'Don Giovanni' : Chicago Opera Theatre : April 30th

 On April 30th, 2008 Chicago Opera Theater will open their 34th season, and their 5th season at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park, with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni. Chicago, Opera Theater specializes in fresh interpretations of classic operas to make the story as universal and relatable as the day it was first performed. Don Giovanni is no exception, taking place in a modern day, decadent nightclub where the themes and characters are easily familiar to a contemporary audience.
 
"The characters in Don Giovanni are universal and as recognizable to us today as they were to the first audience in Prague more than two hundred years ago," says General Director Brian Dickie."Setting Don Giovanni in contemporary times simply opens up the connection of this Mozart masterpiece to a wider audience."
 
Don Giovanni marks the completion of the trilogy of Mozart/da Ponte operas from the team of Jane Glover and Diane Paulus after their acclaimed COT productions of Così fan tutte (2002) and Le nozze di Figaro (2005). Don Giovanni will mark the duo's seventh collaboration.
 
Jane Glover most recently conducted the New York City Opera's production of Purcell's King Arthur, directed by the legendary choreographer Mark Morris.  On March 31st at the Harris Theater, she leads Bach's St. Matthew Passion with Music of the Baroque, where she serves as Music Director.
 
Diane Paulus is currently at English National Opera directing Lost Highway by Olga Neuwirth based on the film by David Lynch. This summer she stages Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate for Glimmerglass Opera.
 
Creating the exclusive and fashionable world of Don Giovanni is set designer Riccardo Hernandez, whose Broadway credits include Caroline, or Change, Topdog/Underdog and Elaine Stritch: At Liberty; costume designer David Woolard whose Broadway credits include All Shook Up, 700 Sundays and The Rocky Horror Show for which he was nominated for a Tony; and lighting designer Aaron Black who has designed for Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Bilbao, and Opera Pittsburgh, as well as his award-winning work with the Classical Theatre of Harlem.

Making his American debut as Don Giovanni is Iain Paterson one of Europe's leading young bass-baritones, who made his successful debut at last year's Salzburg Easter Festival as Fasolt in Das Rheingold.
 
Matt Boehler sings Leporello. He made his Opera Theatre of St. Louis debut last summer in The Mikado. Canadian Michael Colvin who plays Don Ottavio was last seen at COT in 2006 in Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio.  He has been hailed in Opera News as having "one of the most beautiful young lyric tenor instruments around." Singing Donna Anna is Rhoslyn Jones who made her San Francisco Opera debut last season singing the role of Frasquita in Carmen and with the Arizona Opera in the title role of Floyd's Susannah.  Andrew Funk was recently cast as Il Commendatore (replacing Kevin Langan who is indisposed). Funk is a frequent guest artist with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, most recently as One Armed Man in Die Frau ohne Schatten. Rising superstar Isabel Leonard sings Zerlina. She recently made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as a soloist in Mozart's C Minor Mass, conducted by Esa Pekka Salonen, and will perform with the CSO again on April 4th and 6th  in Berlioz' Roméo et Juliette, conducted by Valery Gergiev. Singing Donna Elvira is Krisztina Szabó, who starred alongside Samuel Ramey in COT's production of Duke Bluebeard's Castle last season and who recently sang Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos with Stadttheater Klagenfurt in Austria. Ben Wager, in the role of Masetto, sang Monterone in Rigoletto with Opera New Jersey in February, and will spend this summer as a member of the prestigious Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera.
 
Chicago Opera Theater presents Don Giovanni for 5 performances on April 30, May 3, 6, 9, and 11, 2008. The 2008 Spring Season continues with the Midwest premiere of John Adams' A Flowering Tree, May 14 through 25 and Handel's Orlando, May 28 through June 8.

Season Subscriptions for the 2008 Spring Season range from $90-$345 which include a ticket to all three operas. Individual tickets to each show are now on sale and range from $35-$120 (prices subject to change).  COT also offers a 50% discounted student rate in most sections. Tickets may be purchased online at ChicagoOperaTheater.org and by phone at 312.704.8414. Tickets may also be purchased at the HarrisTheaterChicago.org.
 

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