Ravinia Festival News

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will embark on a two-week journey of South American music with conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya and the ¡Música Ardiente? Festival, May 27-June 6.The festival, presented by CNN en Español, will feature three programs.

Writers' Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma announce the World Premiere of A Minister's Wife, a new musical adapted from George Bernard Shaw's Candida, conceived and directed by Michael Halberstam with musical direction by Richard Casey. A Minister's Wife was adapted by Austin Pendleton with music by Joshua Schmidt and lyrics by Jan Tranen.

Two-time Tony Award winners NATHAN LANE (The Producers, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) and BEBE NEUWIRTH (Chicago, Sweet Charity) will star as Gomez and Morticia in THE ADDAMS FAMILY, a new musical based on the bizarre and beloved family of characters created by legendary cartoonist Charles Addams. Produced by Stuart Oken, Roy Furman, Michael Leavitt and Five Cent Productions, by special arrangement with Elephant Eye Theatrical, THE ADDAMS FAMILY will open on Broadway Thursday, April 8, 2010 at a Nederlander theatre to be announced. Previews will begin Thursday, March 4, 2010 following a pre-Broadway engagement at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre in Chicago that begins November 13.

Conductor Erich Kunzel, affectionately known worldwide as the 'Prince of Pops,' has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and his medical treatments will prevent him from conducting Ravinia Festival's June 5th opening night concert as scheduled. Stepping in for Kunzel is celebrated Broadway conductor Paul Gemignani, who will lead the concert production of Camelot starring Sylvia McNair, George Hearn and Rod Gilfrey.

With songs such as 'Take the Money and Run,' 'Rockin' Me,' 'Jet Airliner,' 'The Joker,' 'Fly Like An Eagle,' 'Livin' in the USA' and 'Abracadabra' to his credit, blues/rock singer-songwriter-guitarist Steve Miller is one of the cornerstones of classic rock. The STEVE MILLER BAND will be performing at the Providence Performing Arts Center on November, 8, 2009 at 7:30P. Tickets for this event will go on-sale this Saturday, May 2 at 10A; Box Office remains open this Saturday through 8P.

In June 2009, The New York Philharmonic This Week ? a two-hour, national, weekly radio program of concerts by the New York Philharmonic ? begins with a concert from the Philharmonic?s sixth annual residency in Vail, Colorado, as part of the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. In this program, from the July 18, 2008 performance, Music Director Designate Alan Gilbert leads the Orchestra in Tchaikovsky?s Piano Concerto No. 1, with Lang Lang as soloist; Beethoven?s Symphony No. 4; and Sibelius?s Finlandia. The following week, after conducting J.S. Bach?s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, Music Director Lorin Maazel leads the World Premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis?s a Voice, a Messenger (a Co-Commission with the New York Philharmonic and the Big Ten Band Association); Copland?s Clarinet Concerto, with Principal Clarinet Stanley Drucker as soloist; and Ravel?s Boléro. The third June broadcast, conducted by Lorin Maazel, will be Britten?s powerful War Requiem. Lionel Bringuier conducts the chamber orchestra (in his Philharmonic debut), and soprano Nancy Gustafson, tenor Vale Rideout (Philharmonic debut), and baritone Ian Greenlaw will be the soloists with the New York Choral Artists, the Dessoff Symphonic Choir, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. In the final June broadcast, Lorin Maazel conducts two of his own compositions, Monaco Fanfares and Farewells, concluding with Sibelius?s Symphony No. 2.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will embark on a two-week journey of South American music with conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya and the ¡Música Ardiente? Festival, May 27-June 6.The festival, presented by CNN en Español, will feature three programs.

Writers' Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma announce the World Premiere of A Minister's Wife, a new musical adapted from George Bernard Shaw's Candida, conceived and directed by Michael Halberstam with musical direction by Richard Casey. A Minister's Wife was adapted by Austin Pendleton with music by Joshua Schmidt and lyrics by Jan Tranen.

The Most Happy Fella has been called musical theater, an operetta and a good old-fashioned opera. When it debuted in 1956, The New York Daily Mirror called it 'a masterpiece of our era.'

Ravinia Festival Chairperson Pamela B. Strobel and President and CEO Welz Kauffman today announced details of the 2009 season of music theater and dance events.

Aaron A. Flagg, who has been executive director of the Music Conservatory of Westchester since July 2005, has been named dean of The Hartt School of the University of Hartford. Flagg, who has a dynamic career in performances, music administration and music education, will assume his new role on June 30, said University of Hartford President Walter Harrison and Provost Lynn Pasquerella in a joint statement.

The Most Happy Fella has been called musical theater, an operetta and a good old-fashioned opera. When it debuted in 1956, The New York Daily Mirror called it 'a masterpiece of our era.'

Exigent Theatre presents HENRI GABLER, a new play by Alexander Burns adapted from Henrik Ibsen's masterpiece HEDDA GABLER, to be directed by Alexander Burns. The production will start previews on Friday, March 20th at 8pm and open on Sunday March 22nd at 7pm. Performances are Friday, March 20th through Sunday, April 5th.

Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center and New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) present a special non-subscription program, Songs of the Irish Poets, on Tuesday, March 17 at 8 PM at Kaufman Center's Merkin Concert Hall.

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) raised nearly $200,000 at their annual gala held on March 7, 2009 at the The Spertus Institute in Chicago. This year's gala celebrated the company's 35th Anniversary and honored General Director Brian Dickie as he marks his 10th Anniversary with the company. Over 250 guests enjoyed an evening of cocktails, dinner, raffles, silent and live auctions throughout Spertus Institute, allowing the visitors the opportunity to experience the bold and crisp architectural spaces of the building. COT Board Trustee and Gala Committee Chairman Lincoln S. Ellis emceed the evening and mezzo-soprano Sandra Piques Eddy was the evening's featured performer.

On March 12, 2009 at 7:00 p.m., The Collegiate Chorale appears with The New York City Opera Orchestra at the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall in a performance of Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin's 1945 Broadway operetta The Firebrand of Florence. The performance, led by guest conductor Ted Sperling, stars baritone Nathan Gunn, soprano Anna Christy, baritone Terrence Mann, and soprano Victoria Clark. Krysty Swann, David Pittu and Patrick Goss complete the cast, and narration will be provided by Stage Director Roger Rees. Boasting a score by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and a book by playwright and screenwriter Edwin Justus Mayer, The Firebrand of Florence had a short run on Broadway in 1945. The work was subsequently not heard for over a half-century until three presentations - Ohio Light Opera (1999), the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London (2000) and the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Vienna (2000) - shed new light on the relatively obscure work. The performances were not only accepted, but widely acclaimed, thus giving hope for a new life in a new century. Variety's theater critic Steven Suskin says 'I have long believed that Firebrand in concert should be a dazzling delight.' Benvenuto Cellini, the great Florentine artist, is sentenced to hang, but he is pardoned when the duke realizes that he has not completed a previously commissioned sculpture. Freed, he is able to turn his attention to his favorite model (and object of his affections), Angela. The Duke also is interested in Angela. In a typical operetta plot, Cellini swashbuckles around the stage, keeping the Duke away from Angela, keeping himself away from the Duchess, and escaping yet another death sentence by fleeing to Paris, as the end of the show recapitulates the beginning.

Exigent Theatre presents HENRI GABLER, a new play by Alexander Burns adapted from Henrik Ibsen's masterpiece HEDDA GABLER, to be directed by Alexander Burns. The production will start previews on Friday, March 20th at 8pm and open on Sunday March 22nd at 7pm. Performances are Friday, March 20th through Sunday, April 5th.

BroadwayWorld.com recently reported that Patti LuPone has been cast on 30 Rock to play the mother 'of Judah Friedlander's... well, um, unique Frank'. NBC has announced that also guesting on the March 5 episode will be John Lithgow.

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Patti LuPone has been cast on 30 Rock to play the mother 'of Judah Friedlander's... well, um, unique Frank'. There's no word on how many episodes LuPone will appear on of the hit show.

The dynamic acting icon Patti LuPone was featured on WOR's 'Joan Hamburg Show' this morning, March 3rd, LuPone chatted about her upcoming appearance on 30 ROCK as well her recent and already legendary run on Broadway in GYPSY.