Peabody Opera Workshop presents
The Miracle of Mozart
Scenes and ensembles from operas by
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Roger Brunyate and JoAnn Kulesza, musical directors
Garnett Bruce, guest stage director
Saturday, October 29, 2005 at 7:30 PM
Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall
Admission free
For information call 410/659-8100 x4415, or eMail the Peabody Box Office
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The three operas which Mozart wrote with Lorenzo da Ponte — Le nozze di Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790) — are very well known, as are several other operas of his still-youthful maturity. But before he ever worked with da Ponte, Mozart had already composed, whole or in part, no less than seventeen works for the stage. While these earlier operas contain much that is relatively conventional, they also include individual numbers and small ensembles that are miracles of their kind. The present program, which has been devised to showcase many of the graduate singers who are new to Peabody this year, contains five such excerpts from the earlier operas, together with three well-known selections from the da Ponte trilogy.
The program begins with the opening scene of Mozart’s first comic hit, La finta giardiniera (The Feigned Garden-girl) of 1775. Unusually, five of the major characters are revealed at once, singing an upbeat chorus in praise of love. But when we begin to hear from each of them individually, we realize that most of the couples are mismatched and amatory frustration abounds, so when the chorus returns to round off the number, it has a decidedly ironic tone.
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| La finta giardiniera, Opera Vivente, Baltimore, 2003 |
| William Heim (Nardo) and Peabody alumna Elizabeth Davis (Serpetta) |
The next three excerpts all have classical themes. Ascanio in Alba was written in 1771 to celebrate a royal wedding in Milan; our scene focuses on the closing trio in which the lovers are finally united, a virtual mirror of the real wedding offstage. Il re pastore (The Shepherd King) of 1775 tells of the heir to the royal throne of Sidon who, unaware of his identity, has been living the life of a simple shepherd. But Alexander the Great, for political reasons, wishes to install him on his throne. Our excerpt features the tender duet in which he takes his leave of his shepherdess sweetheart. The third excerpt is the quartet from Mozart’s opera seria masterpiece, Idomeneo (1781). This remarkable number is an early example of the composer’s ability to bring four different characters together with four different emotions — guilt, jealousy, love, and self-sacrifice — and weld them together into a symphonic whole.
L'oca del Cairo (The Goose of Cairo), begun in 1783 but never completed, is an oddity, showing Mozart seaching for the type of Italian comedy that he would eventually perfect with Lorenzo da Ponte. The story is almost irrelevant: two girls locked in a fortress to protect their chastity, and two lovers who devise what one might call a Trojan Goose to smuggle them out. Various people have tried their hands at completing the score; our version, by Virgilio Mortari, reveals two back-to-back ensembles, a quartet and a trio, which are as melodious and varied as almost anything that was still to come.
The program ends with three excerpts from the da Ponte operas which are too familiar to require detailed description here. We shall perform the opening of the Act II finale of Le nozze di Figaro, where Susanna comes out of the closet. This is followed by two scenes from Don Giovanni in which Zerlina almost succumbs (twice!) to the Don’s seduction, and has to make it up to her bridegroom Masetto. Then, after the scene from Così fan tutte where the two sisters agree to go out on a double date, the entire company will take the stage for the magical canon ensemble and finale which ends both that opera and our program.
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| Così fan tutte at Peabody, 2002 |
| Galina Sakhnovskaya (Fiordiligi) and Jessica Renfro (Dorabella) |
PRINCIPAL SINGERS
La finta giardiniera | ||
| Sandrina | Bonnie Lander* | |
| Serpetta | Ronni Jane Reich | |
| Ramiro | Brooke Lieberman* | |
| Il Podestà | Kyle Malone* | |
| Nardo | Dan Kempson | |
Ascanio in Alba |
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| Silva | Heather Davis* | |
| Ascanio | Heather Craw* | |
| Aceste | Matthew Dingels | |
Il re pastore | ||
| Elisa | Tara Stafford | |
| Aminta | Angela Hodgins | |
Idomeneo |
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| Ilia | Caroline Pelley* | |
| Electra | Heather Kniotek* | |
| Idamante | Darcy Crum | |
| Idomeneo | Hyok Chae* | |
L'oca del Cairo |
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| Celidora | Joanna Manring | |
| Lavina | Michelle Seipel | |
| Auretta | Soonyeon Kim* | |
| Biondello | Brent Huse* | |
| Calandrino | Travis Wanner | |
| Chichibio | Gabriel Henriques* | |
Le nozze di Figaro |
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| Susanna | Angeli Ferrette* | |
| Countess Almaviva | Gabriella VanDerVeer* | |
| Count Almaviva | Brendan Curran* | |
Don Giovanni |
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| Zerlina | Hilary Hogan* | |
| Don Giovanni | Jason Buckwalter | |
| Masetto | Richard Williams | |
Così fan tutte |
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| Fiordiligi | Emma Jensen* | |
| Dorabella | Andrea Nwoke* | |
| Canon and finale | The Company | |
| *First solo appearance with the Peabody Opera. | ||