countries have different ways of fighting. Different styles of fencing can be pretty subtle and difficult to convey onstage, so I will usually approach the story of the fight by saying that one character will thrust with the point rather than cut with the edge. Sometimes I use animal imagery by having the actors imagine a cat fighting a bear. Big physical choices can come from that kind of rehearsal and we use that as a foundation for the choreography. My favorite style of fighting is swashbuckling Errol Flynn style…very fun and flashy and heroic, and not realistic at all! What are your most memorable stage moments? Two summers in a row at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival I have had the opportunity to fight with very talented actors who are also very, very good fighters. Last summer I got to fight Stephen Weitz in Treasure Island. He was Billy Bones and I was Black Dog. I lost. In 2011 I fought my teacher and mentor Geoff Kent in Romeo and Juliet. He was Mercutio and I was Tybalt. I won that one. As a bonus, both of them are good friends of mine. It is great fun and a wonderful challenge to fight someone who can really push the gas and go for broke. We never fight as fast as we can because we need to stay in control, but we get a lot closer to the edge than I ask other actors to go. Most of the roles I have had the good fortune to play have required me to swordfight or knife fight, or get knocked out. Theater, and opera, is a very violent world. Thank goodness, or I’d have to move to Hollywood.
Benaiah Anderson works throughout the region with organizations such as the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Denver Center Theatre Company, Central City Opera, and Opera Colorado. Page 13 | Winter 2013 | OVATION!
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Varied Views of Don Juan continued from page 10...
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orchestral piece Don Juan, which premiered in Weimar November 11, 1888. Strauss did not concern himself with Pushkin or Shadwell or Molière or Molina. Rather, his most immediate source was the work of the German poet Nikolaus Lenau. Like a good Romantic, this Don Juan is an introspective fellow. He comes to his end not at the hands of a vengeful spirit but when, having lost his zest for the game, he allows himself to be slain in a duel. Thus, Strauss’ music, after much strongly dramatic action, fades softly to a close, as if with a dying breath. As a much-in-demand opera conductor, Strauss knew and admired Don Giovanni. However, he apparently felt it was time to give the character a new life. The 20th century, too, offered its musical Don Juans. The Italian Gian Francesco Malipiero made of him an opera and the American Virgil Thomson crafted a concert work for orchestra and tenor, derived from Byron’s poetic telling. So the tale is not at an end, but each generation has viewed the character through the lens of contemporary ideas. Reckless or rational or resigned to fate, Don Juan became what the mood of the time declared he should be. What he might become in the 21st century is yet to be seen.
Article by Betsy Schwarm, author of “Classical Music Insights� and “Operatic Insights.�
Support Young Singers! Denver Lyric Opera Guild Celebrating 47 years of giving to Colorado Singers. 28th Annual Competition for Young Singers
Giving Voice to Opera Stars of the Future
All events at Bethany Lutheran Church are free and open to the public. Saturday, February 16, 2013 MASTER CLASS 9:00am - 4:00pm Saturday, March 2, 2013 PRELIMINARY COMPETITION 9:00am - 5:00pm Saturday, March 16, 2013 FINAL COMPETITION 1:00pm - 5:00pm All Competitions and Master Class Bethany Lutheran Church 4500 E. Hampden Avenue at S. Dahlia
Join us for monthly Opera Luncheons. For information on all events Visit: www.denverlyricoperaguild.org Call: 720-239-3120
Page 15 | Winter 2013 | OVATION!
Wherefore art thou……Stephano? By Brad Trexell, Director of Artistic Operations
I
been set by Bellini, as The Capulets and the magine being tasked with adapting one of Shakespeare’s plays to an opera libretto. Montagues, and even appears regularly on It must strike terror into the heart of Broadway in the guise of the modern anyone familiar with the complexities of the adaptation found in West Side Story and other works derived from the original, language and meter of Shakespeare’s timeless plot of two young star-crossed words, not to mention the complexities of lovers. plot. And of course, a soliloquy – or any Gounod’s transportation of the play to the other scene for that matter – can be spoken operatic stage is unfortunately now almost a much more quickly than it can be sung; rarity. It is surprisingly faithful to the original those pesky whole notes take up SO much text, adapted by Jules Barbier and Michel time! And so, judicious trimming and Carré. Much of the text is taken directly from adapting must occur for the musical form. the Shakespeare (translated to French, of Quite a few of Shakespeare’s plays have course). But, as with all adaptations, there been “operacized,” each with its own set of are some key differences. Although Juliet’s pros and cons and fans and detractors. Verdi mother, Lady Capulet, is a character in the set Macbeth, Falstaff and Otello. Nicolai’s Brenda Patterson, making her Stephano - and version of Falstaff is The Merry Wives of Opera Colorado - debut in February. play, her role has been absorbed by the Nurse Windsor. Britten tackled A Midsummer Gertrude in the opera, and Gertrude fulfills Night’s Dream. Berlioz’s Beatrice and both functions, although stage directors Benedict is based on Much Ado About Nothing. Ambroise Thomas sometimes have a non-singing Lady Capulet on stage. Another major embraced Hamlet. And in more recent years, Aribert Reimann set King difference in the opera is the “Poison Aria,” an extended soliloquy of Lear as Lear and Thomas Ades premiered his operatic treatment of The sorts for Juliet to sing as she convinces herself to drink the potion that Tempest. No doubt there are others, and one can understand the will put her to sleep and simulate her death. In the play, she delivers a appeal of setting such masterful works to music, in which much of the short monologue before drinking, but Gounod extends the suspense and drama has been already worked out by the master. One can argue that builds the scene to a huge dramatic climax before she actually downs some of these operas are masterpieces in their own right and some the beverage. don’t quite reach the level of the original Shakespeare, but these Furthermore, the ending of both pieces is quite different. SPOILER assessments vary from listener to reader, and in many cases, are like ALERT! (Read no further if you don’t already know the ending.) In the comparing apples to oranges, for once edited, adapted and set to play, Romeo finds Juliet asleep in her tomb, and believing her dead, music, Shakepearean operas become artistic works in their own right. drinks poison. He dies, she awakens and, finding him dead, stabs Perhaps no Shakespearean work has held more fascination for herself. Following this is an extended epilogue in which the bodies of successive artists than the evergreen tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. It has the young lovers are taken before the Prince and he admonishes both OVATION! | Winter 2013 | Page 16
the Capulets and the Montagues issuing the “moral of the story.” In the opera, Romeo finds Juliet asleep, believes her to be dead, and takes poison. As he is dying, she awakens in the nick of time so they can sing a glorious farewell duet, and he explains that her family conspired against their love – something she never learns in the play. Juliet, determined to die with Romeo and upset from finding that his vial of poison is now empty, stabs herself. They sing a final prayer together and die……in each other’s arms, naturally. Then of course, there’s Stephano. But wait! WHO is Stephano? Stephano is one of the group that makes up Romeo’s inner circle, including Mercutio, Benvolio and Gregorio. He is entirely invented for the opera and does not appear in the original Shakespeare, but combines bits of Gregorio’s and Benvolio’s characters and text from the play. And he is sung by a woman. Wait – WHAT?! Yes, the role of Stephano is what is known as a “trouser role” in the opera. Trouser roles are roles usually sung by mezzo-sopranos often portraying young men or boys. This is most often done for the effect of portraying innocence or foolishness in a pre-pubescent boy, and therefore, prevoice change. “Shepherd boys” are almost always trouser roles. Household names of other well-known trouser roles include Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, Oktavian in Der Rosenkavalier, and the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos. In each case the character’s naiveté is played for laughs, but they are also often very sensitive characters with deep feelings and often an entry point for the audience to feel for the other characters and the situation unfolding on stage. Frequently, as a part of the plot, a trouser role character experiences his first love and the heartbreak that inevitably follows. And
so it is with Stephano who serves, in a way, as the eyes of the audience. Stephano can see what is happening in the feud between the two families and gives voice to these events, frustrations, and his own loyalties in his aria “Que fais tu blanche tourterelle.” Gounod had used the device of the trouser role previously, notably in his earlier Faust, in which the trouser role is Siebel, a village youth who is in love with Marguerite. But this idea is not too far removed from Shakespeare’s own time. In his day, women were forbidden to appear on stage in female roles – or indeed in ANY role – as it was felt to be immoral for girls or women to do so. Gwyneth Paltrow portrayed the breaking of this taboo, in reverse, in the film Shakespeare in Love, in which she memorably played a woman dressed as a male actor so that she could be onstage and near the object of her affection – Shakespeare himself – as he actually writes Romeo and Juliet, effectively thrusting her character and Shakespeare’s into the title roles of the play! The film won several Oscars, including Gwyneth Paltrow’s Best Actress and the film’s Best Picture awards. Now that you have all this gender switching sorted out in your head, consider Bellini’s The Capulets and the Montagues, or I Capuletti e i Montecchi, that premiered in 1830 – 37 years before Gounod’s opera, and in which the role of Juliet is sung by a soprano and Romeo is sung by a – mezzo-soprano!! Given that the “real” fictitious Romeo and Juliet were supposed to be 16 and 14 respectively, this mezzo-sopranoRomeo makes sense, but in later years (1966 to be exact) a new version of the score appeared at La Scala in which Romeo was sung by a tenor, thereby reflecting more modern tastes. But that is another story……
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2013 FESTIVAL A matchmaking barber. Life in small town America. And love on the Mississippi.
Central City Opera House June 29 – July 28
THE BARBER OF SEVILLE OUR TOWN Denver Center for the Performing Arts August 6 – 11
SHOW BOAT Book early for the best seats at the best prices. Subscribe before May 1st and save up to 30%! 303.292.6700 | CentralCityOpera.org
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COME HEAR TOMORROW’S OPERA STARS FOLLOWED BY A GALA RECEPTION! Saturday, January 26, 2013, 9:30am: Colorado-Wyoming District Finals Sunday, January 27, 2013, 1:30pm: Rocky Mountain Regional Finals Our region’s most talented young singers will vie for a chance to sing on the stage of the Met, win $15,000, and launch a major career.
Ellie Caulkins Opera House, DPAC, 14th and Curtis Streets
FREE ADMISSION A reception with hors d’oeuvres, wine & a performance by the Opera Colorado Young Artists follows Sunday’s auditions. Renee Fleming, past winner Photo: Decca
RECEPTION ADMISSION ONLY $15! (PATRONS $10) RSVP by January 19th to Steve Dilts at sdiltsj@mac.com or 720-530-0483
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FICTION: My donation would be too small. FACT: No donation is too small. Your donation makes a difference! $50 = One pianist for one hour of chorus auditions for the 2013 season or two piano-vocal scores. Piano-vocal scores are created for the rehearsing of singers and studying the compositional structure of the score.
$75 = One pair of character shoes. Character shoes have been a staple in the theater, dance and television industries for many years. Other shoes do not have the proper grip on the bottom to prevent slips and falls. Although they may be similar in style to other types of shoes, their functionality is what truly sets them apart.
$100 = One make-up kit for one main stage principal artist. A make-up kit includes all needed colors and brushes, sponges, applicators and removers.
$325 = VISA processing fee for one foreign artist to perform on the Opera Colorado stage. Bringing in artists from around the world is key to creating amazing performances in Denver.
$750 = Labor and materials to sew one costume for one principal character. A principal character is usually one of the main characters of the opera. We have 23 principal characters in our 2013 season.
$800 = One day space rental for rehearsals of our main stage productions at The Studio Loft at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House or one week piano rental for rehearsals. $1,000 = Over 100 students attending the Student Matinee of Romeo and Juliet in February 2013.
Make a difference by joining your fellow opera devotees in making a donation to Opera Colorado today! Donate Now | 303.778.7086 | www.operacolorado.org OVATION! | Winter 2013 | Page 22
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A Look Back Participants in the Teacher Workshop at the Denver Art Museum.
An array of costumes and opera posters at the Warehouse Sale.
The Young Artists perform an abridged version of The Barber of Seville on their Fall Tour.
The Opera Colorado Young Artists perform Douglas Moore’s Gallantry at Sideshow!
OVATION! | Winter 2013 | Page 24
Teacher Workshop On October 6, 35 teachers representing 17 different schools from Colorado Springs to Greeley and everywhere in between participated in the 3rd Annual Teacher Workshop entitled, Implementing the New Academic Standards. The workshop, hosted by Opera Colorado, the Denver Art Museum, the Colorado Symphony, and Buntport Theater, assists teachers in deciphering the new standards, implementing them into the classroom, and connecting them with the many resources at their disposal. Warehouse Sale On October 12 and 13, just in time for Halloween, the doors of Opera Colorado’s warehouse were opened to the public for the first ever Warehouse Sale. Fun costumes, opera posters and LPs, and unusual props all found new homes. The sale exceeded its financial goal and there is already talk of the next sale. Stay tuned! The Opera Colorado Young Artists October Tour With stops at CSU, The Plains Hotel, and Cheyenne Central and South High Schools, Opera Colorado’s annual Fall Tour reached over 400 students and adults. Highlights included the first public performance of the touring version of The Barber of Seville and a Season Preview concert featuring music from Laitman’s The Scarlet Letter. Sideshow! On November 1, 2 and 3, audiences were treated to the second annual Sideshow! opera cabaret in The Studio Loft at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. The Opera Colorado Young Artists starred in Gallantry, a 1950s soap opera spoof by Douglas Moore directed by Kelly Van Oosbree and cabaret songs by William Bolcom and Cole Porter.
Coming Up at Opera Colorado Tuesday, April 2 • Don Giovanni | Ellie Caulkins Opera House Friday, April 5 • Don Giovanni | Ellie Caulkins Opera House Saturday, April 6 • Opera Colorado Young Artists Performance | Cherry Creek Shopping Center Sunday, April 7 • Don Giovanni (matinee) | Ellie Caulkins Opera House For more information on upcoming events, visit www.OperaColorado.org. All dates subject to change. Check the website for the most up-to-date information.
Meet the 2013 artists (cover l to r): Matthew Treviño, Christopher Magiera, Kevin Newbury, Kevin Langan, Jonathan Boyd, Christian Bowers, Brenda Patterson, John McVeigh, Stephen Morscheck, Giuseppe Varano, Ellie Dehn, Daniel Belcher, Robert Wood, Marcia Ragonetti, Maria Lindsey, Melody Moore, Ava Pine, Ari Pelto, Richard Wiegold, Bill Murray.
2013 15 th Anniversary Crystal Season
Thursday, February 7 • Student dress rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet | Ellie Caulkins Opera House Saturday, February 9 • 2013 Season Opening Night Dinner | Four Seasons Hotel Denver • Opening night of Romeo and Juliet | Ellie Caulkins Opera House Tuesday, February 12 • Romeo and Juliet | Ellie Caulkins Opera House Thursday, February 14 • Student matinee of Romeo and Juliet | Ellie Caulkins Opera House Friday, February 15 • Romeo and Juliet | Ellie Caulkins Opera House Sunday, February 17 • Romeo and Juliet (matinee) | Ellie Caulkins Opera House • Colorado Public Radio Live Broadcast of Romeo and Juliet on KVOD 88.1 FM Wednesday, February 27 • “The Science of Love” Event | Denver Museum of Nature and Science Wednesday, March 6 • The Barber of Seville (abridged, English version) by the Opera Colorado Young Artists | Broomfield Auditorium Saturday, March 23 • Opera Colorado Young Artists Arias & Ensembles Greatest Hits | Cherry Creek Shopping Center Thursday, March 28 • Student dress rehearsal of Don Giovanni | Ellie Caulkins Opera House Saturday, March 30 • Don Giovanni Opening Night Dinner • Opening night of Don Giovanni | Ellie Caulkins Opera House • Colorado Public Radio Live Broadcast of Don Giovanni on KVOD 88.1 FM
Die Fledermaus Johann Strauss
Saturday, March 2, 7:30pm Sunday, March 3, 3:00pm Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts Colorado Springs Opera Theatre of the Rockies presents a magnificent produc on of this effervescent Viennese opere a full of mistaken iden ty, pranks, glamorous par es, and laughter that flows like champagne Visit www.operatheatreo herockies.org for more informa on. Tickets available at Tickets West outlets, or www. cketswest.com Page 25 | Winter 2013 | OVATION!
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Officers Michael Hughes, Chair Kenneth Barrow, Chair Emeritus Ellie Caulkins, Lifetime Honorary Chair Marcia Robinson, President Charles Kafadar, Treasurer, President of the Opera Colorado Foundation Susan Adams, Secretary Dirk de Roos, Vice President, General Counsel Carol Crossin Whitley, Vice President Committee Chairs Stephen L. Dilts, Co-Chair, Education & Community Programs Joy Dinsdale, Co-Chair, Education & Community Programs Craig Johnson, Chair, Development Committee Larry Zimmer, Chair, Audience Development Committee Directors Bruce Allen Sheila Bisenius Michael Bock Suzanne Dost Bucy Mary Conroy Jill Irvine Crow, Honorary Director Nellie Mae Duman, Honorary Director Jack Finlaw Hugh Grant Charles Kafadar Jeremy Kinney, Honorary Director Loring W. Knoblauch, Lifetime Honorary Director The Honorable Kenneth M. Laff
Kelly McCourt Kalleen Malone William Maniatis Pamela Merrill Mary French Moore Gerald Saul Alessandra Schulein Jeremy Shamos, Honorary Director Susan Shamos, Honorary Director Shirley Smith Harry Sterling Robert Swift Martha Tracey Byron Watson Britney Weil Randall Zisler
OPERA COLORADO STAFF GREG CARPENTER, GENERAL DIRECTOR
Bring the opera home with you! New Opera Colorado merchandise is available for sale in our lobby. Show the world you are an Opera Colorado fan! Next time you come to the opera, stop by and pick up a souvenir to remember your trip to Opera Colorado.
ADMINISTRATION Darrel Curtice, Director of Finance & Administration Julie Nowasell, Staff Accountant ARTISTIC AND PRODUCTION Brad Trexell, Director of Artistic Operations Hally Albers, Production Manager DEVELOPMENT Meghan Benedetto, Manager of Development Isis King, Manager of Development Systems
Ovation! Magazine and In-Theatre programs are produced for Opera Colorado by The Publishing House.
EDUCATION Cherity Koepke, Director of Education & Community Programs Emma Martin, Education Intern MARKETING Camille Spaccavento, Director of Marketing and External Affairs Erin Acheson, Marketing & Promotions Coordinator Laura Kirby, Ticket Services Manager Katie Bulota, Assistant Ticket Services Manager Ed Mickens, Temp. Asst. Ticket Services Manager
OPERA COLORADO 695 S. Colorado Blvd., Suite 20, Denver, CO 80246 Tel. 303.778.1500 | Tickets: 303.468.2030 Ticketmaster: 1.800.982.ARTS TTY for Ticketmaster: 1.800.755.6244 www.OperaColorado.org
OVATION! | Winter 2013 | Page 26
Angie Flachman-Johnson: Publisher Wilbur E. Flachman: President & Founder Annette Allen: Art Director, Production Coordinator For advertising information, call 303-428-9529 www.pub-house.com www.coloradoartspubs.com
Opera Colorado is grateful for support from the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). Ovation! News, Events and Activities of Opera Colorado Volume 14, Issue 2. Published quarterly for the benefit of friends and supporters of Opera Colorado, 695 S. Colorado Blvd. Ste. 20, Denver, CO 80246. Phone: 303.778.1500. www.OperaColorado.org.
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Produced by Opera Colorado’s Marketing and Development Departments. Editor: Camille Spaccavento Assistant Editor: Erin Acheson
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