The Firebrand of Florence

The Collegiate Chorale Presents SOMETHING WONDERFUL 5/19

The Collegiate Chorale presents its 2011 Spring Concert Something Wonderful: An Evening of Broadway with Deborah Voigt, with featured guest artist Paolo Szot, conducted by Ted Sperling with the American Symphony Orchestra on Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 7pm at Carnegie Hall. (more...)

The Collegiate Chorale Presents SOMETHING WONDERFUL 5/19

The Collegiate Chorale presents its 2011 Spring Concert Something Wonderful: An Evening of Broadway with Deborah Voigt, with featured guest artist Paolo Szot, conducted by Ted Sperling with the American Symphony Orchestra on Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 7pm at Carnegie Hall. (more...)

A Firebrand of Florence: Victoria Clark

Victoria Clark talks about Kurt Weill, motherhood and teaching the next generation of artists. (more...)

Clark And Sperling Lead Bank Street Benefit Concert 3/23

Tony Award-winning actress and mother Victoria Clark and musical director, Ted Sperling will lend their talents for a one-night concert to benefit the Bank Street School for Children (610 West 112th Street) on Monday, March 23rd at 7PM. (more...)

BroadwayWorld.com's On This Day - March 22, 2010

Here are the Broadway, Off-Broadway and West End shows which opened on March 22 along with all of the upcoming show openings, closings and special events! (more...)

The next installment of The Town Hall's acclaimed Broadway by the Year Series will highlight the songs from the Great White Way during the year 1945. (more...)

KRYSTY SWANN et al. Sing at Opera Exposures' Spiritual Music Recital, April 22

Opera Exposures will present its first 2012 spiritual music recital on Sunday, April 22, at 3 PM at Saint Mark's Church, Second Avenue and 10th Street in Manhattan. Sopranos Natalie Bergeron, Krysty Swann and Cheryl Warfield will join tenor George Cornelius and Baritone Anthony Turner. Jonathan Kelly will be at the piano. The recital will be followed by a Reception and Dance with the cast. Tickets are $50 and $40 and include Reception and Dance Party with a live DJ immediately following the recital. Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling 917/402-8144 or visiting the Opera Exposures official website at www.operaexposures.org. They may also be purchased at the door. (more...)

Clark And Sperling Lead Bank Street Benefit Concert 3/23

Tony Award-winning actress and mother Victoria Clark and musical director, Ted Sperling will lend their talents for a one-night concert to benefit the Bank Street School for Children (610 West 112th Street) on Monday, March 23rd at 7PM. (more...)

Photo Coverage: The Firebrand of Florence

On March 12, 2009 at 7:00 p.m., The Collegiate Chorale appeared 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. (more...)

Nathan Gunn on 'FLORENCE', Bdwy and the Opera

Nathan Gunn talks about Broadway, Opera and teaching the next generation of singers (more...)

THE FIREBRAND OF FLORENCE Begins 3/12

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. (more...)

A Firebrand of Florence: Terrence Mann

Tony-nominee Terrence Mann talks about Kurt Weill, Ira Gershwin, and the rewards of being a teacher (more...)

THE FIREBRAND OF FLORENCE Begins 3/12

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. (more...)

THE THREEPENNY OPERA Opens At International City Theater

Filled with colorful criminals, biting social satire and a brilliant score, The Threepenny Opera opens International City Theatre's 2009 Season at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. Jules Aaron directs Michael Feingold's translation of the trailblazing musical by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill that became one of the most influential plays of the 20th Century. Darryl Archibald is musical director and Kay Cole choreographs the five-week run February 20 through March 22; low-priced previews begin February 17. First performed in 1928, Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera was a revolutionary musical theater masterpiece that mocked the bourgeois political movement of pre-Hitler Germany. Brecht's brittle, sardonic tale of beggars, thieves and prostitutes, adapted from the 1728 play The Beggar's Opera by John Gay, was a fierce social and political critique, and Weill's innovative score that fused American jazz with German cabaret captured the ironic tone of the lyrics. Part acid social criticism, part bittersweet romance, the now eighty-year old saga of 'Mack the Knife' and his entourage of criminals and whores has never lost its theatrical punch. 'It's a satire on capitalism and corruption told from the viewpoint of the 'little people',' notes Aaron. 'If there was ever time to revive this show, it's now. Michael [Feingold]'s translation is earthy, gritty and very funny. I think it's going to strike a chord with audiences.' (more...)

THE THREEPENNY OPERA Opens At International City Theater

Filled with colorful criminals, biting social satire and a brilliant score, The Threepenny Opera opens International City Theatre's 2009 Season at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. Jules Aaron directs Michael Feingold's translation of the trailblazing musical by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill that became one of the most influential plays of the 20th Century. Darryl Archibald is musical director and Kay Cole choreographs the five-week run February 20 through March 22; low-priced previews begin February 17. First performed in 1928, Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera was a revolutionary musical theater masterpiece that mocked the bourgeois political movement of pre-Hitler Germany. Brecht's brittle, sardonic tale of beggars, thieves and prostitutes, adapted from the 1728 play The Beggar's Opera by John Gay, was a fierce social and political critique, and Weill's innovative score that fused American jazz with German cabaret captured the ironic tone of the lyrics. Part acid social criticism, part bittersweet romance, the now eighty-year old saga of 'Mack the Knife' and his entourage of criminals and whores has never lost its theatrical punch. 'It's a satire on capitalism and corruption told from the viewpoint of the 'little people',' notes Aaron. 'If there was ever time to revive this show, it's now. Michael [Feingold]'s translation is earthy, gritty and very funny. I think it's going to strike a chord with audiences.' (more...)

Billy Dee Williams to Guest Star on CBS's NCIS

TVGuide reports that Billy Dee Williams has been cast in the CBS drama NCIS. In the episode airing this October, the actor will portray LJ, described as 'a World War II veteran and close friend of the Gibbs clan.' (more...)

A trove of hidden musical gems were eclipsed by Carousel in 1945, but Scott Siegel brought them all back in Monday's concert at Town Hall. (more...)

The Collegiate Chorale Presents SOMETHING WONDERFUL 5/19

The Collegiate Chorale presents its 2011 Spring Concert Something Wonderful: An Evening of Broadway with Deborah Voigt, with featured guest artist Paolo Szot, conducted by Ted Sperling with the American Symphony Orchestra on Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 7pm at Carnegie Hall. (more...)

KRYSTY SWANN et al. Sing at Opera Exposures' Spiritual Music Recital, April 22

Opera Exposures will present its first 2012 spiritual music recital on Sunday, April 22, at 3 PM at Saint Mark's Church, Second Avenue and 10th Street in Manhattan. Sopranos Natalie Bergeron, Krysty Swann and Cheryl Warfield will join tenor George Cornelius and Baritone Anthony Turner. Jonathan Kelly will be at the piano. The recital will be followed by a Reception and Dance with the cast. Tickets are $50 and $40 and include Reception and Dance Party with a live DJ immediately following the recital. Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling 917/402-8144 or visiting the Opera Exposures official website at www.operaexposures.org. They may also be purchased at the door. (more...)

The Collegiate Chorale Presents SOMETHING WONDERFUL 5/19

The Collegiate Chorale presents its 2011 Spring Concert Something Wonderful: An Evening of Broadway with Deborah Voigt, with featured guest artist Paolo Szot, conducted by Ted Sperling with the American Symphony Orchestra on Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 7pm at Carnegie Hall. (more...)