The Opera Orchestra of New York Presents Wagner's Rienzi at Avery Fisher Hall, 1/29

 The Opera Orchestra of New York continues its 41st season with an opera-in-concert performance of Wagner's Rienzi conducted by Music Director Laureate, Eve Queler at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 2:00 p.m.  The opera, based on the life of Cola di Rienz (1313–1354), the Italian medieval politician and popular leader of the Roman people whose goal was to transform society by raising the power of the people, stars tenor Ian Storey in the title role, with soprano Elisabete Matos as Irene and mezzo-soprano Geraldine Chauvet in her US debut as Adriano.  All three artists will be making their Opera Orchestra of New York debuts.

Single tickets priced from $35 to $165 can be purchased online by visiting www.operaorchestrany.org orwww.carnegiehall.org, or by calling the Opera Orchestra of New York's box office at 212-906-9137.

Rienzi, one of Eve Queler's signature operas, was first performed by The Opera Orchestra of New York in 1980 at Carnegie Hall and again in 1982 at Avery Fisher Hall and the Kennedy Center. Following the Kennedy Center performance The Washington Post reported, "Grand Rienzi: Eve Queler's Crowd-Pleasing Wagner...the near capacity crowd was storming and cheering," and music critic Byron Belt also remarked, "Rienzi set off skyrockets that sent most of the audience into the night buzzing with excitement. Thank you, Eve Queler, for an unforgettable experience!" The next performance of Rienzi by the Opera Orchestra of New York was at Carnegie Hall in 1992 and introduced German soprano Dorothea Roschmann as the Messenger of Peace. It has been Ms. Queler's tradition to feature a young upcoming soprano in the role, and since singing the Messenger of Peace, Ms. Roschmann has gone on to sing at the Metropolitan Opera and at major concert halls worldwide.

For this performance of Rienzi, the title role will be sung by the Wagnerian heldentenor Ian Storey, who recently sang the role of Siegfried in the San Francisco Opera's Ring Cycle. Soprano Elisabete Matos, who recently made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Minnie in Puccini's La Fanciulla Del West, will sing Irene, the highest role Wagner wrote for soprano, and French mezzo soprano Gabrielle Chauvet will make her U.S. debut in the trouser role, Adriano. Young soprano Emily Duncan-Brown will be featured in the performance as the Messenger of Peace and rounding out the cast will be bass-baritone Philip Horst as Stefano Colonna, bass-baritone Brandon Cedel as Raimondo, baritone Shannon Devine as Cecco Del Vecchio and tenor Jonathan Winell as Baroncelli.  They will be joined by The New York Choral society and the West Point Cadet Glee Club who will march into the hall singing the vigorous soldiers chorus.

            The Opera Orchestra of New York was established in 1971 by Eve Queler, the company's Conductor Laureate, to present to rarely-heard operas and provide the public with an opportunity to hear them performed in major concert venues. Among the Opera Orchestra's numerous U.S. premieres are Puccini's Edgar with Carlo Bergonzi and Renata Scotto; Boito's Nerone with James Morris and Pablo Elvira; and Smetana's Libuse with Gabriela Benacková and Paul Plishka. The company also performed the New Yorkpremiere of Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans, with Dolora Zajick and Jorma Hynninen, which was also the American premiere of the Russian language version.  The ensemble has also presented works long neglected in New York, such as Wagner's Rienzi, Verdi's I Lombardi, Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles, and Catalani's La Wally. These pioneering efforts have led national opera companies such as the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric and Houston Grand Opera to add to their permanent repertoires works that received their first major modern hearing by The Opera Orchestra of New York including I lombardi, Donizetti's La Favorita, Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini, Dvo?ák's Rusalka and Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina.

       The Opera Orchestra of New York was also established as a means to identify and foster young operatic talent, providing young singers with an opportunity to rehearse and perform with full orchestra and chorus. The Opera Orchestra of New York has nurtured the talents of Renée Fleming, Aprile Millo, Vivica Genaux, Deborah Voigt, Latonia Moore, Stephen Costello, Michael Fabiano, Bryan Hymel and Eglise Gutiérrez. Other singers who have worked with Opera Orchestra very early in their careers include José Carreras, Barbara Hendricks, DWayne Croft, Samuel Ramey and James Morris. Singers who made their U.S. or New York debuts with Opera Orchestra include Gabriela Benacková, Stephanie Blythe, Olga Borodina, Ghena Dimitrova, Jane Eaglen, Carlo Guelfi, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Vesselina Kasarova, Paul Plishka, Rosalind Plowright and Krassimira Stoyanova and Dolora Zajick.

            Eve Queler is internationally recognized for her ground-breaking work with the Opera Orchestra and as a guest conductor of symphonic and opera repertoire at venues that span the international musical world. She has conducted more than 100 operas in concert at Carnegie Hall, many of which are rarely performed, bringing them to the attention of the American public and introducing them to the standard repertoire. Ms. Queler has conducted at opera companies worldwide, including Oper Frankfurt, Oper Bonn, Kirov Opera, Hamburg Oper, Rome Opera, and the Australian Opera; and has led the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, and the Orchestra Sinfonia Siciliana in Palermo, Italy.  Ms. Queler championed many Russian and Czech operas unknown in the U.S. and was the first conductor in America to perform Mussorgsky's unfinishedKhovanshchina with orchestration by Shostakovich, as well as the first Czech-language performance of Janacek's Katya Kabanovain 1979, Jenufa in 1988 and Dvorak's Rusalka in 1987. Ms. Queler recently made her conducting debut at the Puccini Festival, Torre del Lago leading Puccini's Madama Butterfly. 

           In October 2010, Ms. Queler was named a National Endowment for the Arts Opera Honoree for her focus on rarely performed operas and for her dedication to emerging singers, which she has brought to her work as music director, and now Conductor Laureate of the Opera Orchestra of New York. This award for Lifetime Achievement in Opera is considered the nation's highest honor in opera and salutes our nation's cultural treasures. Ms. Queler has been named a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, one of the highest awards presented by the French government, for her commitment to French operas.