THE DALLAS OPERA IS PROUD TO PRESENT
GIUSEPPE VERDI’S HEARTBREAKING 1853 MASTERPIECE
LA TRAVIATA
LIBRETTO BY FRANCESCO MARIA PIAVE
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STARRING
SOPRANO GEORGIA JARMAN AS VIOLETTA, TENOR RENÉ BARBERA AS ALFREDO, AND BELARUSSIAN BARITONE VLADISLAV SULIMSKY AS GIORGIO GERMONT
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CONDUCTED BY MAESTRO CARLO MONTANARO
IN HIS DALLAS OPERA DEBUT
ORIGINAL DIRECTION BY FRANK GALATI
2017 REVIVAL DIRECTED BY STEFANIA PANIGHINI
IN HER AMERICAN DEBUT
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OPENING NIGHT: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2017
7:30 PM IN THE WINSPEAR OPERA HOUSE
ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES
October 29 (m), November 1, 4, 10 & 12 (m)
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PRODUCTION UNDERWRITER:
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS FOUNDATION
DALLAS, OCTOBER 10, 2017 – The Dallas Opera is proud to present the second mainstage production of the 2017-2018 “Motives Unmasked!” Season: Giuseppe Verdi’s tender and bittersweet romance, LA TRAVIATA, opening on Friday, October 27, 2017 (The Amy and Vernon Faulconer Performance) at 7:30 p.m. in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Downtown Dallas. Verdi’s tragic-yet-beautiful tale of a “fallen woman” consistently appears at or near the top of the list of the world’s most popular operas.
This sumptuous production from Lyric Opera of Chicago stars American soprano Georgia Jarman as the doomed Paris courtesan, Violetta Valéry; American tenor René Barbera in his company debut as Alfredo, the naïve young man who falls head-over-heels for her; and Belarussian baritone Vladislav Sulimsky as Alfredo’s deeply concerned father, Giorgio Germont.
In their Dallas Opera debuts, acclaimed Italian conductor Carlo Montanaro guides the performance from the podium and Stefania Panighini—in her American debut—directs the 2017 revival of a production originally staged by director Frank Galati.
This production is made possible through the generosity of the Texas Instruments Foundation.
Subsequent performances of LA TRAVIATA will take place on October 29(m), November 1, 4, 10 and 12(m), 2017. Single tickets start at $19. Contact the Dallas Opera Ticket Services Office at 214.443.1000 or purchase online, 24/7, at dallasopera.org.
Based on the play La dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils (the Younger) who originally presented the tragic love story as a novel, Verdi’s 1853 masterpiece overflows with some of the opera’s most sensuous and beautiful melodies, the most memorable characters, and the most heart-rending drama, making it a popular favorite from that day to this.
Praised for her “crystalline tone and uncommon attention to detail” combined with “rhapsodic voluptuousness” (Opera), Georgia Jarman studied at Boston University and the Manhattan School of Music before captivating opera audiences across the U.S. in performances at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Boston Lyric Opera, Atlanta Opera, New Orleans Opera, Florentine Opera—as well as her 2010 Dallas Opera debut as Donna Elvira opposite Paolo Szot’s dangerously charming Don Giovanni. Since her initial bow at English National Opera, Ms. Jarman has conquered audiences throughout Europe and has become a favorite of audiences at Covent Garden. Her triumphs there include her portrayal of all four heroines in the Richard Jones production of The Tales of Hoffmann, for which The Independent (U.K.) hailed her as the “discovery of the year.”
Ms. Jarman’s mastery of both lyric coloratura and bel canto repertoire has earned critical acclaim and left audiences “gasping” with pleasure.
Romantically linked with Miss Jarman’s Violetta is tenor René Barbera, the first sole recipient of all three awards of the Operalia Competition in 2011. He sang performances of Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola in his debuts with Seattle Opera and Los Angeles Opera, and was heard as Almaviva at the Stanislavsky Music Theatre in Moscow. Mr. Barbera made his 2013 Santa Fe Opera debut as Rodrigo in Rossini’s La Donna del Lago. Recent highlights include Almaviva with the Opéra National de Paris, Ramiro in La Cenerentola, Almaviva and Iopas in Les Troyens in San Francisco, Tonio in La Fille du Régiment with Greensboro Opera, Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Los Angeles Opera, Giannetto in La Gazza Ladra and Narciso in Il Turco in Italia at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. He also appeared as the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier at the Lyric Opera of Chicago; made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Lindoro in L’italiana in Algeri, conducted by James Levine, prompting Classical Source to write: “He melted hearts with (his) ardent tone and thrilling high notes.”
Mr. Barbera sang his first Alfredo in La Traviata in Palermo, Italy.
This season, René Barbera will make a number of additional house debuts: Deutsche Oper Berlin as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, at Teatro all Scala Milan as Ernesto in Don Pasquale with conductor Riccardo Chailly, and for the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich as Ramiro in Rossini’s version of the Cinderella story, La Cenerentola. Other notable upcoming engagements include I Puritani at the Staatstheater Stuttgart and a return to the Opéra National de Paris as Almaviva.
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This celebrated production also marks the welcome return of Belarussian baritone Vladislav Sulimsky to the Dallas Opera stage in the wake of a show-stopping appearance on the Winspear stage as Ibn-Hakia in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. A member of the famed Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, where he has sung countless roles since 2004, the Grammy-nominated Mr. Sulimsky made a strong impression on Dallas Morning News Classical Music Critic Scott Cantrell: “With a dignified presence and a substantive polished baritone, Vladislav Sulimsky is deeply sympathetic.”
“I am confident that Georgia Jarman and René Barbera will captivate audiences with their profound artistry and, together, they should create some of the most exciting chemistry onstage this season,” says Dallas Opera General Director & CEO Keith Cerny. “Just when you think Georgia can’t possibly sing any better—she astounds you by giving even more to her performances; and René’s star is rising so quickly in the opera firmament, he’s practically in orbit.
“This is one TRAVIATA,” Mr. Cerny adds, “that will be talked about for many seasons to come.”
American mezzo-soprano Abigail Levis will be making her Dallas Opera Debut as Violetta’s closest friend and confidante, Flora Bervoix. Earlier, Ms. Levis made quite a splash in the trousers role of Cherubino (at Wolf Trap and elsewhere) prompting Opera News to write that she “sailed through the role…leaving an impressive vocal glow in her wake.” Ms. Levis has been widely praised for her talent, versatility and fearlessness. She was awarded First Prize in the 2017 Klaudia Taev Competition and spent a full season with the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at Los Angeles Opera.
Tenor Brenton Ryan will make his first appearance on the Winspear stage as Alfredo’s friend Gastone. Hailed by Opera News for his “remarkable tonal suavity and refined phrasing,” Mr. Ryan is the winner of the Birgit Nilsson Prize of the 2016 Operalia competition and will be seen this season as Spoletta in a new Metropolitan Opera production of Tosca being broadcast to theaters around the world.
Bass-baritone Dale Travis will return to the Dallas Opera in the role of Baron Douphol.
Baritone Daniel Armstrong will make his house debut as the Marchese D’Obigny along with soprano Rachel Sterrenberg as Annina (Violetta’s loyal maid). In his second appearance on the TDO stage this season, bass-baritone Ryan Kuster returns in the role of the sympathetic Doctor Grenvil.
Rounding out the cast is tenor Brian Rosewell as Violetta’s servant, Giuseppe; baritone Bobby L. Tinnion as Flora’s manservant; and bass Kyle Hancock as the Messenger.
All six performances will be led by renowned Italian conductor Carlo Montanaro in his official Dallas Opera debut.
After serving as music director of Warsaw’s Teatr Wielki from 2011 to 2014, Montanaro made house debuts at Opéra de Monte Carlo (Tosca), Rigoletto at Warsaw Opera, Seattle Opera (Maria Stuarda), Sydney Opera House, and San Francisco Opera where he conducted Puccini’s La Bohème. Mark Mandel of Opera News observed that Montanaro conducted with “Muti-like verve and sprung rhythms,” while a rave review of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra in Seen and Heard International drew attention to the “astounding job (Montanaro) did with this ensemble” and his terrific interaction with the singers. The review concluded, “Who says conductors don’t matter anymore?”
Maestro Montanaro regularly conducts high-level master classes for women conductors on the cusp of major careers, as part of the prestigious Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors at The Dallas Opera.
This lushly romantic Lyric Opera of Chicago production was designed by Desmond Heeley with lighting design by Alan Burrett, and wig and make-up designs by Dawn Rivard.
The choreographer is John de los Santos.
Chorus Master Alexander Rom has the task of preparing the superb Dallas Opera Chorus.
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Set in 19th-century Paris, where the young heir to a distinguished family name falls passionately in love with a woman of uncertain virtue, LA TRAVIATA is one of the most soulfully romantic works in the opera canon.
Modeled after the too-short life and times of one of Paris’ best-known 19th century beauties, Marie Duplessis (who later went on to have a torrid affair with composer Franz Liszt); this is the story of her sometimes stormy relationship with writer Alexander Dumas the Younger, who immortalized her as “The Lady of the Camellias” after she succumbed to tuberculosis at the tender age of 23. After her death, the frenzied sale of her remaining jewels and belongings paid-off her outstanding debts and provided a tidy bequest to her niece in Normandy, who inherited Marie’s ill-gotten gains on the condition that she never set foot in Paris.
In Dumas’ book, which served as the basis for his later play, his fictional heroine tells us, “I built a future life on your love; I dreamed of the country, of purity.” In Verdi’s opera, Alfredo (the stand-in for Dumas fils) was raised far from the wicked city-life and, in his naiveté, barely comprehends the choices that Violetta has been forced to make, in order to survive.
However, composer Giuseppe Verdi, who at the time was living in his own “scandalous” and unconventional arrangement with Giuseppina Strepponi, understood these characters completely and renders them indelibly upon our hearts.
For additional information about the cast, artistic/production team, and synopsis, or to purchase this “hot ticket”—visit www.dallasopera.org today.
ABOUT THE DALLAS OPERA
Founded in 1957, The Dallas Opera is an internationally-recognized innovator dedicated to the overall advancement of the operatic art form and the support of established and emerging artists, as well as the education and development of new opera audiences in North Texas—and beyond. These goals are achieved by commissioning and producing world-class opera; through groundbreaking institutes, national competitions and topical programs; and by presenting opera in both traditional and non-traditional formats and venues in order to attract patrons of every background, educational level, and ethnicity—while engaging with more than 87,000 people in our community each year. TDO is equally committed to the task of responsible stewardship and is managed with efficiency and accountability, to the highest possible standards.
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2017-2018 SEASON SPONSOR
The Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family
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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 is supported, in part, by funds from: Elsa von Seggern Foundation, Texas Instruments Foundation, the 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.
The Dallas Opera Family Performances are generously supported by
Texas Instruments, Lockheed Martin, 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 2017-2018 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 $289. Family performance tickets are just $5. For more information or to make your purchase, contact The Dallas Opera Ticket Office at 214.443.1000 or visit us online, 24/7, at www.dallasopera.org.
THE DALLAS OPERA 2017-2018 SEASON MAINSTAGE INFORMATION
The Dallas Opera celebrates its Sixty-First 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. With the exception of FIRST NIGHT, The Joy and Ronald Mankoff Pre-Opera Talk will begin one hour prior to curtain, at most performances.
SAMSON & DALILA by Camille Saint-Saëns
October 20, 22 (m), 25, 28, and November 5 (m), 2017
A passionate drama of biblical proportions!
Libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire
Time: 1150 B.C.E.
Place: Ancient Palestine
Conductor: Emmanuel Villaume / Pierre Vallet*
Director: Bruno Berger-Gorski*
Set Designer: Peter Dean Beck*
Costume Designer: Carrie Robbins*
Lighting Designer: Alan Burrett
Wig & Make-up Designer: Dawn Rivard
Chorus Master: Alexander Rom
Choreographer: Nycole Ray*
Starring: Olga Borodina* (Dalila), Clifton Forbis (Samson), Richard Paul Fink (High Priest of Dagon), Michael Chioldi* (Abimélech) and Ryan Kuster (Old Hebrew)
A traditional period production from Pittsburgh Opera!
LA TRAVIATA (“The Fallen Woman”) by Giuseppe Verdi
October 27, 29 (m), November 1, 4, 10 and 12 (m), 2017
Come toast the greatest love story in all of opera!
Time: Mid-19th century
Place: Paris, France and the French countryside
Conductor: Carlo Montanaro*
Original Director: Frank Galati*
Revival Director: Stefania Panighini**
Production Designer: Desmond Heeley
Lighting Designer: Alan Burrett
Wig & Make-up Designer: Dawn Rivard
Chorus Master: Alexander Rom
Choreographer: John de los Santos
Starring: Georgia Jarman (Violetta Valéry), René Barbera* (Alfredo Germont), Vladislav Sulimsky (Giorgio Germont), Abigail Levis* (Flora Bervoix), Brenton Ryan* (Gastone), Dale Travis (Baron Douphol), Daniel Armstrong* (Marchese D’Obigny), Ryan Kuster (Doctor Grenvil) and Rachel Sterrenberg* (Annina)
A gorgeous, classic production from Lyric Opera of Chicago!
THE RING OF POLYKRATES & VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D MAJOR
A sweeping Viennese concerto paired with a charming domestic comedy!
By Erich Wolfgang Korngold
February 9, 11 (m), 14 and 17, 2018
Violin Soloist (KORNGOLD CONCERTO): Augustin Dumay*
The Dallas Opera Orchestra conducted by Emmanuel Villaume
THE RING OF POLYKRATES
Sumptuous Viennese music laced with orchestral color and wit!
Libretto by Leo Feld
Time: Early 20th century
Place: Vienna, Austria
Conductor: Emmanuel Villaume
Director: Peter Kazaras
Set Designer: Donald Eastman*
Costume Designer: Tommy Bourgeois
Lighting Designer: Krista Billings
Wig & Make-up Designer: Dawn Rivard
Starring: Paul Groves* (Wilhelm Arndt), Laura Wilde* (Laura), Brenton Ryan (Florian Döbllinger), Susannah Biller* (Lieschen), and Craig Colclough* (Peter Vogel).
One of the most rarely performed opera gems! In its third professional U.S. production!
SUNKEN GARDEN by Michel van der Aa
March 9, 11 (m), 14 and 17, 2018
A phenomenal visual, musical and emotional adventure – live and in 3-D!
Libretto by David Mitchell
Time: Present Day
Place: Unknown
Conductor: Nicole Paiement
Director: Michel van der Aa*
Set Designer: Theun Mosk**
Costume Designer: Astrid Schulz**
Lighting Designer: Theun Mosk**
Sound Designer: Tom Gelissen*
Wig & Make-up Designer: Dawn Rivard
Starring: Roderick Williams* (Toby Kramer), Katherine Manley* (Zenna Briggs), and Miah Persson* (Iris Marinus).
Combining live actors and 2-D and 3-D film, to take you where opera has never gone before!
DON GIOVANNI by W.A. Mozart
April 13, 15 (m), 18, 21, 27 and 29 (m), 2018
Mozart’s operatic masterpiece brought vividly to life under the baton of Music Director Emmanuel Villaume!
Time: 20th century
Place: Seville, Spain and the surrounding countryside
Conductor: Emmanuel Villaume
Director: Robert Falls*
Set Designer: Walt Spangler*
Costume Designer: Ana Kuzmanic*
Original Lighting Designer: Duane Schuler
Lighting Designer: Chris Maravich*
Wig & Make-up Designer: Dawn Rivard
Chorus Master: Alexander Rom
Starring: Mariusz Kwiecień (Don Giovanni), Laura Claycomb (Donna Anna), David Portillo* (Don Ottavio), Ellie Dehn* (Donna Elvira), Kyle Ketelsen* (Leporello), Virginie Verrez (Zerlina), Craig Verm (Masetto), and Morris Robinson (The Commendatore).
An evocative and thrilling production from Lyric Opera of Chicago!
* Dallas Opera Debut
** American Debut
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