Opera Orchestra of New York Presents L'Africaine at Avery Fisher Hall 3/2

The Opera Orchestra of New York will present an opera-in-concert performance of Giacomo Meyerbeer's L'Africaine conducted by the company's Music Director Eve Queler on Wednesday, March 2, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. at Avery Fisher Hall. The concert, which marks Ms. Queler's 40th anniversary as founder and Music Director of the Opera Orchestra of New York, stars a renowned cast that includes tenor Marcello Giordani in his seventh performance with the company; sopranos Ellie Dehn and Chiara Taigi making her U.S. debut; baritone Fikile Mvinjelwa in his company debut; and bass-baritone Michael Anthony McGee.

The Opera Orchestra of New York last performed the Italian-language version of the opera, L'Africana, during the company's premiere season with Richard Tucker starring in the role of Vasco da Gama. This season's revival is in honor of Mr. Tucker and that first historic performance. The concert is made possible in part by philanthropist Dr. Agnes Varis who generously donated $250,000 to the orchestra in August 2010, and is dedicated to her late husband Karl Leichtman.

Single tickets priced from $32 to $145 can be purchased online by visiting www.operaorchestrany.org or www.lincolncenter.org, or by calling the Opera Orchestra of New York's box office at 212-906-9137.

The Opera Orchestra of New York will also present a Meyerbeer Retrospective on Tuesday, February 22 at 7:00 p.m. at the Bohemian National Hall located at 321 East 73 Street in New York. This special event will feature major arias and duets from Meyerbeer's operas including L'Africaine, Les Huguenots and Robert Le Diable, performed by members of the Opera Orchestra of New York's Young Artists Program including Christopher Bengochea, Michael Anthony McGee, Jenufa Gleich, and guest artists. The performance will be followed by a reception.

Tickets to The Meyerbeer Retrospective are free to L'Africaine ticket holders and $15.00 to the general public and can be obtained by calling the Opera Orchestra of New York's box office at 212-906-9137.
Giacomo Meyerbeer's final work, L'Africaine, known primarily for the frequently recorded tenor aria "O Paradis," is a fictional account of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama's travels beyond Africa to India, where he becomes caught in a love triangle with Selika, queen of Madagascar, and the Portuguese noblewoman, Inez, he left behind. Meyerbeer states in the score of L'Africaine that the role of Vasco de Gama is to be sung by the same tenor voice who sings Raoul in his opera Les Huguenots and Arnold in Guillaume Tell by Rossini. Mr. Giordani has sung both of these roles for the Opera Orchestra with great success and will make his role debut as Vasco da Gama in this performance of L'Africaine. Following his performance of Raoul in Meyerbeer's opera Les Huguenots with the Opera Orchestra The New York Times wrote, Mr. Giordani "wielded his immense voice with tremendous authority, accuracy and solidity. The air was filled with him."

The Opera Orchestra of New York was established by Eve Queler in 1971 to present to rarely-heard operas and provide the public with an opportunity to hear them performed in major concert venues. Among Opera Orchestra's numerous U.S. premieres are Puccini's Edgar with Carlo Bergonzi and Renata Scotto; Boito's Nerone with James Morris and Pablo Elvira; and Smetana's Libuse with Gabriela Benacková and Paul Plishka. The company also performed the New York premiere of Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans, with Dolora Zajick and Jorma Hynninen, which was also the American premiere of the Russian language version. The ensemble has also presented works long neglected in New York, such as Wagner's Rienzi, Verdi's I Lombardi, Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles, and Catalani's La Wally. These pioneering efforts have led national opera companies such as the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric and Houston Grand Opera to add to their permanent repertoires works that received their first major modern hearing by The Opera Orchestra of New York including I lombardi, Donizetti's La Favorita, Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini, Dvo?ák's Rusalka and Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina.
Since 1978 Opera Orchestra's Young Artists Program has identified and fostered young operatic talent. It is the only program in the New York metropolitan area that provides young singers with an opportunity to rehearse and perform with full orchestra and chorus. The program has nurtured the talents of Renée Fleming, Aprile Millo, Vivica Genaux, Deborah Voigt, Latonia Moore, Stephen Costello, Michael Fabiano, Bryan Hymel and Eglise Gutiérrez. Other singers who have worked with Opera Orchestra very early in their careers include José Carreras, Barbara Hendricks, DWayne Croft, Samuel Ramey and James Morris. Singers who made their U.S. or New York debuts with Opera Orchestra include Gabriela Benacková, Stephanie Blythe, Olga Borodina, Ghena Dimitrova, Jane Eaglen, Carlo Guelfi, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Vesselina Kasarova, Paul Plishka, Rosalind Plowright and Krassimira Stoyanova and Dolora Zajick.
Eve Queler is internationally recognized for her ground-breaking work with the Opera Orchestra and as a guest conductor of symphonic and opera repertoire at venues that span the international musical world. She has conducted more than 100 operas in concert at Carnegie Hall, many of which are rarely performed, bringing them to the attention of the American public and introducing them to the standard repertoire. Ms. Queler has conducted at opera companies worldwide, including Oper Frankfurt, Oper Bonn, Kirov Opera, Hamburg Oper, Rome Opera, and the Australian Opera; and has led the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, and the Orchestra Sinfonia Siciliana in Palermo, Italy. Ms. Queler championed many Russian and Czech operas unknown in the U.S. and was the first conductor in America to perform Mussorgsky's unfinished Khovanshchina with orchestration by Shostakovich, as well as the first Czech-language performance of Janacek's Katya Kabanova in 1979, Jenufa in 1988 and Dvorak's Rusalka in 1987. Ms. Queler recently made her conducting debut at the Puccini Festival, Torre del Lago leading Puccini's Madama Butterfly.
In October 2010, Ms. Queler was named a National Endowment for the Arts Opera Honoree for her focus on rarely performed operas and for her dedication to emerging singers, which she has brought to her work as music director of the Opera Orchestra of New York. This award for Lifetime Achievement in Opera is considered the nation's highest honor in opera and salutes our nation's cultural treasures. Ms. Queler has been named a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, one of the highest awards presented by the French government, for her commitment to French operas.