Opera on the Mall 2015 | Program

l a t r av i ata S a t u r d a y, O c t o b e r 3 6:00 p.m. pre-show | 7:00 p.m. broadcast Independence National Historical Park Opera on the Mall is presented by PNC Arts Alive and is made possible through the generous support of the William Penn Foundation and the Wyncote Foundation.

Photos by Chris Sembrot and Dominic M. Mercier MEDIA PARTNERS

op e r a on t h e m a l l . o r g

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# on t h e m a l l

Photos from Bucharest National Opera House

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Welcome to one of my favorite nights of the

We’ve been joined by more than 15,000

season—Opera on the Mall! It’s as casual as

new friends in the four years since we’ve

a night at the opera can be, as we stretch out

been hosting this event at Independence

on Philadelphia’s front lawn with our families

National Historical Park. Tonight, we are

and our picnic baskets to enjoy some classic

thrilled to welcome you to the family. I hope

opera in the shadow of the Liberty Bell and

you enjoy tonight’s big-screen operatic block

Independence Hall.

party, and I invite you to fall in love with

What could be more Philly than that?

Tonight, we present a free, open-air broadcast of Verdi’s cherished love story La traviata. It is widely regarded as one of opera’s greatest scores, and tonight’s lavish production presents the story with a glamorous, Mad Men-inspired fashion sense.

o t h e r

opera and come out to join us in our city’s great opera houses for one of the many thrilling productions in our 2015-2016 Season.

I want to hear from you tonight as you enjoy

David B. Devan

the broadcast. Tweet us @OperaPhila and

General Director & President

me @ddevan using #onthemall.

Opera Philadelphia

y o u r g u id e t o op e r a on t h e m a l l

Independence Mall Café

V er di ’s l a t r av iata P e r f o r m e d i n I ta l i a n w i t h En g l i s h s u b t i t l e s

Independence Visitor Center

S CHE DULE

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Gates open Pre-show video with cast & creative team interviews Performance begins Intermission (20 minutes) Performance ends

PRE-SHOW ACTIVITIES

EN JOYIN G THE BROADCAST

•S hare your Instagram photos #onthemall #FindYourPark with @operaphila and @independencenps

•B ring your blankets and beach chairs Low-slung preferred

•P ose for photos in the FREE photobooth • L iberty Bell Center open until 5 p.m. Last admittance 4:50 p.m.

Market Street

President’s House Site 5th Street

p.m.: p.m.: p.m.: p.m.: p.m.:

6th Street

5:30 6:00 7:00 8:15 9:30

Liberty Bell Center

• Picnic dinners encouraged •D ogs must be kept on leashes at all times

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Chestnut Street

• F ood trucks on 5th Street, between Market and Chestnut • I ndependence Visitor Center open until 10:00 p.m.* • Independence Mall Café open until 9:00 p.m. * From 9:00-10:00 p.m., please use the Market Street entrance. All other entrances will be locked at that time.

Independence Hall

ENTRANCE LOCATIONS

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RESTROOMS

INFORMATION AND FIRST AID

PHOTOBOOTH

VIDEO SCREENS

FOOD TRUCKS

I nd e p e nd e nc e N a t ion a l H is t o r ic a l P a r k A visit to Independence National Historical

internationally as a UNESCO World

Park is an opportunity to celebrate and

Heritage Site because of the world-changing

explore our nation’s past. Stand in the

events that occurred inside this building.

shadow of Independence Hall or read the

over the years.

This is the best time to be in the park, as

There is so much more history to explore,

this year marks the

from the Georgian architecture, to Peale’s

99th birthday of the

Museum, to fugitive slave trials. The park's

National Park Service!

museum collection contains 2.2 million

Celebrate the NPS Centennial by coming out

historic artifacts associated with events,

to #FindYourPark. Every visit should start at

people and places relevant to the park's

the Independence Visitor Center. Learn more

mission. The Benjamin Franklin Museum

about Independence National Historical Park

This national park preserves and interprets

showcases the creativity, ambition, and

and the founding of our nation on the free

many of the most important resources

genius of one of our greatest founding

mobile app, NPSIndependence and by

associated with the founding of our country.

fathers. Exhibits at the National Constitution

following #FindYourPark.

Independence Hall has been recognized

Center trace the impact of our Constitution

famous inscription on the Liberty Bell. Stop for a moment in the President’s House Site and consider the promises and paradoxes of the liberty our founders envisioned. The ideas of liberty and self-government tested here still echo through our lives today.

t h e s t o r y of

l a t r av i a t a Featuring Verdi’s most timeless and lyrical score, La traviata has continued to captivate audiences for more than 150 years. In the glamorous world of Paris—updated to the mid-20th century in this lavish production from the National Opera House of Bucharest—a naive young man falls head over heels for a beautiful party girl. One of opera’s greatest romances takes a wrenching turn after they risk everything for a chance at enduring love.

At the 1853 world premiere of La traviata, critics balked at the contemporary edge of its subject matter, and audiences were scandalized by Verdi’s frank, unsentimental depiction of a high-society courtesan in love. Yet La traviata endures as a masterpiece, and in this new production, director Paul Curran sets Verdi’s story of devotion and sacrifice in the Paris of the late 1950s, evoking a mid-20th century age in which conservative values were Photo from Bucharest National Opera House

set to clash with the youthful rebellion of the 1960s.

From Violetta’s soaring, passionate declaration of independence, “Sempre libera,” to her heartfelt cry for Alfredo’s love, “Amami, Alfredo;” from Germont’s fatherly plea in “Di Provenza il mar” to the rousing “Libiamo,” La traviata is a glorious offering of some of Verdi’s most exciting melodies, conducted by, Corrado Rovaris.

EVENT PARTNERS

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operaphila Broadcast Equipment provided by PRG

M e e t t h e c a s t of l a t r av i a t a

V I O LETTA VAL É RY Lisette Oropesa* Soprano

A l f r e do G e r m on t Alek Shrader* Tenor

Gio r g io G e r m on t Stephen Powell Baritone

B a r on D o u pho l Daniel Mobbs Bass-baritone

M a r ch e s e D ’ O bi g n y Jarrett Ott Baritone

F l o r a B e r v oi x Katherine Pracht Mezzo-soprano

G a s t on e Roy Hage Tenor

D oc t o r G r e n v i l l e Andrew Bogard Bass-baritone

Annin a Rachel Sterrenberg Soprano

C REAT I VE TEAM CONDUCTOR / Corrado Rovaris DIRECTOR / Paul Curran* SET & COSTUME DESIGN / Gar y McCann* LIGHTING DESIGN / Paul Hackenmueller* WIG & MAKE-UP DESIGN / David Zimmerman CHORUS MASTER / Elizabeth Braden Broadcast Director / Bruce Br yant *Opera Philadelphia debut

Production from Bucharest National Opera House La traviata is underwritten in part by Mrs. Sandra K. Baldino A Ciao Philadelphia Featured Event

F r o m V i o l e t ta t o V i v i a n

Is

La

t r av i a t a

your

fi r s t

op e r a ?

T hen you have something in common with this P r e t t y W o m a n .

Is La traviata your first opera

more than a little in common with

If they don’t, they may learn to

experience? If so, you’re not

Violetta. They both have the same

appreciate it, but it will never

alone. Verdi’s tragic love story

occupation, for one thing. They

become part of their soul.”

is the most performed opera in

also both face agonizing decisions

the world, enjoyed by first-timers

about how to act after falling

in real life as well as on the big

in love with one of their suitors.

screen.

Vivian ultimately manages not to

Take the 1990 movie Pretty

follow Violetta’s tragic fate.

Woman, for instance. In one of

The film also features one of the

the film’s most famous scenes, the

most eloquent descriptions of one’s

wealthy Edward (Richard Gere)

first encounter with opera…

takes prostitute Vivian (played by

Edward: “People’s reactions to

Julia Roberts) to see the opera

opera the first time they see it

in San Francisco. La traviata

is very dramatic. They either

moves Vivian to tears and that’s

love it or they hate it. If they

hardly surprising, as Vivian has

love it they will always love it.

How will you describe your first opera experience? Vivian’s reaction is one of the most memorable lines from Pretty Woman: “It was so good, I almost peed my pants!”

Photo from Pretty Woman, 1990, starring Julia Roberts.

Buena Vista Productions.

R aising a toast with A lfredo & V ioletta !

La traviata features one of the most famous opera melodies of all time. The brindisi is a lively drinking song, in which a group of people are encouraged to raise a glass, celebrate, and have a good time. During the dazzling party hosted by Violetta that opens the opera, Alfredo, as a poet, is urged to propose a toast, a “brindisi,” and sings: Italian

Libiamo, libiamo ne’lieti calici che la bellezza infiora.

English Translation

Let’s drink, let’s drink from the joyous chalices that beauty so truly enhances.

E la fuggevol, fuggevol ora

And may the brief moment be inebriated

s’inebrii a voluttà

with voluptuousness.

Ah si, godiamo, la tazza, la tazza e il cantico,

S oon Violetta and the entire party join in:

Let’s enjoy the wine and the singing,

la notte abbella e il riso;

the beautiful night, and the laughter.

in questo, in questo paradiso ne scopra il nuovo dì.

Let the new day find us in this paradise.

D on ’ t forget to raise a glass along with the cast during the B r i n d i s i !

Isabel Leonard (Ada Monroe) and Nathan Gunn (W.P. Inman) in Cold Mountain. Photo by Ken Howard, The Santa Fe Opera.

A

BOLD

Opera Philadelphia’s 2015-2016 Season serves as a reminder that, as The Daily Beast reports, “The loss of New York City Opera has led Opera Philadelphia to boldly step into the space where an opera company producing new and challenging works should be.” Having opened the season with the World Premiere of the Warhol-inspired ANDY: A Popera, the company will present three additional operas this season following the current production of Verdi’s La traviata at the Academy of Music.

February brings the highly-anticipated East Coast Premiere of the criticallyacclaimed Cold Mountain, the first opera written by Pulitzer Prize-winning Philadelphia composer Jennifer Higdon.

Hailed as “further proof that we are living in a Golden Age of American opera” (The Washington Post) and “an astonishing triumph” (Fort Worth Star-Telegram), the opera is based on the National Book Award-winning novel by Charles Frazier, and features a libretto by Gene Scheer (Moby-Dick; An American Tragedy).

Grammy winner Nathan Gunn, one of the most exciting and in-demand

S EA S O N

OF

baritones of the day, stars as Civil War deserter W.P. Inman, “the soul of perseverance and integrity” (San Francisco Classical Voice). Wounded and sick of war, when he’s due to be sent back to the front he starts walking home to his fiancée Ada Monroe (mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard) in the hills of North Carolina. “Their duets under the stars of Orion define and fulfill an improbable romance,” says the Santa Fe Reporter. Tenor Jay Hunter Morris creates the role of Teague, a “gleeful sadist” (Wall Street Journal) and leader of the Confederate Home Guard.

Called “a special piece of American art that examines both our fortitude and failures” (The Denver Post), the opera will be staged five times at the Academy of Music, Feb. 5-14, 2016.

In March, Opera Philadelphia joins forces with Curtis Opera Theatre to present a new production of Capriccio, the final opera by great German composer Richard Strauss. These annual co-productions have been acclaimed as “must-see events for serious operagoers” by Opera News.

“Capriccio has some of the most stunningly beautiful music that Richard Strauss ever wrote,” said Mikael Eliasen, Curtis Opera

O P ERA

Theatre Artistic Director. Director Chas Rader-Shieber leads the talented young singers of Curtis Opera Theatre in this new production.

Company favorites Sarah Shafer, Christopher Tiesi, Craig Verm, and Kevin Burdette draw the season to a comedic close in Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love (April 29-May 8, 2016). When Jack Mulroney Music Director Corrado Rovaris teamed up with director Stephen Lawless to debut this production, which transplants the action to the World War II era, the Santa Fe Reporter cautioned: “Be warned, please: The Santa Fe Opera’s charming, warm-hearted new production of Gaetano Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love is liable to give you a bad case of those morning-after-the-opera, just-can’t-getthose-tunes-out-of-my-head hangovers...

Much of the credit for this happy state of things belongs to Corrado Rovaris.”

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