Kate Lindsey and Michael Spyres Join Utah Symphony in DAMNATION OF FAUST Tonight

Mezzo Soprano Kate Lindsey, a veteran of the Metropolitan Opera, and Michael Spyres, called "one of today's finest tenors" by French Opera magazine join the Utah Symphony tonight and tomorrow, September 27 and 28 at Abravanel Hall in Hector Berlioz's dramatic interpretation of Goethe's tale of Faust and his fateful deal with the devil, The Damnation of Faust.

The Utah Symphony Chorus and Utah Opera Chorus lend their voices to the work, which is an ingenious combination of opera and oratorio that ranks among Berlioz's finest creations. In addition to the star power of Lindsey and Spyres who sings the role of Marguerite and Faust, three other operatic guest artists will join the cast, including Baritone Roderick Williams, whose talents have included appearances with all BBC orchestras, London Sinfonietta and the Philharmonia, performing Mephistopheles; and Bass-baritoneAdam Cioffari, a former member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. Newcomer Tara Stafford Spyres, a young coloratura soprano, just sang her first Mimi in Springfield Missouri's Regional Opera production ofLa Bohème.

La Damnation de Faust was last performed on the Utah Symphony Masterworks Series in 2003 as part of the company's Faust Festival.

TICKET INFORMATION

Single tickets for the performance range from $18 to $69 and can be purchased by phone at (801) 355-2787, in person at the Abravanel Hall ticket office (123 W. South Temple) or online by visitingwww.utahsymphony.org. $10 tickets are available to anyone 30 or younger through the USUO Upbeat and Youth Ticket programs. Season subscribers and those desiring group discounts should call (801) 533-6683. All ticket prices are subject to change and availability. Ticket prices are subject to change and will increase $5 when purchased on the day of the performance.

GUEST ARTIST BIOS

About Adam Cioffari, Bass-Baritone

Bass-Baritone Adam Cioffari also sings Brander in Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust later this season with the Tucson Symphony. He sings Zuniga in Carmen with Pensacola Opera and Dottore Grenvil in La Traviata with Florentine Opera and returns to Verdi's Requiem with the Boise Phiharmonic. Engagements in future seasons include his first Papageno in Die Zauberflöte in a return to the Teatro Municipal de Santiago.

Last season, he sang the Novice's Friend in Billy Budd with the Teatro Municipal de Santiago and a Flemish Deputy in Don Carlo at the Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse. He joined the Staatstheater Stuttgart for a number of roles including Masetto in DonGiovanni; Patrocle in Iphigénie en Aulide, Lakai, in Ariadne auf Naxos, Angelotti in Tosca, and the Gran Sacerdote in Nabucco.

While a member of the Komische Oper Berlin studio, he sang in productions that included Carmen, Seven Deadly Sins, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Salome, Pique Dame, La Traviata,Rigoletto, The Love for Three Oranges. Also while in Berlin, he sang Kaspar in Der Freischutzin student performances at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and de Suze in Maria di Rohan with the Berlin Opera Group. A former member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, he created the role of Stanley in the world premiere of Previn's Brief Encounter. Other performances with the company include Elviro in Xerxes, Angelotti inTosca, and Snug in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He has also sung Count Ceprano in concert performances of Rigoletto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.

About Kate Lindsey, Mezzo Soprano

This season, mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey sings her first performances of Berlioz' La Damnation de Faustwith the Utah Symphony and appears in concert with the Richmond Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and Boston Baroque. She also returns to the Seattle Opera as Nicklauss in Les Contes d'Hoffman and theBayerische Staatsoper as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

Ms. Lindsey has appeared in many of the world's prestigious opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Lille Opera, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and the Bayerische Staatsoper. Her repertoire includes Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Idamante in Idomeneo, Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito, Angelina in La Cenerentola, Hansel inHansel und Gretel, Kompanist in Ariadne auf Naxos, and the title role in Daron Hagen's Amelia which she created. She also recently starred in the Metropolitan Opera's HD broadcast of its new production of Les Contes d'Hoffmann and was featured in its broadcasts of La Clemenza di Tito and The Magic Flute.

An accomplished concert singer, Ms. Lindsey has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Met Chamber Orchestra (in Carnegie Hall), Cercle de l'Harmonie in Europe, and at the Tanglewood and Mostly Mozart festivals. In recital, she has been presented by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Rockefeller University in New York City.

A native of Richmond, Virginia, Ms. Lindsey holds a Bachelor of Music Degree with Distinction from Indiana University and is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

About Michael Spyres, Tenor

Michael Spyres was born in Mansfield (Missouri), where he grew up in a family of musicians. He began his studies in the U.S.A. and continued them at the Vienna Conservatory. He was a Young Artist with Opera Theatre Saint Louis, where he made his main stage operatic debut as Rodolfo in La Bohème.

In 2012-13, Michael Spyres debuted at the Liceu Barcelona as Hoffmann in a prestigious new production ofLes Contes d'Hoffmann. Other engagements include Faust in Berlioz' La damnation de Faust at the Vlaamse Opera, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and the 9th Symphony at the Carnegie Hall and in Costa Mesa with John Eliot Gardiner, Orombello in Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda at the Carnegie Hall, Masaniello inLa Muette de Portici in Bari, Verdi's Messa da Requiem in Porto, Leicester in Maria Stuarda in Washington,Candide at the Vlaamse Opera and Rodrigo in Rossini's La donna del lago for his Covent Garden debut and in concert at the Pesaro Rossini Festival, where he will also be singing a recital. In summer 2013, he will sing and record Arnold in Guillaume Tell at the Bad Wildbad Rossini Festival.

Performances of the 2013-14 season include La Damnation de Faust with Valery Gergiev in London, his debut at Lyric Opera Chicago as Alfred in Die Fledermaus, Gala Concerts at the Opéra Comique in Paris and at the Bad Wildbad Festival, Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle at the St Denis Festival as well as a new productions of Benvenuto Cellini at the English National Opera and Aureliano in Palmira at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro.

About Roderick Williams, Baritone

Roderick Williams encompasses a wide repertoire, from baroque to contemporary music, in the opera house, on the concert platform and in recital.

He enjoys relationships with all the major UK opera houses and is particularly associated with the baritone roles of Mozart. He has also sung world premieres of operas by, among others, David Sawer, Sally Beamish, Michael van der Aa, Robert Saxton and Alexander Knaifel.

Roderick Williams has sung concert repertoire with all the BBC orchestras, and many other ensembles including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Philharmonia, London Sinfonietta, Manchester Camerata, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé, Britten Sinfonia, Bournemouth Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Russian National Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Academy of Ancient Music, The Sixteen, Le Concert Spirituel, Rias Kammerchor and Bach Collegium Japan. His many festival appearances include the BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh and Melbourne.

Roderick Williams is an accomplished recital artist who can be heard at venues and festivals including the Wigmore Hall, the Perth Concert Hall, Howard Assembly Room, the Musikverein, Vienna and on Radio 3, where he has participated on Iain Burnside's Voices program.

His numerous recordings include Vaughan Williams, Berkeley and Britten operas for Chandos, Verdi's Don Carlos (conducted by Bernard Haitink) for Philips, and an extensive repertoire of English song with pianist Iain Burnside for Naxos. Roderick Williams is also a composer and has had works premiered at the Wigmore and Barbican Halls, the Purcell Room and live on national radio.

About Tara Stafford Spyres, Young Coloratura Soprano

Young Coloratura Soprano Tara Stafford Spyres just sang her first Mimi in La Bohème in Springfield (Missouri) in March 2011 and participated both in a Song Recital and in an Opera Gala alongside Elizabeth Connell and Michael Spyres at the Bad Urach Festival 2011 in Germany.

In March of 2013 Tara returned to the Springfield Regional Opera to sing her first Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata. In July she will join the Rossini Opera Festival in Bad Wildbad, Germany, singing the role of Jemmy in Guillaume Tell.

Mrs. Stafford Spyres is a native of Rogersville, Missouri and received her BM from Drury University and then continued her studies finishing with her MM from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. Subsequently, she has been a Young Artist member of the Springfield Regional Opera and also an apprentice with the Asheville Lyric Opera which shortly thereafter led to her debut in the ALO as Della in David Conte's The Gift of the Magi.

She has been seen in such varied roles as Laurie in The Tenderland, Cunegunde in Candide, The Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, Gilda in Rigoletto, Mrs. Nordstrom in A Little Night Music, Madeline/Isabelle in The Face On the Barroom Floor, and Jenny in Robert Ward's Roman Fever to name a few. Tara has also been seen as Beatrice in the premiere of Kevin Clark's chamber opera, Some Ado.

Tara Stafford Spyres has performed with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Springfield Symphony, Greensboro Opera, Opera in the Ozarks, Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, The Ozarks Chorale, the Asheville Symphony and the Asheville Lyric Opera in Asheville, NC.

In addition to her Operatic career, she has been involved in numerous productions ranging from Oratorio, Chamber Ensembles, Concerts, to Musicals.

Program

The Utah Symphony presents

Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust

Abravanel Hall, 123 West South Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah

Friday, September 27, 2013, 8:00 PM / Saturday, September 28, 2013, 8:00 PM

Thierry Fischer, Conductor

Michael Spyres, Faust

Kate Lindsey, Marguerite

Roderick Williams, Mephistopheles

Adam Cioffari, Brander

Tara Stafford Spyres, Celestial Voice

Utah Symphony Chorus

Pre-concert chat one hour before each concert with Music Director Thierry Fischer and Vice President of Symphony Artistic Planning Toby Tolokan.

HISTORY

It has been said before but it bears repeating. In the realm of secular, literature-based music, only one name can be reasonably suggested for the crown. That would be Shakespeare, of course, but the nextname on the list would undoubtedly be Goethe. Once translations of his great drama Faust began to travel the world, its status as a textual lodestone for composers was confirmed. Berlioz experienced the French version of Faust in the late 1820s and found it so compelling he read it constantly. It is no surprise that his first official opus was based on the Goethe story. This was the Eight Scenes from Faust (unfortunately a work Berlioz would eventually disown as juvenilia and attempt to personally destroy every copy of). By 1845, the composer was ready to treat the dearly held story to a much grander and more mature setting. The "dramatic legend" La damnation de Faust was completed in 1846 as a large-scale oratorio for orchestra, chorus and soloists. The premiere performances took place in December of that year to "half-empty houses" and Berlioz wrote of his disappointment with "the fashionable Paris audience" that continually treated him like an "obscure conservatory student." "Nothing in my career," he stated, "has wounded me more deeply than this unexpected indifference." It was a huge setback for Berlioz financially. He had paid for the performances personally and their failure left him ruined. Luckily, the rest of Europe greeted him kindly and found the new work thrilling and, most importantly, paid well to hear it. France too would eventually see the genius of Berlioz' version of the Faust legend, but sadly not while the composer lived.

Hector Berlioz La Damnation de Faust, op. 24

· Part I

· Part II

INTERMISSION

· Part III

· Part IV

About the Utah Symphony

Founded in 1940, the Utah Symphony is dedicated to providing Utah residents and visitors with great performances which engage, educate and enrich lives. Utah Symphony | Utah Opera, the orchestra's parent organization, reaches 450,000 citizens in Utah and the Intermountain region, with educational outreach programs serving more than 200,000 students annually. The orchestra presents more than 70 performances each season in Abravanel Hall, participates in the Utah Opera's four annual productions at the Capitol Theater, in addition to numerous community concerts throughout Utah and the annual outdoor summer series - the Deer Valley Music Festival -in Park City, Utah. With its many subscription, education and outreach concerts and tours, the Utah Symphony is one of the most engaged full-time orchestras in the nation. For more information visit www.utahsymphony.org.

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Season Sponsor for Utah Symphony | Utah Opera is the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation.

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