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    THE U.S. PREMIERE OF SUNKEN GARDEN

    DALLAS, NOVEMBER 17, 2016 – The Dallas Opera is privileged to announce that TDO will present the United States Premiere of composer Michel van der Aa’s critically acclaimed contemporary masterpiece, SUNKEN GARDEN, “a fantastical tale to set the ears and eyes popping” (New York Times headline) during the Texas company’s 2017-2018 Season.

    The work, described by its creator as an “occult mystery film opera,” fuses film and live performance (including 3-D and other visual effects) to deliver what Steve Smith of The New York Times called “a bold, rewarding venture” during its 2013 English National Opera world premiere at the Barbican.  The production coming to Dallas was reworked for a successful 2015 relaunch at Opéra de Lyon.

    Dallas Opera performances—sung entirely in English with supertitles projected above the stage—are scheduled for March 9, 11(m), 14 & 17, 2018 in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center.  This astonishing work will be directed (both on film and on stage) by Mr. van der Aa himself.

    The announcement was made by Keith Cerny, the Kern Wildenthal General Director and CEO of The Dallas Opera, at the conclusion of this evening’s “Composing Conversation with Michel van der Aa” at Studio Music Grill (Royal Lane, Dallas).

    Sunken Garden (Photo: Mike Hoban)
    Sunken Garden Photo by: Mike Hoban

    “I first experienced SUNKEN GARDEN in Lyon, France, in the spring of 2015” explained Mr. Cerny, “and found it a uniquely rewarding theatrical experience.”

    “Michel is an outstanding composer, yet his skill as a videographer and his pioneering use of both two-and-three-dimensional projections, paired with live singers, stretch the boundaries that typically define “What is Opera?” 

    “Much like Joby Talbot and Gene Scheer’s Everest, the stunning visuals throughout this work and the brilliantly surreal libretto by Sci-Fi/Fantasy writer David Mitchell prompts a necessary rethinking of the art form itself. 

    “I found myself captivated by Michel van der Aa’s extraordinary musical and visual vocabulary—and many in the audience clearly shared my sense of awe,” Cerny adds. “I was certain we were witnessing a work of rare originality and multi-disciplinary innovation. 

    “Frankly, I couldn’t wait to bring it to the U.S.”

    SUNKEN GARDEN was originally a co-production of ENO, Toronto’s Luminato Festival, Opéra de Lyon, the Holland Festival and London’s Barbican Centre.  This opera also marked the first collaboration between the Dutch composer and British novelist David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas).

    Heidi Waleson, reviewing for The Wall Street Journal described the experience: “The inventive and haunting music is acoustic and electronic, live and prerecorded, classical and pop…Film and music align seamlessly; neither would make sense without the other…When the live singers enter the 3-D garden, the music grows richer and more expansive…The images here are spectacular: the opulent trees and flowers; the quivering holograms of the two captives, Amber and Simon; and the vertical pool through which Zenna enters and departs, which explodes out toward the audience as a shower of droplets or a giant, whirling funnel. The fine singers—live and on film—adeptly captured the ferocity and pathos in Sunken Garden.  And the lively actors…were completely believable…technical wizardry enhanced the humanity of the piece rather than overwhelming it,” Ms. Waleson added.

                SUNKEN GARDEN will star English baritone Roderick Williams as “Tony Kramer,” British soprano Katherine Manley as “Zenna Briggs,” and renowned Swedish soprano Miah Persson as “Iris Marinus.”  All will be making their Dallas Opera debuts in this production.

    Set and lighting design is by Theun Mosk with costumes by Astrid Schulz.

    Antony Craig of Gramophone (UK) emphasized that SUNKEN GARDEN is a compelling theatrical work: “This is real drama and it works dramatically. The mystery is as complex as TV film noir. The spoken interviews work as film and the 3D successfully drew me right into the sunken garden. Crucially, Sunken Garden works as opera, with Van der Aa’s fusion of musical styles matching the fusion of mediums.”

    And Andrew Clement of The Guardian added, “Van der Aa has directed the show as well as the often sumptuous-looking film sequences. As always he’s done it with immense technical skill, and both his orchestral writing and the electronic soundtrack are strikingly effective.”

    Reviewing for Opernwelt, Albrecht Thiemann had high praise for Michel van der Aa’s extraordinary versatility: “Composer, sound engineer, film maker and director all rolled into one, Van der Aa has always endeavored to make video clips, webcams and laptop animations something more than mere stage setting.  Rather than creating immaterial decoration or replacing physical backdrops and buildings with fancy digital tableaus, he is interested in exploring new dimensions of aesthetic experience. […] Nowhere else [in Van der Aa’s work] are the layerings and reflections of a multimedia Gesamtkunstwerk constructed in such complex ways…and nowhere else has an aesthetic integration of heterogeneous elements been achieved more convincingly in terms of technique. And yet, Van der Aa poses nothing but the age-old questions: Who are we? What do we see, hear, feel? Where do we come from?

    “It seems there is somebody out there who sees the signs of our times for what they are, informed by artistic exploration. One who observes what he sees and hears without blinders. One who devours everything, only to feed it back into his ongoing research into the musical theatre stage.”

     

    Composer Michel van der Aa:

    “One of the most distinctive of the younger composers in Europe today. His ability to fuse music, text and visual images into a totally organic whole sets him apart from nearly all his contemporaries.” (Andrew Clements, The Guardian)

    Michel van der Aa (Netherlands, 1970) is a truly multidisciplinary figure in contemporary music. A unique voice, he combines composition with film and stage direction, and script writing. Classical instruments, voices, electronic sound, actors, theatre and video are all seamless extensions of his musical vocabulary.

    Before studying composition (with Diderik Wagenaar, Gilius van Bergeijk and Louis Andriessen), Van der Aa trained first as a recording engineer at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 2002 he broadened his skills with studies in film direction, at the New York Film Academy, and in 2007 he participated in the Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab, an intensive course in stage direction.

    Van der Aa’s musical materials are hard to tease apart, constantly switching between stasis and high energy, concrete and abstract, acoustic and electronic, ‘pure’ and processed, brand new and half-remembered. Many of them are as visual as they are aural. The possibilities of digital and audio- visual technology often feature, not as a surface gloss to his work but at the core of his artistic outlook.

    Another important aspect to Van der Aa’s is collaboration and interdisciplinarity. He has worked with leading classical performers such as Sol Gabetta, Barbara Hannigan, Janine Jansen, Christianne Stotijn and Roderick Williams, as well as the Portuguese fado singer Ana Moura, pop acts Kate Miller-Heidke and These New Puritans, and well-known European actors like Klaus Maria Brandauer and João Reis.

    His most recent partnership is with the English novelist David Mitchell, with whom he is writing his fourth work for music theatre, Sunken Garden, an ‘occult-mystery film-opera’ co-commissioned by English National Opera, the Toronto Luminato Festival, Opera de Lyon, the Holland Festival and the Barbican Centre, London.

    His music has been performed by ensembles and orchestras worldwide, including musikFabrik, ICE, Tokyo Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Chamber Players, SWR orchestra Baden-Baden & Freiburg, the ASKO|Schoenberg ensemble, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Phiharmonia Orchestra London and the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra.

    He has been a featured artist at the Perth Tura New Music Festival and Holland Festival. He is a regular guest of the Berliner Festspiele, Venice Biennale, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Gaudeamus Music Week, Opera de Lyon, Huddersfield Festival and Warsaw Autumn. Additionally his compositions have been performed at the Festival d’Automne à Paris, LA Philharmonic New Music Series, Lucerne Festival, Tokyo Suntory Summer Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Moscow Music Week and Oslo Ultima Festival.

    Van der Aa has won acclaim for his multimedia works for the stage and concert hall (not only the operas One, After Life and The Book of Disquiet, but also Up-Close, and Transit for piano and video). He has directed both the filmed and staged elements of all of these works. His operas have been staged in more than a dozen countries, with After Life and The Book of Disquiet being regularly revived.

    In 1999 Michel van der Aa was the first Dutch composer to win the prestigious International Gaudeamus Prize. Subsequent awards include the Matthijs Vermeulen prize (2004), a Siemens Composers Grant (2005), the Charlotte Köhler Prize for his directing work and the interdisciplinary character of his oeuvre (2005), the Paul Hindemith Prize (2006), and the Kagel Prize (2013).

    Michel van der Aa has won the 2013 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for his multimedia work Up-Close.

    In 2007 the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra commissioned the song cycle Spaces of Blank, and since 2011 he has been a ‘house composer’ with the orchestra. This association that will lead to several major new works, including a violin concerto for Janine Jansen. Over the last few years he has also developed strong ties with the Barbican Centre, with performances of After Life and Up-Close, which led to the premiere of Sunken Garden in April 2013.

    In 2010 he launched Disquiet Media, an independent multimedia label for his own work, and in 2012 developed Disquiet TV, an online virtual auditorium for contemporary music events.

     

    2016-2017 SEASON SPONSOR

    The Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family

    ~~~~

    EVENTS, GUESTS AND ARTISTS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

    ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE DALLAS OPERA

    IS AVAILABLE ONLINE, 24/7.  VISIT WWW.DALLASOPERA.ORG

    FOR HIGH-RESOLUTION PHOTOGRAPHS

    Contact Suzanne Calvin, Director of Media and PR at suzanne.calvin@dallasopera.org

    Or Celeste Hart, Communications Manager at celeste.hart@dallasopera.org

    ~~~~

    The Dallas Opera Family Performances are generously supported by

    Texas Instruments and the Betty and Steve Suellentrop

    Educational Outreach Fund.

    TDO Family Performances are a part of the

    Perot Foundation Education and Community Outreach Programs

    TICKET INFORMATION FOR THE 2016-2017 DALLAS OPERA SEASON

    All performances are in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center unless otherwise indicated.  Single Tickets range from $19 to $275. Full Subscriptions (five opera productions) begin at $95; Flex Subscriptions (three-performances of your choice) begin at $75.  Family performance tickets are just $5. For more information or to make your purchase, contact The Dallas Opera Ticket Services Office at 214.443.1000 or visit us online, 24/7, at www.dallasopera.org.

     

    THE DALLAS OPERA 2016-2017 FALL SEASON INFORMATION

    The Dallas Opera celebrates its Sixtieth International Season in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in the Dallas Arts District. Evening performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday matinees begin at 2:00 p.m. unless otherwise stated.  English translations will be projected above the stage at every performance and assistance is available for the hearing impaired.  The Joy and Ronald Mankoff Pre-Opera Talk will begin one hour prior to curtain, at most performances excluding FIRST NIGHT of the season.

    MADAME BUTTERFLY by Giacomo Puccini

    March 10, 12(m), 15, 18, 24, & 26(m), 2017

    The must see, heart-wrenching Italian opera!

    Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa & Luigi Illica

    Time: 1904

    Place: Nagasaki, Japan

    Conductor: Donato Renzetti

    Stage Director: John Copley

    Set Designer: Michael Yeargan

    Costume Designer: Anita Yavich

    Lighting Designer: Duane Schuler

    Wig & Make-up Designer: TBD

    Chorus Master: Alexander Rom

    Starring: Hui He* (Cio-Cio-San), Gianluca Terranova* (B.F. Pinkerton), Manuela Custer (Suzuki), Lucas Meachem* (Sharpless), David Cangelosi (Goro), Reginald Smith, Jr.* (The Bonze), Will Hughes (Prince Yamadori), Mark McCrory (Imperial Commissioner), Samuel P.J. Lopez (Registrar), Angela Turner Wilson (Kate Pinkerton), Sorrow (TBD)

    A classic, period production (new to Dallas) from the San Francisco Opera!

    THE TURN OF THE SCREW by Benjamin Britten

    March 17, 19(m), 22, 25, 2017

    A dark and gripping tale!

    Libretto by Myfanwy Piper

    Time: 1950s

    Place: Bly, an English country house

    Conductor: Nicole Paiement

    Original Production: Jonathan Kent

    Stage Director: Francesca Gilpin*

    Set Designer: Paul Brown

    Costume Designer: Paul Brown

    Lighting Designer: TBD

    Wig and Make-up Designer: TBD

    Starring: William Burden (Prologue/Peter Quint), Emma Bell* (Governess), Oliver Nathanielsz* (Miles), Ashley Emerson* (Flora), Dolora Zajick* (Mrs. Grose), Alexandra LoBianco* (Miss Jessel)

    An acclaimed production from Glyndebourne!

    NORMA by Vincenzo Bellini

    April 21, 23(m), 26, 29, May 7(m), 2017

    A thrilling and suspenseful masterpiece!

    Libretto by Felice Romani

    Time: 50 B.C.

    Place: Roman-occupied Gaul

    Conductor: Emmanuel Villaume

    Stage Director: Nic Muni

    Set Designer: John Conklin

    Costume Designer: John Conklin

    Lighting Designer: Thomas Hase

    Wig & Make-up Designer: TBD

    Chorus Master: Alexander Rom

    Starring: Elza van den Heever (Norma), Marina Costa Jackson* (Adalgisa), Yonghoon Lee* (Pollione), Christian Van Horn (Oroveso), Mithra Mastropierro* (Clotilde), Charles Karanja (Flavio)

    An atmospheric production from Cincinnati Opera!

     

    * Dallas Opera Debut

    ** American Debut

    ___________________________________________________________________________________________

    The Dallas Opera is supported, in part, by funds from: Texas Instruments Foundation, TACA, City of Dallas, Office of Cultural Affairs; the Texas Commission on the Arts and The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).  American Airlines is the official airline of The Dallas Opera.  Lexus is the official vehicle of The Dallas Opera.  Advertising support from The Dallas Morning News.  A special thanks to the Elsa von Seggern Foundation for its continuing support.

    Free Event! Composing Conversations Featuring Michel van der Aa

    THE DALLAS OPERA IS PROUD TO PRESENT

    European Composer/Technologist Michel van der Aa

    and The Dallas Opera’s General Director and CEO Keith Cerny in

    COMPOSING CONVERSATIONS 

    Thursday, November 17, 6:30 p.m.

    Studio Movie Grill – Dallas, Royal Lane

     ~~~~ 

    An Extraordinary Conversation and a Kaleidoscopic Taste of the Composer’s Approach to Musical Storytelling

    To RSVP or For More Information Visit www.dallasopera.org/composing

                DALLAS, TX, NOVEMBER 11, 2016 – For an insightful window into the innovative approach of pioneering European composer and technologist Michel van der Aa, The Dallas Opera invites the public to a free event “Composing Conversations.” Keith Cerny, the Kern Wildenthal General Director and CEO of The Dallas Opera, will present the extraordinary discussion, where audiences can also expect an exciting announcement regarding a new collaboration with the composer.

                The intimate setting of the Studio Movie Grill, 11170 N. Central Expressway, (Dallas location, near Royal Lane) is the location for this unique program on Thursday, November 17, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.; seating is general admission.

    Michel van der Aa (Photo: Marco Borggreve)
    Michel van der Aa Photo by: Marco Borggreve

                Michel van der Aa is known for combining musical theater and multimedia in often-astonishing ways, as demonstrated in excerpts from his critically acclaimed Sunken Garden, The Book of Sand, and Black Out (which premiered in this year’s Forward Festival, presented by Dutch National Opera). 
                He has been described as “one of the most distinctive of the younger composers in Europe today. His ability to fuse music, text and visual images into a totally organic whole, sets him apart from nearly all his contemporaries.” (Andrew Clements, The Guardian)

                Composing Conversations is an ongoing discussions series featuring some of the most noteworthy international composers. The Dallas Opera presents this programming to showcase all types of opera composers, from grand opera to chamber. This series is intended to introduce some of these great talents to the public and to potentially ignite interest in new operatic works.

                Studio Movie Grill offers friendly service at the push of a button and patrons may order and purchase selections from its American Grill Menu. Over 60 premium spirits are available at the bar.

    BIOGRAPHY – Michel van der Aa

    Michel van der Aa (Netherlands, 1970) is a truly multidisciplinary figure in contemporary music. A unique voice, he combines composition with film and stage direction, and script writing. Classical instruments, voices, electronic sound, actors, theatre and video are all seamless extensions of his musical vocabulary.

    Before studying composition (with Diderik Wagenaar, Gilius van Bergeijk and Louis Andriessen), Van der Aa trained first as a recording engineer at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 2002 he broadened his skills with studies in film direction, at the New York Film Academy, and in 2007 he participated in the Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab, an intensive course in stage direction.

    Van der Aa’s musical materials are hard to tease apart, constantly switching between stasis and high energy, concrete and abstract, acoustic and electronic, ‘pure’ and processed, brand new and half-remembered. Many of them are as visual as they are aural. The possibilities of digital and audio- visual technology often feature, not as a surface gloss to his work but at the core of his artistic outlook.

                For more information, visit www.dallasopera.org/composing or consult the friendly staff in the Ticket Office at 214-443-1000.

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    The Man Behind the Music

    Composer-Librettist Mark Adamo is coming Thursday night to talk about his life, work and career. Will you be there?

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
    Monday, November 11, 2013
    Contact: Suzanne Calvin 214.443.1014
    suzanne.calvin@dallasopera.org

    THE DALLAS OPERA PRESENTS A NEW

    “COMPOSING CONVERSATION
    WITH MARK ADAMO”
    ~~~~
    The Renowned American Composer/Librettist of the operas
    Little Women, Lysistrata and The Gospel of Mary Magdalene

    As well as other acclaimed works
    ~~~~
    In Conversation with Senior Classical Music & Opera Critic
    Gregory Sullivan Isaacs of Theater Jones.com
    ~~~~
    Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 6:30 p.m.
    Nasher Hall, Nasher Sculpture Center
    Dallas Arts District
    ~~~~
    Free Event, No Admission Required

    DALLAS, NOVEMBER 11, 2013 – The Dallas Opera is proud to present the latest in our free public series of “Composing Conversations” on Thursday, November 14, 2013 in Nasher Hall at the internationally acclaimed Nasher Sculpture Center (2001 Flora St., Dallas). The conversation, beginning at 6:30 p.m., will focus on the multifaceted career of one of America’s most successful and accomplished composer-librettists, Mark Adamo.
    Mr. Adamo is the creator of three compelling operas, including Little Women, one of the most frequently performed new American operas of our day. His most recent composition, The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, successfully premiered earlier this season at San Francisco Opera and was described by The Huffington Post as a “feast for the ears, eyes and mind.” His 2005 opera Lysistrata, based on the comedy by Aristophenes, prompted Alex Ross of The New Yorker to write, “I relaxed a minute after the music began, knowing that I was in the hands of a brilliant theatre composer.”
    The other half of this conversation, hosted by Dallas Opera General Director and CEO Keith Cerny, will be the Senior Classical Music and Opera Critic for the performing arts website Theater Jones.com, Gregory Sullivan Isaacs.
    Mr. Isaacs is a composer in his own right (nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for composition), as well as an award-winning singer, conductor, musician and arts journalist who has written and reviewed for a variety of Texas publications. The conversation will explore all aspects of Adamo’s working career, as well as his ideas about music, drama and theater.
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    Seating for the Nasher Sculpture Center event is limited. To secure your spot, call 214.443.1000 or reserve your seats online, 24/7, at dallasopera.org/rsvp.

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    KEY BIOS

    AMERICAN COMPOSER-LIBRETTIST MARK ADAMO:

    American composer-librettist Mark Adamo recently premiered his third full-length opera, the “densely rhapsodic” (Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle) The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, at San Francisco Opera—following a busy season of opera and chamber premières. In May 2012, Fort Worth Opera opened its first production of his second opera, Lysistrata; that September, the Constella Festival in Cincinnati opened their season with August Music, for flute duo and string quartet, commissioned by Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway: in December, Sasha Cooke and the New York Festival of Song introduced The Racer’s Widow, a cycle of five American poems for mezzo-soprano, cello, and piano; and, in April 2013, baritone Thomas Hampson and the Jupiter String Quartet introduced Aristotle, after the poem by Billy Collins, in concerts at the Mondavi Center in Davis, California before continuing to Boston and New York under the auspices of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

    Adamo first attracted national attention with his uniquely celebrated début opera, Little Women, after the Alcott novel. Introduced by Houston Grand Opera in 1998 and revived there in 2000, Little Women is one of the most frequently performed American operas of the last fifteen years, with more than 80 national and international engagements in cities ranging from New York to Minneapolis, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, Adelaide, Perth, Mexico City, Bruges, Banff, Calgary, and Tokyo, where it served as the official U.S. cultural entrant to the 2005 World Expo. The Houston Grand Opera revival (2000) was telecast by PBS/WNET on Great Performances in 2001 and released on CD by Ondine that same year; in fall 2010, Naxos released this performance on DVD and on Blu-ray. (Little Women was the first American opera recorded in high-definition television.) Comparable enthusiasm greeted the début of the larger-scaled Lysistrata, Adamo’s second opera, adapted from Aristophanes’ comedy but also including elements from Sophocles’ Antigone. Lysistrata was commissioned by Houston Grand Opera for its 50th anniversary and introduced in March 2005: its New York City Opera debut in March 2006 led to concert performances by Washington National Opera (May 2006) and Music at the Modern by the Van Cliburn Foundation (May 2007) before the new staging of the work at Fort Worth Opera in spring 2012, which was included on the best-of-2012 lists of both D Magazine and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

    While Adamo’s principal work continues to be for the opera house, over the past 5 years he has ventured not only into chamber music but also into symphonic and choral composition. Adamo’s first concerto, Four Angels, for harp and orchestra, was commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra and debuted in June 2007: the Utah Symphony, led by their Music Director Emeritus, Keith Lockhart, presented Four Angels in January 2011. In May 2007, Washington’s Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, for which Adamo served as its first composer-in-residence, performed the revised version of Adamo’s Late Victorians, a cantata for singing voice, speaking voice, and orchestra: Naxos released Late Victorians in 2009 on Eclipse’s all-Adamo CD, which also included Alcott Music, from Little Women, for strings, harp, celesta, and percussion; “Regina Coeli,” an arrangement of the slow movement of Four Angels for harp and strings alone; and the Overture to Lysistrata for medium orchestra. In April of 2010, Harold Rosenbaum’s New York Virtuoso Singers paired six of Adamo’s newly-published choral scores with the complete chamber-choral work of John Corigliano. This concert featured the New York premières of Cantate Domino (after Psalm 91,) Pied Beauty and God’s Grandeur (Gerard Manley Hopkins; commissioned by the Gregg Smith Singers,) Matewan Music(Appalachian folk-tune variations,) Supreme Virtue (Stephen Mitchell’s translation of the Tao te Ching,) and The Poet Speaks of Praising (Rilke: commissioned and introduced by Chanticleer.)
    Composer-in-residence at New York City Opera from 2001 through 2006, where he led the VOX: Showcasing American Composers program, Adamo also served as Master Artist at Atlantic Center for the Arts in May 2003. Since 2007 he has served as the principal teacher of American Lyric Theatre’s Composer-Librettist Development Program in New York, in which he coaches teams of composers and librettists in developing their work for the stage.

    Adamo began his education in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where, as a freshman in the Dramatic Writing Program, he received the Paulette Goddard Remarque Scholarship for outstanding undergraduate achievement in playwriting. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Music Degree cum laude in composition in 1990 from the Catholic University of America. His music is published exclusively by G. Schirmer, Inc.

    GREGORY SULLIVAN ISAACS,
    SENIOR CLASSICAL MUSIC AND OPERA CRITIC FOR THEATER JONES.COM:

    Gregory is a professional musician and music journalist who has held numerous musical directorships of opera, choral and symphonic organizations. In 2009, he was honored by being chosen as a fellow for the sixth annual NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera. Other honors include a Pulitzer Prize nomination in composition, a Peabody award for performance, and an ASCAP award for his commitment to American Music. He holds a Master’s degree in music from the prestigious music program at Indiana University in Bloomington. He also writes for other publications including Arts+Culture Magazine, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Dallas Voice. He is a member of the Music Critics Association of North America and ASCAP. Email: gregoryisaacs@theaterjones.com

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    EVENTS, GUESTS AND ARTISTS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

    ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT “NOVEMBER AT THE DALLAS OPERA”
    IS CONVENIENTLY AVAILABLE ONLINE, 24/7
    VISIT WWW.DALLASOPERA.ORG AND CHECK THE CALENDAR LISTINGS

    For high-resolution, digital photographs suitable for print
    To arrange an interview
    Or for additional information
    Please contact Suzanne Calvin, Manager/Director Media & PR
    214.443.1014 or suzanne.calvin@dallasopera.org

    The Dallas Opera’s 2013-2014 “By Love Transformed” Season
    Is Sponsored by Texas Instruments Foundation

    THE DALLAS OPERA WISHES TO EXPRESS ITS GRATITUDE TO OUR EXCLUSIVE PARTNERS:

    AMERICAN AIRLINES – OFFICIAL AIRLINE OF THE DALLAS OPERA
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    Ticket Information for the 2013-2014 Dallas Opera Season

    All performances are in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. Subscriptions are now on sale to the general public, starting at just $76. Single Tickets starting at $19 and Flex Subscriptions are also on sale. Family performances are $5 (Family Performance Subs are $12 for three family performances) and are on sale now. For more information or to make your purchase, contact The Dallas Opera Ticket Services Office at 214.443.1000 or visit us online, 24/7, at www.dallasopera.org.

    THE DALLAS OPERA 2013-2014 SEASON INFORMATION
    The Dallas Opera celebrates its Fifty-Seventh International Season in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in the Dallas Arts District. Evening performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday matinees will begin at 2:00 p.m. unless otherwise stated. English translations will be projected above the stage at every performance and assistance is available for the hearing impaired.

    CARMEN by Georges Bizet
    October 25 (special time, 8:00 p.m.), October 27(m), 30, November 2, 8 & 10(m), 2013
    The most irresistible bad girl in opera—How can you possibly say “non”?
    An opera in four acts first performed in Paris on March 3, 1875
    Text by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy based on the novella by Prosper Mérimée
    Time: 19th century
    Place: Seville, Spain
    Conductor: Emmanuel Villaume
    Stage Director: Chris Alexander
    Scenic Design: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
    Costume Design: Werner Iverke
    Lighting Design: Thomas Hase
    Wig & make-up Design: David Zimmerman
    Chorus Master: Alexander Rom
    Children’s Chorus Master: Melinda Cotten
    Starring: Clémentine Margaine**(Carmen), Brandon Jovanovich (Don José Oct. 25, 27, 30), Bruno Ribeiro* (Don José Nov. 2, 8, 10), Mary Dunleavy (Micaëla), Dwayne Croft (Escamillo), Danielle Pastin*(Frasquita), Audrey Babcock*(Mercédès), Kyle Albertson*(Zuniga), Steven LaBrie (Le Dancaïre), William Ferguson* (Remendado), John David Boehr*(Moralès).

    DEATH AND THE POWERS by Tod Machover
    February 12, 14, 15 & 16(m), 2014
    Science fiction and poignant family drama combine in a major regional premiere!
    An opera in one act first performed in Monte Carlo, Monaco at the Salle Garnier on September 24, 2010.
    Text by Robert Pinsky, based on a story by Pinsky and Randy Weiner
    Time: Unknown time in the future
    Place: Earth, the home of billionaire Simon Powers
    Conductor: Nicole Paiement
    Stage Director: Diane Paulus*
    Associate Director: Andrew Eggert*
    Scenic Design: Alex McDowell*
    Costume Design: David Woolard*
    Lighting Design: Don Holder
    Choreography: Karole Armitage*
    Wig & make-up Design: David Zimmerman
    Starring: Robert Orth (Simon Powers/Robot One), Joélle Harvey (Miranda/Robot Four), Patricia Risley(Evvy/Robot Three), Hal Cazalet*(Nicholas/Robot Two), Frank Kelley*(The United Way), David Kravitz*(The United Nations), Tom McNichols*(The Administration).

    DIE TOTE STADT (“THE DEAD CITY”) by Erich Wolfgang Korngold
    March 21, 23(m), 26, 29 and April 6(m), 2014
    The Hitchcock-like tale of one man’s dark obsession with the woman he loved and lost.
    An opera in three acts first performed in Hamburg & Cologne, Germany on December 4, 1920
    Text by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Paul Schott based on a novel by Georges Rodenbach, Bruges la morte
    Time: End of the 19th century
    Place: The city of Bruges in northwestern Belgium
    Conductor: Sebastian Lang-Lessing*
    Stage Director: Mikael Melbye
    Scenic Design: Mikael Melbye*
    Costume Design: Dierdre Clancy*
    Video Design: Wendall Harrington*
    Lighting Design: Mark McCullough
    Wig & make-up Design: David Zimmerman
    Choreography: Matthew Ferraro*
    Chorus Master: Alexander Rom
    Starring: Anne Petersen**(Marietta) , Jay Hunter Morris (Paul), Morgan Smith (Fritz), Weston Hurt (Frank), Katherine Tier*(Brigitta), Andrew Bidlack (Albert), Jan Lund**(Victorin), Jennifer Chung (Juliette), Angela Turner Wilson (Lucienne).

    THE BARBER OF SEVILLE by Gioachino Rossini
    March 28, 30(m), April 2, 5, 11 & 13(m), 2014
    Figaro, a scheming barber and jack-of-all-trades plots to release a headstrong girl from her gilded cage!
    An opera in two acts first performed in Rome on February 20, 1816
    Text by Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais, from his comedy Le Barbier de Séville
    Time: 18th century
    Place: Seville, Spain
    Conductor: Giuliano Carella*
    Stage Director: Herb Kellner
    Original Production: John Copley
    Scenic Design: John Conklin
    Costume Design: Michael Stennet
    Lighting Design: TBD
    Wig & make-up Design: David Zimmerman
    Chorus Master: Alexander Rom
    Starring: Nathan Gunn (Figaro), Isabel Leonard*(Rosina), Alek Shrader*(Count Almaviva), Donato DiStefano (Dr. Bartolo), Burak Bilgili*(Don Basilio), Nathan De’Shon Myers (Fiorello), Christian Teague*(Ambrogio).

    DALLAS OPERA FAMILY PERFORMANCES
    Jack and the Beanstalk: October 26, 2013 and April 5, 2014
    Family Concerts: November 3, 2013 and February 1, 2014
    The Elixir of Love: November 9, 2013 and April 12, 2014

    * Dallas Opera Debut
    ** American Debut
    ______________________________________________________________________________________
    The Dallas Opera is supported, in part, by funds from: Texas Instruments Foundation, TACA, City of Dallas, Office of Cultural Affairs; the Texas Commission on the Arts and The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). American Airlines is the official airline of The Dallas Opera. Lexus is the official vehicle of The Dallas Opera. Advertising support from The Dallas Morning News. A special thanks to the Elsa von Seggern Foundation for its continuing support.

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