Hearn Joins LuPone & Stokes Mitchell in ANNIE...GUN for Ravinia Fest., 8/13

As previously announced, this year's Ravinia Festival includes a new production of the musical Annie Get Your Gun; a gala concert celebrating Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday and featuring highlights from Ravinia's Sondheim productions; Ravinia Music Director James Conlon's 60th birthday celebration taking the Chicago Symphony Orchestra into the Martin Theatre for two Mozart operas, featuring mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade in Così fan tutte and baritone Nathan Gunn in The Marriage of Figaro; Leonard Bernstein's Vocal Suite from Candide; Broadway vocalist Kelli O'Hara and pianist Hershey Felder in intimate solo shows in the Martin Theatre; world premieres with Concert Dance, Inc. and the debut of Delfos Danza Contemporánea; the presentation of Ballet Folklorico de Mexico; and a national radio broadcast of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion.

Today, the Ravinia organization revealed that George Hearn has been added to the cast of Annie Get Your Gun as Buffalo Bill Cody, joining Patti LuPone as Annie Oakley and Brian Stokes Mitchell as Frank Butler. Paul Gemignani will conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the show's three performances, Aug. 13-15. Hearn and LuPone also reunite with Michael Cerveris, Audra McDonald and the CSO for an all-Sondheim gala concert on July 31.

Season Details are as follows:

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN
On Aug. 13, the very date that wild-West legend Annie Oakley would  have celebrated her 150th birthday, Ravinia opens its three-day run  of Irving Berlin's hit-filled Broadway classic Annie Get Your Gun.  Taking on her third Merman role, Patti LuPone stars as the sharp-  shooter opposite Brian Stokes Mitchell as Frank Butler. The  production is directed by Lonny Price with Paul Gemignani leading the  Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

With music and lyrics written by Irving Berlin, and a book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields, Annie Get Your Gun tells the fictionalized tale of the sharpshooter whose talent led her to a starring role in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in the 1880s. The score includes such classics as "There's No Business Like Show Business," "Anything You Can Do" and "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun." Directed by Joshua Logan, the original 1946 production starred Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton.
With her bigger-than-life vocalism, LuPone is the obvious heiress to the mantle of the legendary Ethel Merman, winning a Drama Desk Award and Tony nomination for Anything Goes and a Tony Award for her take on Mama Rose from Gypsy, a role she first created at Ravinia before taking it to Broadway.

Dubbed "the last leading man" by the New York Times, stage, film and television star Mitchell returns to Ravinia to play Oakley's competitive suitor, Butler, for the first time. A Tony Award-winner for Best Actor in Kiss Me, Kate, he recently appeared on the PBS special Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square last December.

Price has earned great acclaim for Ravinia's Sondheim productions, several of which have been re-staged for the New York stage and for television, with Emmy Awards going to Sweeney Todd and Passion. Longtime Sondheim collaborator and musical director of Ravinia's productions of Passion, Sunday in the Park, Anyone Can Whistle, Gypsy and Camelot, Gemignani returns to lead the CSO.

SONDHEIM GALA
Ravinia's 2010 Gala Benefit Evening will honor the 80th birthday of the great American composer Stephen Sondheim with a program reuniting the lager-than-life lineup of soloists who have been featured in Ravinia's Sondheim celebrations since they began in 2001. The evening reunites the on-stage and behind-the-scenes talent that created Ravinia's acclaimed productions of Sondheim's shows, several of which have gone on to other cities. This evening of Sondheim's "greatest hits" on July 31 stars LuPone, Michael Cerveris, Audra McDonald and George Hearn. Conductor Gemignani leads the CSO and Price will direct. The program will be selected from highlights from past Ravinia presentations of Sondheim shows including "Worst Pies," "Epiphany," "A Little Priest" and "Pretty Women" from Sweeney Todd; "You Must Meet My Wife," "Send in the Clowns," "Every Day A Little Death" and "In Praise of Women" from A Little Night Music; "Happiness" and "I Read" from Passion; "Finishing the Hat," "Color and Light" and "Children and Art" from Sunday in the Park with George; the title song from Anyone Can Whistle; and "Everything's Coming Up Roses" from Gypsy. In addition to the permanent screens in the pavilion, this concert will also feature screens on the lawn.

LuPone helped launch Ravinia's music theater initiative with the 2001 production of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd and has continued to play roles in the festival's productions as Desirée Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, Fosca in Passion, Yvonne in Sunday in the Park With George, Cora Hoover Hooper in Anyone Can Whistle and Mama Rose in Gypsy. LuPone took the role of Mama Rose to Broadway, winning the Tony Award and acknowledging Ravinia on the awards telecast.
Cerveris's first Ravinia appearance was playing the role of Giorgio in the 2003 production of Passion that inspired the Lincoln Center performance to feature Ravinia's lead cast of LuPone, Cerveris and McDonald and was later broadcast Live Nationally on PBS. Cerveris returned to Ravinia appearing as George in Sunday in the Park with George and Hapgood in Anyone Can Whistle. He also performed the title role in the Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd, opposite LuPone, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award.

Tony-Award winner McDonald performed her first Sondheim role in the New York Philharmonic's concert production of Sweeney Todd that traveled to San Francisco, where it was telecast nationally on PBS and nominated for an Emmy. She made her Ravinia debut in 1999 and returned to appear as Clara in Passion, Dot in Sunday in the Park with George and Fay Apple in Anyone Can Whistle. McDonald has also appeared at the festival in solo recitals and also alongside LuPone as well as Brian Stokes Mitchell at Ravinia's 2006 Gala. She can be seen as Dr. Naomi Bennett in the television series Private Practice.

Starring in the title role of Ravinia's first Sondheim production Sweeney Todd in 2001, Tony Award-winner Hearn has continued to appear in the festival's music Theater Productions playing Frederik Egerman in A Little Night Music, Tony in The Most Happy Fella and King Arthur in Camelot.

MOZART OPERAS IN THE MARTIN
Inspired by the wildly acclaimEd Martin Theatre presentations of Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio and Don Giovanni in 2008, Ravinia continues to celebrate opera with Mozart's Così fan tutte and The Marriage of Figaro featuring the CSO led by Conlon and joined by all-star casts as well as members of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. Both operas will be presented in the Martin Theatre and will receive two performances, Così on Aug. 5 and 7 and Figaro on Aug. 6 and 8.
Cosi fan tutte features "one of America's finest artists and singers" (New York Times), mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, portraying Despina; Grammy Award winning soprano Ana Maria Martinez, who last appeared at Ravinia with Plácido Domingo at the festival's 2007 Gala, as Fiordiligi; Romanian mezzo-soprano Ruxandra Donose, who recently appeared as Veronica Quaife in The Fly at L.A. Opera, making her Ravinia debut as Dorabella; Russian baritone Rodion Pogosov, who made his Metropolitan Opera debut playing Papageno in the 2004 production of Die Zauberflöte, portraying Guglielmo in his festival debut; Albanian tenor Saimir Pirgu, who made his US debut singing Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi at LA Opera, conducted by Conlon and directed by Woody Allen, appearing as Ferrando in his festival debut; and American bass-baritone John Del Carlo, last seen as Swallow in Peter Grimes at the Metropolitan Opera, portraying Don Alfonso.

The Marriage of Figaro features baritone Nathan Gunn, whose recent recording of Britten's Billy Budd won a Grammy Award, as the Count; Italian bass Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, who won rave reviews in Ravinia's 2008 concerts of Don Giovanni, portraying Figaro; Grammy Award winning soprano Rebecca Evans, who has performed with the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, Scottish Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Deutsche Staatsoper and more, as the Countess; soprano Lisette Oropesa, currently appearing in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and set to appear as Konstanze in The Abduction from the Seraglio at Tanglewood this summer, making her festival debut portraying Susanna; mezzo-soprano Lauren McNeese, who recently appeared at Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, to reprise her role of La Ciesca from the critically acclaimed Woody Allen production of Gianni Schicchi, making her Ravinia debut playing Cherubino; legendary tenor John Aler, who recently performed at the Cincinnati May Festival in Mozart's Requiem and Weill's Seven Deadly Sins, as Basilio; mezzo-soprano Jane Bunnell, who is currently appearing in the Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust, in her Ravinia debut as Marcellina; soprano Lei Xu, a Juilliard School attendee who appeared in a master class led by Renée Fleming, making her festival debut playing Barbarina; and bass-baritone John Del Carlo, as Bartolo.

CANDIDE
Commemorating the 20th anniversary of the death of Leonard Bernstein, Ravinia presents his Vocal Suite from Candide featuring the CSO conducted by John Axelrod with the Lakeside Singers and a cast of vocalists on July 23. Axelrod conducted the premiere performances of Bernstein's Candide (directed by Robert Carsen) at Paris's Théâtre du Châtelet and Milano's Teatro alla Scala.
The Vocal Suite features soprano Anna Christy, last seen in Ravinia's 2008 production of Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio, as Cunegonde; vocalist Kim Criswell, who has performed as soloist with orchestras and featured on the Broadway stage, making her Ravinia debut portraying the Old Lady; Ravinia Steans Institute alum tenor Nicholas Phan, who has performed at the New York City Opera, L.A. Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Atlanta Opera and more, as Candide; legendary tenor John Aler, who recently performed at the Cincinnati May Festival in Mozart's Requiem and Weill's Seven Deadly Sins, as the Governor/Vanderdendur; mezzo-soprano Kathryn Leemhuis, currently appearing in Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, making her festival debut playing Paquette; and baritone Jonathan Beyer, who has appeared at Pittsburgh Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Fort Worth Opera and Opera Santa Barbara, portraying Maximillian. This concert will also feature supertitles.

MUSIC IN THE MARTIN
After making her Ravinia debut last year in a tribute to Rodgers & Hammerstein, Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics award-nominated soprano Kelli O'Hara returns to perform in a one-woman show on Aug. 4 in the Martin Theatre. She recently starred in the Tony Award-winning revival of South Pacific at Lincoln Center, enrapturing audiences and critics alike with her soulful and complex interpretation of Nellie Forbush and garnering a third Tony nomination in the process. Other Broadway credits include The Pajama Game, Light in the Piazza, Sweet Smell of Success, Dracula, Jekyll & Hyde and Follies.

Pianist, actor, playwright, composer and producer Hershey Felder returns to perform his one-man show Maestro: The Art and Music of Leonard Bernstein on Sept. 7 in the Martin Theatre. Broadway star Felder has thrilled Ravinia audiences with his theatrical and musical one-man shows based on the lives and music of composers Chopin, Gershwin and Beethoven. He is on the board of directors of the Chicago College of Performing Arts and has been a scholar in residence at Harvard University's Department of Music.

DANCE AT RAVINIA
Ravinia's 2010 dance lineup celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution and the 200th anniversary of Mexican independence. These programs are also part of Ravinia's Ruth Page Festival of Dance celebrating the late dancer/choreographer.

Ravinia Festival and the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University (ATRU), two of Chicago's legendary 100-plus year-old venues, join forces for the first time to present the colorful and captivating Ballet Folklórico de México for two performances only, March 13 and 14. This vibrant celebration of Mexican culture plays the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress Parkway, Chicago. Since Ballet Folklórico's founding, the company has presented more than 15,000 performances before an aggregate audience in excess of 22 million. Hernández's enormous body of work, noted for its brilliant theatricality and passion, was influenced by her deep knowledge and love of traditional folkloric dances. Throughout her life, Hernández regularly refined and renewed her work, a tradition continued today by her family. The result is a recreation of Mexican traditions on stage, preserving the diversity and character found throughout the many regions of Mexico.
Concert Dance, Inc., the official performance company of The Ruth Page Foundation, celebrates Mexico and commemorates the 20th anniversary of the deaths of Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein with two world-premiere works on June 10, with a second performance on June 11. Irregular Pearls and Copland's El Salón México, arranged by Bernstein, are choreographed by CDI Artistic Director Venetia Stifler. Pianists Adam Marks and Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman join them for these performances.

Founded in 1992 by Mexican choreographers/dancers Claudia Lavista and Victor Manuel Ruiz, Delfos Danza Contemporánea has a vision of creating dynamic new works characterized by fluid physicality and dramatic narratives, as well as developing a professional training program for contemporary dancers. They make their Chicago debut at Ravinia on Aug. 27 with their piece Monólogos del Cuerpo, with additional performances on Aug. 28 and 29, all three shows in the festival's intimate Bennett • Gordon Hall. Their work has been presented throughout Mexico as well as Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Bolivia, Peru, Canada, United States, Italy, Spain, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea and Greece. The company has received the Mexican National Dance Award, were named Best Dance Company in Mexico by the Critics Union, the Artistic Merit Award in Brazil and the Best Show Audience Award at the XXV Lila López International Dance Festival.

A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
Just as people enjoyed Robert Altman's film inspired by Garrison Keillor's radio classic, audiences enjoy the real show at Ravinia. A Prairie Home Companion, the cornerstone of public radio from American Public Media, will be broadcast Live Nationally from the pavilion on July 3. Fans who only know the show from the airwaves can get up close and personal with characters like gumshoe Guy Noir, the neighbors from Lake Wobegon and such sponsors as Powder Milk Biscuits. This sly variety show effortlessly blends eclectic musical performances with old-time sketches and local humor, all swirling around the amiable and versatile former English major, Garrison Keillor.

Ravinia has created concert/dining packages pairing music with food. Back by popular demand, these packages include a reserved-seat ticket and dinner in the Mirabelle restaurant, famous for its elegant chef's table buffet. The nights selected for these packages include such concerts as Così fan tutte on Aug. 7 ($90, brunch); The Marriage of Figaro on Aug. 8 ($90, brunch); and Delfos Danza Contemporánea on Aug. 27 and 28 ($60).

Tickets to all Ravinia Festival events are on sale exclusively at www.ravinia.org. Phone sales begin on May 23 at 847-266-5100. A $7 service fee is added to all ticket orders. Ravinia Festival is located at Lake Cook and Green Bay roads in Highland Park. For more information, please visit www.ravinia.org. Ravinia welcomes all festival fans to follow, connect and interact online at backstage.ravinia.org, twitter.com/raviniafestival, myspace.com/raviniafestival and facebook.com (search Ravinia Festival). Ravinia Festival is a not-for-profit organization.