San Diego Opera has announced that San Diego Opera board member for the past 28 years, and Opera Ball Chair for the past two, Sarah Brenda Marsh-Rebelo, affectionately known to her friends as Sarah B., has been named Honorary Life Director of the San Diego Opera. This marks only the seventh Life Director honor that the Company has bestowed in its 55-year history which was voted on unanimously at a board meeting on Monday, January 27, 2020.
The San Diego Opera's opening-night production of Verdi's Rigoletto featured the powerful voice and convincing acting of baritone Stephen Powell in a title role he has sung often. In contrast, it was soprano Alisa Jordheim's debut as Rigoletto's naive ill-fated daughter Gilda. Her fresh innocent appeal and Powell's veteran portrayal of cynical darkness were perfect for their respective roles. Jordheim has an agile voice with a deliciously silky tone, and commendable projection. She delivered coloratura passages of perfect clarity, hit the role's highest note with startling volume and purity, and held it. This won't be her last production of Rigoletto, nor the last major role in her promising career. Tenor Scott Quinn was the more than reprehensible duke who takes advantage of Gilda. The pair's youthful voices and appearance make them unusually well suited for Verdi's marvelous music and Francesco Maria Piave's tragedy-soaked libretto.
When San Diego Opera General Director David Bennett realized earlier this year that the scheduled Vancouver-derived production of Hansel and Gretel wouldn't fit comfortably on the Balboa Theater stage, All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 was an obvious holiday-season alternative. He'd already been thinking about it for the company's Detour Series of less traditional works.
Can a musical drama set on a grim WW I battlefield make an audience feel good? Those working on the San Diego Opera's staging of All Is Calm: the Christmas Truce of 1914 are certain it can. The work tells the true story of the spontaneous unofficial truce between WWI enemies who left their trenches and entered the no-man's land between them to join in a celebration of the Christmas holidays. Peter Rothstein wrote the drama for his Minneapolis-based company Theatre Latte Da, and based it on material from the period, the most important of which is the verbatim text of letters and war journals written by soldiers who participated in the truce. The cast sings many songs popular during the war and a few traditional Christmas carols. All were arranged by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach, and are sung a cappella in the English, German and French languages of the soldiers. Vanessa Dinning has taken on the challenge of coaching in nearly 20 different dialects.
The San Diego Opera's last concert this season was billed as 'One Amazing Night.' The program was originally scheduled to feature soprano Lise Lindstrom and tenor Rene Barbera, but Barbera was released from his commitment when he was offered a Teatro alla Scala debut as Ernesto in a new production of Don Pasquale. He's sung multiple time in San Diego, and will likely return, but the company understood a La Scala debut means too much to an opera singer's career to stand in his way. Bass-baritone Greer Grimsley, who had previously performed with Lindstrom in the San Diego production of Salome, was an effective stand-in. Earlier this season Grimsley played the pirate king here in Pirates of Penzance with surprising comic flair, though best known for dark and heroic roles.
I spoke recently with Elaine Alvarez who will be singing the lead role this weekend in the San Diego Opera's production of Florencia en el Amazonas by Mexican composer Daniel Catan and librettist Marcela Fuentes-Berain. Alvarez told me that when she got a call from the San Diego Opera's General Director David Bennett, 'I was at a train station in France, and it was cold. I started jumping up and down! And he was like, 'Do you think you're going to be ready to sing this? Is this in line now with where your voice is.' And I'm like, a hundred percent! Yes! Yes! Yes!' Spanish was her first language, Florencia appealed to her Latin heritage, and she knew her voice was ready. She'd sung Beatrice in Catan's earlier opera Rappaccini's Daughter and was delighted with the opportunity to make her San Diego debut with another of his works.
Theater Program presents its fourth annual production, Anything Goes, directed by 5th Avenue Theatre Casting Director Kelsey Thorgalsen. The show runs March 9th though 18th, with previews March 7th and 8th, at the Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse at 4045 University Way NE.
Every now and then, a transformational moment will occur in the theatre, transporting the audience into new realms of experience and understanding. Such a moment is at hand in David Bennett's vivid and compelling interpretation of MAN OF LA MANCHA. (Arizona Theatre Company's third production of the season, running through January 28th at the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix.) Bennett's work is a grand and inspired achievement. It touches the soul and ignites the emotions.
San Diego Opera and the SDSU School of Music and Dance have announced a new, shared position between the two organizations. The Director of Opera is a full-time, faculty position that will direct SDSU Opera's Fall production, teach acting and stage movement for singers, and then act as assistant director on San Diego Opera's mainstage productions in the Spring.
It's been a big year for theatre in Tuscon and tuscon.com has announced its list of this year's Mac Award nominees and winners. Check out the full list below!
The 2017 awards honor productions which opened between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017. Nominations were completely reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended October 31, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors.
The 2017 awards honor productions which opened between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017. Nominations were completely reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended October 31, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors.
The River Bride, Marisela Trevi o Orta's poignant story of true love, regret, transformation and the struggle to stay true to your family and to yourself, will have its Arizona premiere at the Temple of Music & Art in Tucson from Oct. 21 to Nov. 16 and at the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix from Nov. 11 to Dec. 3.
The River Bride, Marisela Trevi o Orta's poignant story of true love, regret, transformation and the struggle to stay true to your family and to yourself, will have its Arizona premiere at the Temple of Music & Art in Tucson from Oct. 21 to Nov. 16 and at the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix from Nov. 11 to Dec. 3.
Arizona Theatre Company (ATC; David Ivers, Artistic Director; Billy Russo, Managing Director) is pleased to welcome back four-time Academy Award-nominee Marsha Mason, who will direct Neil Simon's autobiographical romantic comedy Chapter Two to open ATC's 51st season, Oct. 5-22 at the Herberger Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe in Phoenix.
Arizona Theatre Company (ATC; David Ivers, Artistic Director; Billy Russo, Managing Director) is pleased to welcome back four-time Academy Award-nominee Marsha Mason, who will direct Neil Simon's autobiographical romantic comedy Chapter Two to open ATC's 51st season, Sept. 9-30 at the Temple of Music & Art, 333 S. Scott Ave. in Tucson, Oct. 5-22 at the Herberger Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe in Phoenix.
Single tickets for the first two shows in Arizona Theatre Company's (ATC) 2017-18 season, its 51st, - Chapter Two and The River Bride - go on sale August 1.
Single tickets for the first two shows in Arizona Theatre Company's (ATC) 2017-18 season, its 51st, - Chapter Two and The River Bride - go on sale August 1.
