Florida Grand Opera Presents Gluck's Masterpiece ORFEO ED EURIDICE

Recently, Susan T. Danis, General Director and CEO of Florida Grand Opera, was sitting in the audience, listening to the woman in front of her commenting on the body count in the company's first two operas of the 2017-18 season, Lucia di Lammermoor and Salome.

"Are there any operas where no one dies?" the woman asked her companion.

"I tapped her on the shoulder," recalled Danis, "The next one FGO is presenting, Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, has a character who dies twice!"

One of the towering masterworks of the repertoire, Orfeo ed Euridice not only bridges the gap from the Baroque era to the time of Mozart, it also presents a group of characters in search of life, not death.

Christoph Willibald Gluck created the opera in 1762, putting his own personal stamp on the famous legend of the musician and poet Orpheus, who undertakes a perilous journey to the Underworld to rescue his recently deceased wife, Euridice, and bring her back to the land of the living.

Gluck, one of the great musical reformers of his day, sought to create a fully integrated music drama, free of excess, that told the Orpheus legend in the most intense and economical way possible. The opera was an enormous success from the time of its premiere, and starred a dazzling array of celebrated castrati as Orfeo. Over the decades, however, as the use of castrated male singers singing in the female range fell out of fashion, the role of Orfeo was dominated by mezzo-sopranos and contraltos, more in keeping with changing audience tastes.

Florida Grand Opera's production of Orfeo ed Euridice embraces the opera's rich history by splitting the title role between two dynamic young artists on the current opera scene: star countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and mezzo-soprano Lindsay Amman.

Anthony Roth Costanzo has distinguished himself as a modern-day countertenor with a full, rich, and exciting sound. He has starred at the Metropolitan Opera as both Ferdinand and Prospero in the Baroque pastiche The Enchanted Island. He made his acclaimed European debut at the Glyndebourne Festival in Handel's Rinaldo. He can be seen in the James Ivory film A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, for which he received a nomination for an Independent Spirit Award.

Lindsay Ammann can be seen on the Die Walk?re DVD from the Metropolitan Opera's Ring Cycle and the DVD documentary Wagner's Dream.

The performance schedule for FGO's Ofeo ed Euridice is as follows:

MIAMI | Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts' Ziff Ballet Opera House

Saturday, March 17, 2018 at 7 pm

Sunday, March 18, 2018 at 2 pm

Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at 8 pm

Friday, March 23, 2018 at 8 pm

Saturday, March 24, 2018 at 8 pm

FORT LAUDERDALE | Broward Center for the Performing Arts' Au-Rene Theater

Thursday, March 29, 2018 at 7:30 pm

Saturday, March 31, 2018 at 7:30 pm

CAST:

Orfeo Anthony Roth Costanzo
(March 17, 20, 24, 29, 31)

Lindsay Ammann
(March 18 & 23)

Euridice Eglise Gutiérrez
(March 17, 20, 24, 29, 31)

Jessica E. Jones
(March 18 & 23)

Amor Evan Kardon

Conductor Anthony Barrese

Director Keturah Stickann

Dancers Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami
Carlos Guerra and Jennifer Kronenberg

Production Seattle Opera

ABOUT FLORIDA GRAND OPERA

Florida Grand Opera (FGO), the oldest performing arts organization in Florida, celebrates its 77th Anniversary Season in 2017-18. The mainstage operas of the season include: Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (Nov. 11-Dec. 2), Richard Strauss's Salome (Jan. 27-Feb. 10), Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (Mar. 17-31), and Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas (Apr. 28-May 5).

FGO's Box Office is located at the Doral Center on 8390 NW 25th Street, Miami, FL 33122, and is open from 10 am to 4 pm, Mondaythrough Friday during the season. Season tickets may be purchased online at www.FGO.org or by phone at (800) 741-1010.

Founded in 1941 as Greater Miami Opera and later merging with The Opera Guild Inc. in 1994, FGO presents a mixture of standard repertoire and contemporary works as well as commissions and new productions - all featuring projected translations in English and Spanish. FGO is recognized for funding by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Funding is also provided, in part, by the Broward County Board of County Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Council and the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, Cultural Affairs Council, the Mayor and the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners and the Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council. Program support is provided by the City of Miami Beach, Cultural Affairs Program, and the Cultural Arts Council. Florida Grand Opera is a Resident Company of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County and a member company of OPERA America. Steinway & Sons is the Official Piano of Florida Grand Opera.

Photo: © Elise Bakketun