International Opera Star Dolora Zajick to Appear with Palm Beach Opera in Verdi’s Requiem
Palm Beach Opera will present Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem on January 16, 2011, at 4:00pm at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets range from $20 – $125 and are available through the Palm Beach Opera Box Office at 561-833-7888 or online at www.pbopera.org.
World-renowned mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick leads Palm Beach Opera’s quartet of soloists. Hailed as “THE Verdi mezzo of the day” (Opera News) and considered “a mezzo in a class by herself” (New York Times), Ms. Zajick, who has been a soloist at all of the major opera companies and
Dolora Zajick
festivals of the world, makes her debut with Palm Beach Opera. Joining Ms. Zajick will be soprano Angela Meade, the First Prize winner of the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition Advanced Division in 2008, who burst on the international opera scene when she was a last minute
replacement in the role of Elvira in Verdi’s Ernani at the Metropolitan Opera to great acclaim. Rounding out the quartet of Verdi specialists are tenor Carl Tanner, who returns to Palm Beach Opera after his success in 2009 in the title role of Verdi’s Otello, and bass Morris Robinson who was a soloist in last season’s Beethoven Symphony No. 9 – Choral concerts.
Maestro Bruno Aprea conducts the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra and Chorus which will be joined by select guest choruses to form a 150-voice massed chorus. Guest choruses include singers from the Master Chorale of South Florida, Delray Beach Chorale, Masterworks Chorus of the Palm Beaches, and the Robert Sharon Chorale.
“The Verdi Requiem packs the maximum of human passion and man’s ‘need for a greater force’ into emotionally charged and almost overwhelming music”, Palm Beach Opera’s General Director Daniel Biaggi says. “This will be a highlight of the season, an absolute must-see event.”
A Gala Dinner with the Artists honoring Requiem sponsor, Helen K. Persson will follow the concert. The Gala Dinner, chaired by Dr. Elizabeth Bowden will take place at the Cohen Pavilion. Tickets include premium concert seating and dinner at $375 per person. Tickets can be purchase by calling 561-835-7569 or events@pbopera.org.
Since 1961 Palm Beach Opera has been dedicated to producing world-class opera and diverse educational programs which play an integral role in the artistic and overall enrichment of the communities it serves. It is a proud member of the Palm Beach Cultural Council.
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
REQUIEM
by Giuseppe Verdi
Sunday, January 16, 2011 at 4:00pm
Sung in Latin
Conductor
Bruno Aprea
SOLOISTS
Angela Meade, Soprano^
Dolora Zajick, Mezzo-Soprano
Carl Tanner, Tenor
Morris Robinson, Bass
Palm Beach Opera Orchestra
Palm Beach Opera Chorus
Guest Members of the following choruses:
Delray Beach Chorale
Masterworks Chorus of the Palm Beaches
Master Chorale of South Florida
The Robert Sharon Chorale
Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition Winner
BACKGROUND
The origins of the Requiem began in 1868 with Verdi’s suggestion for a composite Requiem in honour of Rossini, to be written by ‘the most distinguished Italian composers’. This was duly completed but plans to perform the piece came to nothing; in April 1873 Verdi’s contribution, the ‘Libera me’ movement, was returned to him. It seems likely that about that time he decided to write an entire Requiem himself, a decision perhaps precipitated, perhaps strengthened, by the death in May of Alessandro Manzoni, to whom the work was dedicated.
In the circumstances, it is probably inevitable that the theatrical nature of the Requiem should be a principal matter for debate: Hans von Bülow famously referred to it as an ‘Oper in Kirchengewande’ (opera in ecclesiastical dress) even before its first performance. Such sentiments can only
Giuseppe Verdi
be strengthened by the knowledge that a duet for Carlos and Philip, discarded from Don Carlos during rehearsals in Paris, formed the basis of the ‘Lacrymosa’ section of the Dies irae. More operatic still is the manner in which the soloists occasionally take on what can only be called ‘personalities’. This is most noticeable in the final ‘Libera me’, in which the soprano, isolated from the other soloists, seems in active dialogue with both the chorus and the orchestra, for all the world like a beleaguered heroine trying finally to make sense of the world in which she has been cast.
On the other hand we should not exaggerate. The main theme of the ‘Lacrymosa’ may have originated in an opera, but it develops in a markedly different fashion, without the vocal contrasts that almost invariably fuel Verdian musical drama. In fact, none of the ensemble scenes or choruses (of which there is an unoperatic preponderance) remotely resembles the texture of their operatic equivalents, in particular by their frequent employment of contrapuntal writing and by the relative lack of differentiation between individuals. What is more, the levels of purely musical connection (particularly in motivic and harmonic gestures) are far greater than Verdi would have deemed appropriate in a drama, where contrast and tension between characters is so important a part of the effect.
But the presence of that counterpoint may perhaps recall those admonitions to future conservatory pupils, to study fugue rather than ‘modern [i.e. foreign or foreign-influenced] operas’, which might in turn recall that Verdi’s original idea for a composite Requiem was as a celebration of Italian art and artists during a period he thought of as in cultural crisis: as he said in his first letter about the project, ‘I would like no foreign hand, no hand alien to art, no matter how powerful, to lend his assistance. In this case I would withdraw at once from the association’. In that sense, the decision to write a Requiem, and thus to celebrate through counterpoint a glorious era in Italy’s musical past, makes the work as ‘political’ as any of the composer’s operas.
Roger Parker. “Verdi, Giuseppe.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 14 Dec. 2010 .
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
ANGELA MEADE – SOPRANO
The 2010/11 season for American soprano Angela Meade includes her European operatic debut at the Wexford Festival in the title role of Mercadante’s rarely seen Virginia, a new production by Kevin Newbury. She will also return to the Metropolitan Opera to cover the title role in Rossini’s Armida. In the concert world, Ms. Meade will make her debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony in Verdi’s Requiem conducted by Manfred Honeck. She will also sing this same work for debuts with the Palm Beach Opera as well as the Baltimore Symphony, conducted by Marin Alsop. She will also perform the Mahler Second Symphony under Gerard Schwarz at the Seattle Symphony and the Mendelssohn Lobgesang at the San Antonio Symphony under Sebastian Lang-Lessing. Ms. Meade will sing her first performance of Donna Anna in a concert version of Don Giovanni with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra under Roberto Abbado. Other symphonic highlights include the Dvořák Stabat Mater with the New York Choral Society at Carnegie Hall and the Brahms Requiem with the Choralis Foundation at Strathmore Hall.
DOLORA ZAJICK – MEZZO SOPRANO
Hailed as “The Verdi mezzo of the day” (Opera News) Dolora Zajick has been internationally acclaimed as that rare voice type, a true dramatic Verdi mezzo-soprano, typified by the composer’s most famous and difficult mezzo-soprano roles. She has given vigor to the roles of Ulrica (Un ballo in maschera), Lady Macbeth, Princess de Bouillon (Adriana Lecouvreur), Marfa (Khovanshchina), Jezibaba (Rusalka), Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana), Adalgisa (Norma), and the title roles in Tchaikovsky’s Maid of Orleans, Donizetti’s La favorite, Dalila in Saint-Saens’sSamson et Dalila, and Massenet’s Hérodiade. Highlights of Ms. Zajick’s 2010-2011 season include her debut as Ortrud in Wagner’s Lohengrin at the LA Opera, where she will also participate in the company’s 25th Anniversary Gala. At the Metropolitan Opera she makes her role debut as the Countess in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades and reprises an old favorite as Azucena in Verdi’s Il Trovatore, to be broadcast internationally Live on HD, appears as Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlo at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, Spain and gives a recital at in New York for the George London Foundation. Future seasons will see her return to the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Houston Grand Opera, Cincinnati Opera, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, and at the Orange Festival in France.
CARL TANNER – TENOR
Tenor Carl Tanner recently marked his return to the Metropolitan Opera in La Fanciulla del West. Earlier this season he performed Manrico again with the Semperoper Dresden and had a great success as Dick Johnson at the Edinburgh Festival as well as his debut in Barcelona as Calaf. Other recent performances have included Des Grieux in Las Palmas, Calaf and Radames in Dresden, Pinkerton at Paris Opera, Radames with the Deutsche Oper, Berlin, Don Jose (w/Mehta) in Firenze and Hamburg, Enzo at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin and at the Teatro Real, Madrid, Samson (w/Borodina) in Brussels and the Concertgebouw, and Tokyo (Turandot under Mehta). Other concert performances have included the Richard Tucker Gala at Avery Fisher Hall and “O Holy Night” at the Christmas Tree lighting at the White House and La Fanciulla del West in Carnegie Hall. He performed the title role in Puccini’s Edgar with the Orchestre de Radio France in Paris (released on CD) with a “seductive and imposing timbre, firm line and easy emission” and also performed Ägyptische Helena with the American Symphony at Avery Fisher Hall (recorded by Telarc). Additional highlights of recent seasons include Don Jose for his La Scala debut, as well as in Napoli, the San Francisco and Dallas Opera and Cavaradossi in his Covent Garden debut. Otello comes back for Mr. Tanner in Dresden in 2011 as well as returns to Hamburg for Radames.
MORRIS ROBINSON – BASS
Morris Robinson is quickly gaining a reputation as one of the most interesting and sought after basses of his generation. A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Mr. Robinson made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 2002 in their production of Fidelio. He has since appeared there as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte (both in the original production and in a new children’s English version), the King in Aida, and in roles inNabucco, Tannhäuser, and the new productions of Les Troyens and Salome. He has also appeared at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Florida Grand Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and the Opera Theater of St. Louis. His many roles include Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Ramfis in Aida, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlos, Timur in Turandot, and Fasolt inDas Rheingold. Also a prolific concert singer, Mr. Robinson has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Ft. Worth Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Met Chamber Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, and at the Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Cincinnati May, Verbier, and Aspen festivals. He also appeared in Carnegie Hall as part of Jessye Norman’s HONOR! Festival. In recital he has been presented by Spivey Hall in Atlanta, the Savannah Music Festival, the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Mr. Robinson’s appearances this season include Sarastro at the Metropolitan Opera, Commendatore at the Dallas Opera and Florida Grand Opera, and concerts with the Nashville, Baltimore, and Detroit symphony orchestras. Mr. Robinson’s first album, Going Home, was released by Decca.
