Opera Star Deborah Voigt To Join Made For Online Opera VIREO

Composer Lisa Bielawa's Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser will feature world-renowned opera star Deborah Voigt singing a role created for her in Vireo's Episode Eleven, "Circus," to be shot on January 20, 2017 at the 16th Street Oakland Train Station in Oakland, California.

Vireo is a new, made-for-TV-and-online opera composed by Lisa Bielawa on a libretto by Erik Ehn and directed by Charles Otte, which is unprecedented in that it is being created expressly in 12, 10-to-15-minute episodes for release online and on TV. In May 2017, KCETin Southern California and Link TV nationwide (DirecTV channel 375 and Dish Network channel 9410) will release all 12 episodes of Vireo at once for free, via on-demand streaming, which is a first for both. Vireo is the winner of the 2015 ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Multimedia Award, and was recently awarded a prestigious MAP Fund Grant for 2016 through Grand Central Art Center.

Deborah Voigt will sing the role of the Queen of Sweden in Episode Eleven, "Circus." Vireo's cast includes mezzo-soprano Maria Lazarova as Vireo's Mother, baritone Gregory Purnhagen as the Doctor, Ryan Glover as the student Raphael, mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin as the Voice/Witch, mezzo-soprano Kristen Sollek as The Cow, bass-baritone Chung Wai Soong as The Elephant, 15-year-old soprano Emma MacKenzie as Vireo's mysterious twin Caroline, and 18-year-old soprano Rowen Sabala in the title role of Vireo. "Circus" will also include Magik*Magik Orchestra; San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) & Chorus School; Lance Suzuki, piccolo;Matthias Bossi, drums; and approximately 50 amateur musicians, participating via the Amateur Music Network, in the role of The Audience.

The final episode of Vireo, "My Name is Vireo," will be shot on January 16, 2017 and will feature the Kronos Quartet with lead Rowen Sabala in a Californian redwood forest. Episode Ten is in progress, and features the Vireo cast plus violinist Jennifer Koh with members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus School; Kate Campbell, toy piano; and Randy Matamoros, hurdy-gurdy.

Episodes 1 and 2 of Vireo are currently available online to view at KCET.org. Seven additional episodes are in post-production. Previous episodes have included the Kronos Quartet, San Francisco Girls Chorus, drummer Matthias Bossi, and the Orange County School of the Arts Middle School Choir at Yost Theatre in Santa Ana, CA; cellist Joshua Roman, harpist Bridget Kibbey, violinist Vijay Gupta, piccolo player Lance Suzuki, and SFGC at The Actors' Gang in Culver City; Shadow Hills High School Marching Band and the Vireo Wind Octet at a private farm outside of Los Angeles; the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), Cappella SF, and Handbell Ventures at Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco; Alarm Will Sound and the Trinity Wall Street children choristers at Garrison Institute in Garrison, NY; and Prism Saxophone Quartet and Partch LA in a studio in Los Angeles.

Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser is an opera that considers the nature and uses of female hysteria through time, as witch-hunters, early psychiatrists, and modern artists variously define the condition. Based on composer Lisa Bielawa's own research at Yale as a Literature major, then freely adapted and re-imagined by librettist Ehn, Vireo is a composite history of the way in which teenage-girl visionaries' writings and rantings have been manipulated, incorporated, and interpreted by the communities of men surrounding them throughout history, from the European Dark Ages, to Salem Massachusetts, 19th-century France, the Surrealists in Paris, and contemporary performance art. Featuring arias for dying cows, infatuated students, disembodied ageless women, and a mysterious twin of Vireo herself, the opera provides a thoughtful, and sometimes humorous look at the universal issues of gender identity, perception, and reality. Innovating opera not only through content but through form, Vireo allows greater access of opera to a broader audience, through mainstream media and contemporary delivery systems. The piece considers authoritarian responses to independent, inspired imaginations, especially as they abide in young women. It scrutinizes the representation of women both in the historical form of opera and in modern media.

Through a partnership with KCETLink, the national independent, non-profit digital and broadcast network, the unique multimedia initiative includes online articles and videos showcasing the production's creative process, as well as a television special to be presented by Artbound, KCETLink's Emmy ® award-winning arts and culture series. Vireo is an artist residency project of Grand Central Art Center (GCAC) in Santa Ana, an outgrowth of Cal State Fullerton, Director/Chief Curator John Spiak. Vireo is produced by Lisa Bielawa, Anne Marie Gillen, Grand Central Art Center and KCET; Marnie Burke de Guzman, Bay Area Producer; Charles Otte, Production Designer; Greg Cotten, Arjun Prakash, Director of Photography; Eric Liljestrand, Sound Designer; and Christina Wright, Costume Designer.

About Deborah Voigt: Deborah Voigt is one of the world's most versatile singers and music's most endearing personalities. Her HarperCollins memoir, Call Me Debbie: True Confessions of a Down-to-Earth Diva, recently came out in paperback, and 2016-17 sees her join the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as a full-time member of the voice faculty; serve as the new Artistic Advisor to Florida's Vero Beach Opera; sing Wagner with the Danish National Symphony in Copenhagen and California; and reprise her beloved one-woman show, Voigt Lessons.

Having made her name as a leading dramatic soprano, Voigt has given definitive performances of iconic German operatic roles from Salome to Isolde. Also a devotee of Broadway and American song, she has sung with Rufus Wainwright at London's BBC Proms, Kristin Chenoweth at Carnegie Hall, and Barbara Cook and Dianne Reeves at the Hollywood Bowl. Her extensive discography includes two EMI solo albums - All My Heart, named one of the "Best of the Year" by Opera News, and the Billboard bestseller Obsession - as well as Deutsche Grammophon's Grammy Award-winning Blu-ray set featuring her Brünnhilde in Robert Lepage's visionary Metropolitan Opera "Ring" cycle. She appears regularly as both performer and host in the Met's "Live in HD" series.

Voigt's numerous honors include first prizes in Moscow's International Tchaikovsky Competition and Philadelphia's Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition. A Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, she was Musical America's Vocalist of the Year 2003, won a 2007 Opera News Award for distinguished achievement, has received Honorary Doctorates from Smith College, University of South Carolina, and a Distinguished Alumnus Award from Cal State Fullerton, where she was a student in the School of Music voice program. She was named one of the Los Angeles Times's 25 cultural Tweeters to follow.

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