Apollo's Fire Brings Monteverdi's L'Orfeo To Ann Arbor, Berkeley And Sonoma In April 2018

After a critically acclaimed East Coast Tour last month which included a Carnegie Hall debut on March 22, Apollo's Fire launches a new production of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (Orpheus in the Underworld) starting on April 13 in Cleveland. Conducted by founding artistic director Jeannette Sorrell and directed by British stage director Sophie Daneman, the semi-staged production will include a historically reconstructed version of the work's original ending, as well as period dancers, digital scenic projections, and a stellar cast of singers. Apollo's Fire will present Monteverdi's L'Orfeo on tour at three leading American performing arts institutions; return visits to University Musical Society in Ann Arbor on April 15 and Cal Performances in Berkeley on April 20, and a debut at Green Music Center in Sonoma on April 22.

Premiered in 1607, Monteverdi's first opera L'Orfeo was the groundbreaking operatic achievement of the 17th century, setting the stage for the next four centuries of opera and storytelling. Apollo's Fire presents a fresh and impassioned interpretation of the ancient myth of the singer Orpheus, who storms the gates of hell to rescue his beloved.

Jeannette Sorrell says: "Monteverdi's L'Orfeo is a Greek tragedy reborn as opera. As in the plays of Sophocles and Euripides, the events that overwhelm the lives of the heroes are in no way explained or justified. Rather, the ancient myth is used as a metaphor for the deep problems of current society. L'Orfeo, like its Greek predecessors, is a painful reflection on the human condition that still resonates today."

This production restores the opera's original ending, in which Orpheus is attacked and killed by followers of Bacchus. Apollo's Fire has commissioned composer and ensemble cellist René Schiffer to set librettist Alessandro Striggio's original ending text to music in the style of Monteverdi. Schiffer's previous historical reconstructions, including the Lacrimosa of the Mozart Requiem, can be heard on Apollo's Fire's critically acclaimed recording of that work.

Italian-born projection designer Camilla Tassi provides projected scenic images from the period, including interior decor from the palace of Mantua, where L'Orfeo was premiered in 1607.

Joining Apollo's Fire for L'Orfeo is a dynamic cast of singers and dancers, including Karim Sulayman as Orfeo, Erica Schuller as Euridice and La Musica, Amanda Powell as Messagiera and Proserpina, Mischa Bouvier as Plutone, Jonathan Woody as Caronte, dancer/choreographer Carlos Fittante, and Apollo's Singers.

Performances begin in Apollo's Fire's home city, Cleveland, on April 13 and 14 at the Cleveland Institute of Music. The tour begins on April 15 at the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor. On April 20, Apollo's Fire brings L'Orfeo to Cal Performances' Zellerbach Hall at the University of California, Berkeley. The tour concludes on April 22, 2018 at the Green Music Center's Weill Hall in Sonoma, California.

Coinciding with the performances of L'Orfeo, AVIE Records releases Songs of Orpheus, Karim Sulayman's first solo album, recorded in collaboration with Jeannette Sorrell and Apollo's Fire. The CD will be available for purchase at all L'Orfeo performances, as well as via iTunes and Amazon. Sulayman and Apollo's Fire were praised for their Sephardic Journey album, which debuted at #2 on the Billboard World Music chart and #5 on Billboard Classical, and was chosen for the "Best 10 Albums of the Year" by the Chicago Tribune. For more information on Songs of Orpheus, click here.

April 2018 Tour:

Apollo's Fire Presents Monteverdi's L'Orfeo

(Orpheus in the Underworld)

A New Semi-Staged Production

Jeannette Sorrell, Conductor and Harpsichord

Sophie Daneman, Stage Director

Carlos Fittante, Dancer/Choreographer

Camilla Tassi, Projection Designer

Karim Sulayman, Orfeo

Erica Schuller, Euridice & La Musica

Amanda Powell, Messagiera & Proserpina

Mischa Bouvier, Plutone

Jonathan Woody, Caronte

Apollo's Singers

Dates

Friday, April 13, 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, April 14, 8:00 p.m.

Cleveland Institute of Music - Kulas Hall

Cleveland, OH

Tickets & Information: apollosfire.org

Sunday, April 15, 2018, 4:00 p.m.

University Musical Society, Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI
Tickets & Information: click here

Friday, April 20, 2018, 8:00 p.m.

Cal Performances (UC Berkeley), Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, CA
Tickets & Information: click here

Sunday, April 22, 2018, 3:00 p.m.

Green Music Center (Sonoma State University), Sonoma, CA
Tickets & Information: click here

About Jeannette Sorrell, Artistic Director & Conductor

Jeannette Sorrell is recognized internationally as one of today's most creative early-music conductors. She has been credited by the U.K.'s BBC Music Magazine for forging "a vibrant, life-affirming approach to the re-making of early music... a seductive vision of musical authenticity."

Hailed as "one of the world's finest Baroque specialists" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch), Sorrell was one of the youngest students ever accepted to the prestigious conducting courses of the Aspen and the Tanglewood music festivals. She studied conducting under Robert Spano, Roger Norrington and Leonard Bernstein, and harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam. She won both First Prize and the Audience Choice Award in the 1991 Spivey International Harpsichord Competition, competing against over 70 harpsichordists from Europe, Israel, the U.S., and the Soviet Union.

Sorrell founded Apollo's Fire in 1992. Since then, she and the ensemble have built one of the largest audiences of any baroque orchestra in North America. She has led Apollo's Fire in sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall, London's BBC Proms and London's Wigmore Hall, Madrid's Royal Theatre (Teatro Real), the Grand Théâtre de l'Opéra in Bordeaux, the Aldeburgh Festival (UK), the Tanglewood, Aspen, and Ravinia festivals, Boston's Early Music Festival, the Library of Congress, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), among others.

As a guest conductor, Sorrell has worked with many of the leading American symphony orchestras and is represented by Columbia Artists Management. Recent engagements include the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center (Handel's Messiah). Her 2013 debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as conductor and soloist in the complete Brandenburg Concertos was met with standing ovations every night, and hailed as "an especially joyous occasion" (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review). The same occurred with 2017 debut with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, where the Twin Cities Pioneer Press wrote, "Other masters of the [baroque] style have been paying visits, but none has summoned up as much energy, enthusiasm and excitement from the orchestra as Sorrell." She has also appeared as conductor or conductor/soloist with the Utah Symphony (twice), New World Symphony (Miami), the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the Opera Theatre of St. Louis with the St. Louis Symphony, Handel & Haydn Society (Boston), and has appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra as guest keyboard artist.

Sorrell and Apollo's Fire have released 26 commercial CDs, of which seven have been bestsellers on the Billboard classical chart. Her recordings include the complete Brandenburg Concerti and harpsichord concerti of Bach (with Sorrell as harpsichord soloist and director), which was praised by the London Times as "a swaggering version... brilliantly played by Sorrell." She has also released four discs of Mozart, and was hailed as "a near-perfect Mozartian" by Fanfare Record Magazine. Other recordings include Handel's Messiah, the Monteverdi Vespers and four creative crossover projects: Come to the River - An Early American Gathering (Billboard Classical #9, 2011); Sacrum Mysterium- A Celtic Christmas Vespers (Billboard Classical #11, 2012); Sugarloaf Mountain - An Appalachian Gathering (Billboard Classical #5, 2015); and Sephardic Journey - Wanderings of the Spanish Jews (Billboard World Music Chart #2 and Billboard Classical #5, Feb. 2016).

Sorrell has attracted national attention and awards for creative programming. She holds an Artist Diploma from Oberlin Conservatory, and honorary doctorate from Case Western University, two special awards from the National Endowment for the Arts for her work on early American music, and an award from the American Musicological Society, and two different awards from the Cleveland Arts Prize. Passionate about guiding the next generation of performers, Ms. Sorrell has led many baroque projects for students at Oberlin Conservatory and is a frequent guest coach at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

About Apollo's Fire

Apollo's Fire was founded in Cleveland by the award-winning harpsichordist and conductor Jeannette Sorrell. Sorrell envisioned an ensemble dedicated to the baroque ideal that music should evoke the various Affekts or passions in the listeners. Apollo's Fire is a collection of creative artists who share Sorrell's passion for drama and rhetoric.

Apollo's Fire has performed four European tours, including sold-out concerts at the BBC Proms in London, the Aldeburgh Festival (UK), Madrid's Royal Theatre, London's Wigmore Hall, Bordeaux's Grand Théâtre, and venues in France, Austria, Italy and Portugal.

Chosen by the Daily Telegraph as one of London's "Best 5 Classical Concerts of 2014," Apollo's Fire was praised for "superlative music-making... combining European stylishness with American entrepreneurialism."

Apollo's Fire made its Carnegie Hall debut in March 2018, with a concert that sold out the day tickets went on sale. Other North American tour engagements have included the Tanglewood, Aspen, and Ravinia festivals, the Boston Early Music Festival series, the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and major venues in Toronto, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Houston. The ensemble has performed two major U.S. tours of the Monteverdi Vespers (2010 and 2014) and a 9-concert tour of the Brandenburg Concertos in 2013.

At home in Cleveland, Apollo's Fire enjoys sold-out performances at its subscription series, which has drawn national attention for creative programming.

Apollo's Fire has released 26 commercial CDs and currently records for the British label AVIE. Seven of the ensemble's CD releases have become best-sellers on the classical Billboard chart: the Monteverdi Vespers, Bach's Brandenburg Concertos & Harpsichord Concertos, a disc of Handel arias with soprano Amanda Forsythe titled "The Power of Love" (Billboard Classical #3, 2015), and Jeannette Sorrell's four crossover programs - Come to the River - An Early American Gathering (Billboard Classical #9, 2011); Sacrum Mysterium- A Celtic Christmas Vespers (Billboard Classical #11, 2012); Sugarloaf Mountain - An Appalachian Gathering (Billboard Classical #5, 2015); and Sephardic Journey - Wanderings of the Spanish Jews (Billboard World Music Chart #2 and Billboard Classical #5, Feb. 2016).

For more information on Apollo's Fire: apollosfire.org