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Opera Pacific
John DeMain, Artistic Director
La Traviata
Music by Giuseppe Verdi
Four Performances Only! May 17, 19, 21, and 22
Segerstrom Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center
Also Introducing Opera in the Raw Wed. May 18 only! New, up close and intimate performance of La Traviata Cabaret style at Founders Hall.
Amy Hutchison directs some of the most important new singers working today – Dina Kuznetsova, Garrett Sorenson and Ashley Holland (5/17, 5/19, 5/21) Jennifer Welch-Babidge, Richard Troxell, and Charles Taylor (5/18-Opera in the Raw, 5/22m-full production).
Opera Pacific, led by Artistic Director John DeMain, presents Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata, directed by Amy Hutchison, the final main-stage production of the 2004-2005 season. La Traviata will have four performances at Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, on May 17, 19, and 21 at 7:30 pm and May 22 at 2:00 pm. Opera Pacific Artistic Director John DeMain conducts May 17, 19, and 21; Assistant Conductor Kelly Kuo conducts the May 22 matinee.
Opera Pacific will also introduce an exciting new concept in opera – Opera in the Raw – a performance of the major musical sequences of La Traviata for an audience of 300, cabaret style with piano accompaniment, and the artists in their casual rehearsal attire, in Founders Hall for one performance on Wednesday, May 18 at 8:00 pm. DeMain narrates the evening, and Kuo conducts.
The casts feature the Company debuts of some of the most watched up-and-coming singers working today – soprano Dina Kuznetsova (May 17, 19 and 21), has a captivating personality which recently wowed the hearts of the city of Chicago when she sang the title role in the Lyric Opera’s production of The Cunning Little Vixen. Jennifer Welch-Babidge (May 18-Opera in the Raw, May 20), winner of the 2001 Richard Tucker Award, made national headlines singing the role of Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor for New York City Opera when she was seven months pregnant; the company and the director restructured the concept of the opera to incorporate her pregnancy.
Metropolitan Opera tenor Garrett Sorenson (May 17, 19 and 21), the 2004 winner of the Richard Tucker Award, also makes his Opera Pacific debut as the love-stricken Alfredo. Sorenson is a promising young talent who has recently appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Boston Lyric Opera. He alternates with Richard Troxell (May 18-Opera in the Raw, May 20), who has sung Alfredo with Houston Grand Opera and San Diego Opera, and who last appeared with Opera Pacific in the title role of the Company’s 2004 production of Candide. Jennifer Welch-Babidge, Garrett Sorenson, and Charles Taylor appeared as guest artists at the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions Concert in New York.
English baritone Ashley Holland, who began his career as an English National Opera career artist, returns to Opera Pacific (Madame Butterfly, 2003) as Germont (May 17, 19 and 21), Alfredo’s father. Since his last appearance with Opera Pacific he has made his debut with some of the world’s most prestigious opera houses including Royal Opera Covent Garden, Houston Grand Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago Holland is alternating with Charles Taylor (May 18-Opera in the Raw, May 20), a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindeman Young Artist Program, who is making his Opera Pacific debut.
Opera Pacific Artistic Director John DeMain and Kelly Kuo, Opera Pacific Assistant Conductor, will split the conducting duties. DeMain conducts on May 17, 19, and 21; Kuo on May 22. The director is Amy Hutchison, who directed Porgy and Bess for Opera Pacific in 1995. She recently directed productions for the opera companies of Portland, San Diego, Madison, and Baltimore.
Artistic Director John DeMain said, “We are most excited that the attention of the opera world will be on Orange County when Dina Kuznetsova, Jennifer Welch-Babidge, Garrett Sorenson, Richard Troxell, Ashley Holland and Charles Taylor perform La Traviata for us. The industry – as well as our audiences – are eagerly awaiting the appearances of the future opera stars who have been garnering rave reviews from the leading critics around the world. Many of my colleagues will be taking careful note of what happens here.”
Executive Director Robert C. Jones said, “Some of the most illuminating work that I have experienced in the performing arts has been in the rehearsal room – after the roles have been perfected but before the singers move to the formal stage with scenery, costumes, and lighting. This very raw experience is so intoxicating, that we wanted to find a way to let the public in on it as well – so we came up with Opera in the Raw. The cast will perform the major musical sequences of La Traviata to piano, in a space just large enough to hold the performers and an audience of 300. It will be just as the company itself will have heard it at their final rehearsal before working on the big stage in Segerstrom Hall.”
“Our mainstage audience will get to hear Kuznetsova, Sorenson and Holland sing. Our Founders Hall audience at Opera in the Raw will get to experience Welch-Babidge, Troxell and Taylor in a way usually only those in the industry itself get to have – up close, and personal. And then our Opera in the Raw cast will perform the final Segerstrom Hall performance of La Traviata.”
La Traviata, a favorite with opera-goers around the world, tells the heartbreaking story of Violetta, one of Paris' most successful and experienced courtesans. She is introduced to Alfredo, son of a wealthy nobleman and their attraction is immediate. Violetta abandons her cynicism for true love with this impetuous, vibrant young man. Their happiness, however, is interrupted by the arrival of Alfredo's father, whose words remind Violetta that the world she has entered cannot accept a woman of her background.
Tickets for mainstage performances are priced from $35 to $185. Tickets for Opera in the Raw on May 18 at 8:00 pm are priced at $48. All tickets are available by calling 1-800-34-OPERA (1-800-346-7372), by visiting the Orange County Performing Arts Center Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, or online at www.operapacific.org. For information, go to www.operapacific.org. For groups, call (714)830-6361.
La Traviata will be sung in Italian with English supertitles. A preview of the performance by Henri Venanzi, Opera Pacific’s chorusmaster, is held one hour prior to each performance. Supertitles for the 2004-2005 season have been underwritten by Karl and Conny Bergstrom/Bergstroms Childrens Stores and Bob and LaDorna Eichenberg/Ellison Educational Equipment.
Main-stage Performances of full Opera
Dates: Tuesday, May 17 at 7:30 pm, Thursday, May 19 at 7:30 pm, Saturday, May 21 at 7:30 pm, Sunday, May 22 at 2:00 pm.
Theatre: Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa
Tickets: $35 to $185
La Traviata will be sung in Italian with English supertitles. A preview of the performance with Opera Pacific’s chorusmaster Henri Venanzi is held one hour prior to each performance.
Opera in the Raw
Date: Wednesday, May 18 at 8:00 pm
Theatre: Founders Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa
Tickets: $48
To Purchase Tickets for All Performances
Phone – 1-800-34-OPERA (1-800-346-7372)
Box office – Orange County Performing Arts Center Box Office, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa
Groups – (714) 830-6361
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