NEA Opera Honors Recipients Announced
OPERA America and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) have announced the first recipients of the NEA Opera Honors, the highest award our nation bestows in opera. The award goes to luminaries who have made extraordinary contributions to opera in the U.S.: soprano Leontyne Price; composer Carlisle Floyd; administrator Richard Gaddes, general director of The Santa Fe Opera and co-founder of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; and maestro James Levine, music director of the Metropolitan Opera and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The 2008 NEA Opera Honors are being given in four categories. Carlisle Floyd, who will receive the award for composer, has had a long and distinguished career and has written such memorable operas as Susannah and Of Mice and Men. In the category of advocate, Richard Gaddes has been the trailblazing director of two important festival companies in Santa Fe and Saint Louis. As conductor, James Levine has led Metropolitan Opera premieres of works by many composers, from Mozart to Weill, as well as the world premieres of American operas by John Corigliano and John Harbison, and is responsible for building the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra into one of the greatest orchestras in the world. As the 2008 honoree for singer, Leontyne Price is known for her elegant musical style, great recording legacy and generosity to young artists.

The NEA Opera Honors awards ceremony will be held on Friday evening, October 31, 2008, at the Harman Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C., with performances by Washington National Opera and members of its Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program. Other cities will host the event in future years.

[back to top]

A few days ago the National Endowment for the Arts announced its inaugural Opera Honors, which spotlight some of the leading members of the opera profession, who will be honored in a ceremony in Washington on October 31. The singer Leontyne Price, the composer Carlisle Floyd and the opera administrator Richard Gaddes were chosen, along with the conductor James Levine.

Speakers at the announcement ceremony in New York mentioned Levine's debut at the Met, and I vividly remember it, because I was in attendance. It occurred as part of the Met's June season that year, and normally I did not go to these post-seasonal events, but someone (I can't remember who) had told me that there was going to be a very promising conductor who was debuting that day. So, on June 5, 1971 I attended Tosca.

Among the cast members was Franco Corelli as Cavaradossi. Corelli was then in the downside of his career, and was becoming ever more vocally eccentric as he aged. When the opera arrived at Act III, he decided to take his aria "E lucevan le stelle" at a lethargic — not to say funereal — pace. I was astonished to hear the orchestra, under Levine, follow this indulgence with a sympathy and a cohesiveness that suggested much rehearsal (which was almost certainly lacking). I said to myself at that time, "This man is a born opera conductor," which, looking back, was about as prescient as saying the sun comes up in the morning.

I also remember that, during the intermission, I ran into my old teacher, composer Milton Babbitt. I was very surprised to see him there, as Tosca was far from being his favorite opera. He told me he was attending because he was Levine's teacher. Much later he ruefully remarked to me that on his tombstone would not be his name and "American Composer," but his name and "Teacher of Stephen Sondheim and James Levine."

[back to top]

Company Members
Long Leaf Opera's upcoming season will feature Regina by Marc Blitzstein, Medusa by William Bolcom, The Medium by Gian Carlo Menotti, Orpheus & Euridice by Ricky Ian Gordon and other musical events from June 11 through 29 at University of North Carolina's (UNC) Memorial Hall and Gerard Hall in Chapel Hill and the Carrboro ArtsCenter. To purchase tickets, call the UNC Memorial Hall box office at 919-843-3333. For more information and a complete list of events, visit longleafopera.org.

Palm Beach Opera's 2008-2009 season will include Verdi's Rigoletto (December 12-15, 2008), Bellini's Norma (January 23-26, 2009), Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (February 27-March 2) and Puccini's La bohème (April 3-6). Subscriptions are on sale now at 561-833-7888. For more information, visit pbopera.org.

[back to top]

Company Members
Austin Lyric Opera will bring its 2007-2008 season to a close with Strauss's Die Fledermaus on May 30 through June 7 in The Long Center for the Performing Arts. The cast will include Suzanne Ramo (Rosalinda), Joseph Evans (Gabriel), Alicia Berneche (Adele), Tonio DiPaolo (Alfred) and David Small (Dr. Falke). Tickets start at $26 and are available by calling 512-472-5992 or 800-31-OPERA, online at AustinLyricOpera.org or at the box office (901 Barton Springs Road).

Five young artists will join the Canadian Opera Company's(COC) Ensemble Studio for the 2008-2009 season: soprano Laura Albino, tenor Michael Barrett, intern coach Christopher Mokrzewski, soprano Ileana Montalbetti and bass Michael Uloth. These new members join returning sopranos Betty Allison, Lisa DiMaria and Teiya Kasahara; mezzo-soprano Erin Fisher; tenor Adam Luther; baritone Alexander Hajek and intern conductor Samuel Tak-Ho Tam. The COC Ensemble Studio is widely recognized as the country's foremost performance and training program for young opera professionals. This season's Ensemble Studio production will be Mozart's Così fan tutte in a special chamber orchestra arrangement at the Imperial Oil Opera Theatre, in the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Opera Centre (227 Front Street E) in June 2009.

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) will make ticket prices more affordable for young people and students. For over 10 years now, COT has offered half-priced tickets and subscriptions to full-time college students and youth under 18, and will expand their student ticket program by offering $15 student rush tickets to full-time college students who sign up online at ChicagoOperaTheater.org/Student. Eligible youth may buy half-priced tickets or subscriptions in Sections B, C and D anytime online or by calling 312-704-8414; full-time college students will be required to show their ID (via e-mail, fax or when they pick their tickets up at the Harris Theater). Half-price student tickets range from $17.50 to $37.50.

On May 30, Connecticut Opera will present the company's final opera of the 2007-2008 season in the Belding Theater at The Bushnell in Hartford, Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio. Enjoy a pre-opera buffet catered by Max at The Bushnell in the Seaverns Room or Great Hall at The Bushnell before all performances. Dinners and brunches are $35 and include the meal, dessert, coffee and fountain drinks; alcoholic beverages are cash bar; to order, call 860-527-0713. Additionally, the Hana and George Shechtman Opera Overtures, special pre-opera discussions, are given onstage at every performance, one hour before curtain. Single tickets to performances are priced from $35 to $95 and are available by calling 860-987-5900 or online at ctopera.org/seraglio.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has extended invitations to five young artists to be part of the Houston Grand Opera Studio: soprano Caitlin Lynch, baritone Octavio Moreno, bass Adam Cioffari and pianists/coaches Stephen Hopkins and David Hanlon. They join returning mezzo-sopranos Maria Markina, Faith Sherman and Jamie Barton; tenor Beau Gibson; baritone James J. Kee and pianist/coach Josephi Li. The HGO Studio is a training and performance program dedicated to the advancement of young artists with the potential for major careers in opera and music theater.

Long Beach Opera will reprise its production of Grigori Frid's The Diary of Anne Frank; the production will be staged in local parking garages in order to provide an intense and intimate theatrical experience. Single ticket prices are $15 to $95 and can be purchased online at longbeachopera.org or by calling 562-432-5934. For more information, visit longbeachopera.org.

New York City's Music-Theatre Group now has its own space to create, rehearse and perform new work at 10 Jay Street in DUMBO. The official launch of the space will be celebrated with a brand new collaboration between Music-Theatre Group and Susan Marshall & Company, Frame Dances, a mix of dance, music, performance and visual art, which will run from May 28 through June 1. There will be free shuttle bus service between Union Square and 10 Jay Street for select performances. For tickets, call 212-868-4444 or visit smarttix.com. Additionally, a first night benefit will be held post-performance, to help celebrate the new space, work and collaboration. The best views of Manhattan will be accompanied by food by Superfine and cocktails; tickets are $275. Please call 212-366-5260, ext. 22 for more information.

The nine recipients of New York City Opera's (NYCO) 2007-2008 awards for artistic excellence include:

• The Christopher Keene Award, for an artist performing in new or unusual repertory, went to Timothy Mix.
• The Diva Award, for an outstanding female NYCO artist who has reached an important stage in her professional career, went to soprano Shu-Ying Li.
• The Kolozsvar Awards, presented this year to soprano Heidi Stober and bass-baritone Daniel Mobbs, were established in 1994 by an anonymous donor, to honor one artist from the fall season and one from the spring who have performed in new or usual repertory.
• Director Tazewell Thompson is the recipient of the General Director's Council Award, which recognizes artistic achievement by a conductor, director or designer of a new production.
• The Richard F. Gold Career Grant, which honors a young American opera singer who appears destined for a major career in the opera world, went to Julianna Di Giacomo.
• The Richard F. Gold Debut Award, for an artist making a debut at NYCO, went to conductor Anne Manson.
• The Stanley Tausend Award, presented to a young artist the season following his or her debut, went to Anna Skibinsky.
• The Dr. Marcia Robbins-Wilf Award, which celebrates an outstanding dramatic performance by a singing actor or actress, went to Lauren Flanigan.

Opera Colorado's season will close with John Adams's Nixon in China, which will run for four performances, June 7 through 15. The cast will feature baritone Robert Orth (Richard Nixon), soprano Maria Kanyova (Pat Nixon), bass-baritone Thomas Hammons (Henry Kissinger), tenor Marc Heller (Chairman Mao), soprano Tracy Dahl (Madame Mao) and baritone Chenye Yuan (Chou En-lai). Tickets are $28 to $157 and are on sale now through Ticketmaster via operacolorado.org, by phone at 303-357-ARTS or at a variety of walk-up locations.

The Skylight (Milwaukee, WI) will present Wisconsin natives James Valcq and Fred Alley's musical The Spitfire Grill from May 23 through June 15 in the Cabot Theatre of the Broadway Theatre Center (158 North Broadway). Based on the 1996 film by Lee David Zlotoff, The Spitfire Grill is the story of Percy Talbott, a young ex-con who moves to a small Wisconsin town to restart her life. Single ticket prices range from $15 to $54 with discounts available for groups, seniors and students, and are available by phone at 414-291-7800 or online at skylightopera.com. For more information, visit skylightopera.com.

Tapestry New Opera Works will present composer Abigail Richardson and librettist Marjorie Chan's Sanctuary Song, an opera/music-theater production for all ages, from June 6 through 14 at The Berkeley Street Theatre, Downstairs (26 Berkeley Street, Toronto). Tickets are available at the box office by calling 416-368-3110, online at canstage.com or through Ticketmaster at ticketmaster.ca or 416-872-1111. For more information, visit sanctuarysong.ca.

Wichita Grand Opera's final staged production of the season will be Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance at the Mary Jane Teall Theater on May 30, 31 and June 1. The cast will feature tenor Patrick Greene as Frederic, soprano Kember Lattimer as Mabel, bass-baritone John Stephens as The Pirate King and baritone Earl Levine as the Major-General. Tickets are available from $30 to $80 from the Wichita Grand Opera box office at 316-262-8054 or from selectaseat.com. For more information, visit wichitagrandopera.org.

Business Members
Since December 2007, Emerging Pictures has been bringing operas, recorded live at three Italian opera houses, to digital cinemas across North America and the world (including Brazil, the U.K., Australia and Norway). The opera series will continue in the month of June with Puccini's La rondine — a production from Venice's Teatro La Fenice. The cast will feature Fernando Portari (Ruggero Lastouc), Fiorenza Cedolins (Magda de Civry), Emanuele Giannino (Prunier), Stefano Antonucci (Rambaldo Fernandez) and George Mosley (Perichaud). Please visit emergingpictures.com/operas to find local venues for this and other operas; for more information about La rondine, visit emergingpictures.com/rondine. Additionally, Opera in Cinema Salon — a community forum focused on the new phenomenon of showing operas on movie screens — will be offered on Wednesday, May 28 in the Borders bookstore in the Time Warner Center (Manhattan). Moderated by George Preston of WNYC, the panel will include Dr. Robert C. White, the Juilliard School; singer Christina Nuki; and Giovanni Cozzi, Emerging Pictures. Free books, DVDs and other giveaways will be offered to early attendees.

[back to top]

Company Members
Opera in the Heights (Houston, TX) will present Bravissimo 08, a dinner concert fundraiser, at The Houston Club on June 6 from 6:30 to 10:00 p.m. This event will feature singing, fine dining, a silent auction and artwork to be enjoyed by attendees. Sponsorships from $3,000 to $10,000 are available, as well as reserved tables of 10 and program acknowledgement for $1,500 and other opportunities for donation. For more information, contact Midge Claiborne at 713-861-5303 or Midge@operaintheheights.org, or visit operaintheheights.org/bravisimo.

[back to top]

Baltimore Opera to Present Met Simulcasts

Fort Worth Opera Tackles Pioneering 1980s Epic on Gay Life, Angels in America

Opera Boston gets New Opera from Old Legend

Want more news about the opera industry? On alternate weeks, OPERA America members receive MediaLink, with synopses and links to stories published around the world. To learn more about this and other benefits of membership, send an e-mail to Membership@operaamerica.org or call 212-796-8620, ext. 214.

Please note: Publications move online articles to their archives after a certain period. Therefore, articles listed here may only be available online for a short time. Some online publications may also require registration before you can read an article.

[back to top]

OPERA America sends these updates on a bi-weekly basis in order to keep you abreast of the latest developments in the field of opera. We hope this message is welcome; if it is not, please unsubscribe using the mechanism below, and we will remove your address from our e-mail list. For NewsLink subscribers with e-mail address changes, please send your changes to EAntopol@operaamerica.org.

Unsubscribe your address.

Want to tell a friend how to receive NewsLink? They can sign up here.

Want to send a friend NewsLink? Sign them up here OR forward this message to a friend.

Want to include your news in NewsLink? OPERA America members may submit their news and/or press releases for consideration to EAntopol@operaamerica.org.

[back to top]