Ethan Peck, Florencia Lozano and Steven Rattazzi Set for Salon/Sanctuary's HEIRS OF TANTALUS Tonight

SALON/SANCTUARY CONCERTS opens its fifth season with Ethan Peck, Florencia Lozano and Steven Rattazzi, joining Grammy-nominated musicians Jory Vinikour and José Lemos in the return of "THE HEIRS OF TANTALUS" tonight, September 19 and the 21st, 2013.

From the House of Atreus to the Palace of Nero, this will be a delightfully depraved brew of myth, decadence, and corruption.

Featuring:

Ethan Peck as Orestes/Nero
Steven Rattazzi as Suetonius
Florencia Lozano as Clytemnestra/Agrippina

JESSICA GOULD, soprano
JOSÉ LEMOS, countertenor
JORY VINIKOUR, harpsichord
Members of the SEBASTIANS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Script by Erica Gould from Aeschylus, Euripides, and Suetonius
Music by Handel, Scarlatti, and Monteverdi
Stage Direction by Erica Gould
Program Concept by Erica Gould, Jessica Gould, and José Lemos

The concerts are set for TONIGHT, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013 and SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2013 at 8:00pm at THE BROAD STREET BALLROOM, a former bank designed to replicate a Roman villa, 41 Broad Street, NYC 10004. Tickets: $25-$100 can be purchased on the Salon/Sanctuary website www.salonsanctuary.org or by calling Showclix at 1 888/718-4253.

Gregory Peck's grandson Ethan Peck (Ten Things I Hate About You), Florencia Lozano (One Life to Live, Red Dog Howls, Dirty Story), and OBIE-award winner Steven Rattazzi (The Venture Brothers) join soprano Jessica Gould, countertenor José Lemos, Grammy-nominated harpsichordist Jory Vinikour, and members of The Sebastians Chamber Orchestra to open the fifth season of Salon/Sanctuary Concerts with an expanded run of the critically acclaimed site-specific opera-theatre project, The Heirs of Tantalus: From the House of Atreus to the Palace of Nero. Director Erica Gould (Neil LaBute's autobahn andStand Up, Dirty Paki Lingerie) stages the piece environmentally at the monumental Broad Street Ballroom--a repurposed bank originally designed to replicate a Roman temple. The script (constructed by the director), is drawn from text by Aeschylus, Euripides, and Suetonius. The music is by Handel, Monteverdi, and Scarlatti.

The interdisciplinary piece (conceived by Jessica Gould, Jose Lemos, and Erica Gould), explores the symmetry between the mythic characters of The Oresteia and the actual lives of historical figures living centuries later, illuminating the ways in which the political corruption and family intrigue of Nero's depraved court was eerily prefigured in the plays of the Greek tragedians, exploring the parallels and resonances of both Greek Tragedy and Roman History with the American political landscape of today. With the Truman Capote-like Roman historian Suetonius as our entertaining no-holds-barred witness and guide, his bitingly funny First century reportage intertwines with the soaring language of Aeschylus and Euripides and hauntingly beautiful music from operas and cantatas about Nero to create a funny, thrilling evening of music, drama, politics, and spectacle.

As the project's creators explain, "The degree to which the real relationship between Nero and his mother Agrippina parallels the mythic relationship between Orestes and Clytemnestra is uncanny. And Nero was apparently completely aware that he was playing out the story of the house of Atreus. As an amateur actor, Nero actually often played Orestes-his favorite role-and Suetonius tells us that when Nero set fire to Rome-the ultimate theatrical spectacle-he watched the conflagration from the "Mount of Mycenae," putting on his tragedian's costume and singing "The Fall of Troy" from beginning to end. As we leap forward in time, Baroque composers, in an attempt to recreate what they thought the Ancient Greek theatre must have been like, revisit these stories in their creation of the operatic form. Most often they chose themes from classical mythology, not history, but Nero, whose actual crimes not only mirror, but dwarf any myth the Ancient Greek imagination could conjure, was a subject to whom they return again and again."

Ethan Peck is the grandson of the late great Hollywood icon, Gregory Peck. From 2009 to 2010 he starred as Patrick Verona on "Ten Things I Hate About You," the ABC Family TV series, has guest starred on Gossip Girl, and in 2012 played Prince Maxon for the pilot adaptation of the popular book series. Film credits include Aaron Woodley'sTennessee with Mariah Carey and Adam Rothenberg, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival, Adopt a Sailor with Peter Coyote and Bebe Neuwirth (for which he received the Best Actor award at the 2009 Sonoma International Film Festival), The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Twelve, In Time, The Wine of Summer, Mine Games, and the soon-to-be-released films Nothing Left to Fear (with Anne Heche, Clancy Brown and James Tupper) and Eden. NY theatre credits include Anna Ziegler's The Minotaur with Jill Clayburgh, Mario Cantone, and Campbell Scott directed by Erica Gould. Also a trained classical musician, Ethan plays the cello.

Florencia Lozano's theatre credits include Red Dog Howls (NYTW), Macbeth(Delacorte), Dirty Story (LAByrinth), Where's My Money? (LAByrinth/MTC), Massacre: Sing To Your Children (LAB/Public), Last Easter (MCC), Right You Are... (National Actors' Theatre), Privilege (Second Stage), Mimesophobia (SPF). Film & TV: The Ministers,Veronika Decides To Die, Perfect Stranger, Deception, "Guilty," "Blue Bloods," "Royal Pains," "Ugly Betty," "Lipstick Jungle," "Gossip Girl," Law & Order: CI, SVU," "One Life To Live" (Téa Delgado). Playwright: underneathmybed (Rattlestick 2010, HOLA's award, Best New Play). Member of LAByrinth Theater Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Usual Suspect. BA Brown University; MFA, NYU.

Steven Rattazzi: New York: Galileo (CSC w/F. Murray Abraham), The Tempest (Target Margin), Spy Garbo (3LD), Walk Across America for Mother Earth (Taylor Mac), Henry V (NYSF w/Liev Schrieber), David Adjmi's Stunnning (Lincoln Center), Painted Snake on a Painted Chair (OBIE, Talking Band), Dinner Party (dir.David Herskovits), The Tempest (w/Mandy Patinkin), New Islands Archipelago (dir.Paul Zimet), Age of Iron (dir.Brian Kulick), Therese Raquin (dir.David Esbjornson), McGurk (ERS), The Fourth Sister (dir.Lisa Peterson), Samuel's Major Problems (Richard Foreman). Regional: Marie Antoinette (A.R.T and Yale Rep), The Lovesong of J. Robert Oppenheimer (dir.MarK Wing-Davey), Really Rosie (Maurice Sendak). TV: The Venture Brothers (Dr. Orpheus).

JOSÉ LEMOS was awarded both a 2003 and 2004 Tanglewood Music Fellowship, where he made his USA operatic debut in Zuidam's Rage D'Amours and in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream as Oberon. He was the First Prize Winner and the Audience Prize Winner of the 2003 International Baroque Singing Competition of Chimay, Belgium, made his European debut in 2005 at the Zürich Opernhaus as Nireno in Giulio Cesare in Egitto under the baton of Marc Minkowski, his debut as a soloist at Carnegie Hall in Mozart's Coronation Mass in 2009, and his debut at Avery Fisher Hall in Carl Orff's Carmina Burana in 2010. Mr Lemos has performed many roles with Les Arts Florissants at Teatro Real in Madrid, Salle Pleyel in Paris, on tour across Europe, and on DVD with Virgin/EMI. Other credits include appearances at the Aldeburgh Festival in England Purcell's Faerie Queen under the baton of Harry Bicket, Narciso in Handel's Agrippinaconducted by Marc Minkowski at Zürich and Royal Festival Hall, Ottone in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea with the Seattle Early Music Guild directed by Stephen Stubbs, and Tolomeo in Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto conducted by Nicolas McGegan at the Göttingen Handel Festspiele in Germany. With the Boston Early Music Festival, Lemos sang the roles of Nerea in the 2011 production of Niobe, the Spirit in Purcell's Dido & Aeneas in 2010, and Silène in the 2007 production of Lully's Psyche which was released on the German label CPO and nominated for a 2009 Grammy Award.

JESSICA GOULD, Soprano/SSC Artistic Director, has been noted for "a dramatic intensity that honored the texts" (The New York Times), for "expansive range, coloratura facility, and multi-hued, powerful sound" (Seen and Heard International), "astonishing ornaments and passaggi, executed to perfection" (Lute News, UK), and "crystalline sounds" and for having "reached the heart of an enrapturEd English audience" (Traditional Music Maker, UK). With Roger Rees and the Paul Dresher Ensemble, she can be heard on the New World Records CD Tell the Birds, featuring music of Eve Beglarian. Chamber music performances include The Clarion Society, Sinfonia New York, The Four Nations Ensemble, The Virginia Arts Festival, The Guggenheim Works & Process Series with The Cassatt Quartet, and The Beinecke Library at Yale University, as well as guest soloist appearances with numerous ensembles. Presenters abroad include the Festival Martedì in Arte at the Palazzo Davanzati, the Museo di Arte Sacra in Tuscany, and the Library of the Museo di San Marco of Florence. Operatic performances include Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Herz in The Impresario, the title role of Handel's Semele, and Poppea in Handel's Agrippina. As Founder and Artistic Director of Salon/Sanctuary Concerts, she creates and is awarded grants for many original programs featuring repertoire from the 8th to 18th centuries, and serves as writer, music researcher, and translator.

Erica Gould's directing credits include the world premieres of Neil LaBute's plays autobahn and Stand Up (w/ Mos Def), SpeakEasy (Joe's Pub/Public Theater), Max and the Truffle Pig (NYMF),What Light From Darkness Grows by Janine Carter w/ Phylicia Rashad and Harry Lennix (NPR--Gracie Allen Award), At War: American Playwrights Respond to Iraq by Rajiv Joseph, Jose Rivera, others (Bleecker Street Theater/The Fire Dept), Dirty Paki Lingerie, which she developed with writer/solo performer Aizzah Fatima (productions in Toronto, Edinburgh, The Cherry Lane, 59E59, The Flea), and the direction and fight choreography for On Point: From Sword Fight to Pas de Deux, an original dance-theatre piece developed in collaboration with New York City Ballet dancers Jared Angle & Megan LeCrone (Salon/Sanctuary). Erica has directed and fight-choreographed numerous productions of Shakespeare, and Jacobean and Restoration playwrights, including Troilus and Cressida (NY Stage & Film), The Beggar's Opera (Pace),The Rover (The New School), The Comedy of Errors (Hudson Guild), The Tempest (Fordham), Pericles (NJ Shakespeare), and As You Like It (Shakespeare Theatre ACA). She was a featured speaker, along with Rick Sordelet, for the SDCF/American Theatre Wing Masters of the Stage panel on Physical Staging and Fight Direction (available as a podcast at americantheatrewing.org).

JORY VINIKOUR is recognized as one of the outstanding harpsichordists of his generation. Born in Chicago, he came to Paris on a Fulbright scholarship to study with Huguette Dreyfus and Kenneth Gilbert. First Prizes in the International Harpsichord Competitions of Warsaw (1993) and the Prague Spring Festival (1994) brought him to the public's attention, and he has since appeared in festivals and concert series, and as soloist with major orchestras, throughout much of the world. He has recently appeared as conductor with the Juilliard415 Baroque orchestra at Carnegie Hall, as well as with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He has collaborated with many major artists, notably Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. His solo recordings have been widely praised in the international press. His recording of the complete works of Jean-Philippe Rameau (Sono Luminus, 2012) has been nominated for a Grammy in the field of Best Classical Solo Intrumental Recording.

THE SEBASTIANS recently garnered praise from James Oestreich of The New York Times: "The Sebastians trail accolades...of the demand for this group, there can be little doubt." Noted for their "well-thought-out articulation and phrasing" (Early Music Review) and "elegant string playing... immaculate in tuning and balance" (Early Music Today), the Sebastian Chamber Players (Sebastians) specialize in music of the Baroque and Classical eras and newly commissioned works for period instruments. They recently won the Audience Prize at the 2012 Early Music America Baroque Performance Competition, and were finalists in the 2011 York International Early Music Competition and the 2011 Early Music America/Naxos Recording Competition. For the tricentennial of the publication of Antonio Vivaldi's L'Estro Armonico, the Sebastians commissioned composer Robert Honstein to write a companion suite, which they premiered alongside Vivaldi's work in December 2011. The suite receives its NY premiere on November 20, 2013 at Columbia University's Italian Academy. This past season they presented a series of thematic concerts as artists-in-residence at Emanuel Lutheran Church in Manchester, CT. They were recently named the residence ensemble at All Angels' Church in New York City. In addition to several concerts with Salon/Sanctuary, they have participated in the Carnegie Hall Professional Training Workshop with L'Arpeggiata and performed at Music Matters at LaGrua Center in Stonington, CT, Friends of Music at Pequot Library in Southport, CT, Juilliard in Aiken in Aiken, SC., and in the Twelfth Night Festival and Concerts@One at Trinity Wall Street in NYC.

Salon/Sanctuary Concerts: Founded in 2009 by Artistic Director Jessica Gould as an alternative to the conventional concert hall, SALON/SANCTUARY CONCERTS offers the special chance to hear pre-Romantic music in intimate venues that complement the historical context of the repertoire. In just four years, the series has expanded from a six to eleven concert season, and evolved into a critically praised presenter of site-specific concerts and innovative interdisciplinary projects. Pleased to present special events that cast a light on historical issues through the prism of music, the series takes pride in many special performances featuring luminaries from the worlds of opera, theater, film, and dance. Having garnered critical praise for its innovative programming, Salon/Sanctuary continues to attract a diverse audience for its path-breaking offerings.

Recent events include its critically praised fourth season opening event, which featured Metropolitan Opera countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, NYCB Principal Dancer Jared Angle, and Met harpsichordist and assistant conductor Bradley Brookshire; and the December 2011 performance of More Between Heaven and Earth, a site-specific interdisciplinary performance based on the letters of Thomas Jefferson and Maria Cosway, starring internationally acclaimed film actor Matthew Modine and TONY-Award nominated actresses Melissa Errico and Kathleen Chalfant, directed by Erica Gould.

Broad Street Ballroom: 37-41 Broad Street was constructed in 1928-29 as the Headquarters of the Lee-Higginson Bank and is recognized today as "the most impressible building on Broad Street." The building embodies characteristics of the austere late 1920's Classical Revival style office building. It is notable for its handsome and well-designed facade. It was designed by architects Cross and Cross Architects, who were for their major office buildings. Two noted artists, Leo Friedlander (sculpture) and Griffith Baily Coale (mural), contributed works that add to the significance of the building.

37-41 Broad Street is located on the east side of Broad Street between Exchange Place and Beaver Street, one block south of the New York Stock Exchange. It is located at a gentle bend in the road; its facade is slightly curved to follow the bend. It is a nine story building with a tenth story penthouse that is set back from the facade. The facade is largely intact including banking doors, bronze windows and architectural detailing. 37-41 Broad Street exhibits the characteristics of the Classical Revival style; it is symmetrically organized with classically derived details that are stately and proper (non-whimsical) in composition.

In 2003 the space was taken over by MetSchools, Inc, a private education company with plans to use the entire 120,000 square foot space for creating the first ever Pre K-8 private school below Canal Street. After a two year renovation and restoration, the building has been brought back to its former glory, specifically in the banking hall (now known as the Broad Street Ballroom), where previous highlights such as thick bronze doors and breathtaking pillars were complimented with new features including a 200-light, Broadway-quality A/V production system, and restored porcelain-tile floors.