Opera San Antonino Announces Its 2014-2015 Inaugural Season, Which Includes FANTASTIC MR. FOX, SALOME, and More

Interim General Director Plato Karayanis and Artistic Director Tobias Picker announce OPERA San Antonio's inaugural season as the Resident Opera Company of the new Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. OPERA San Antonio will present three new productions for the 2014-15 season: Tobias Picker's Fantastic Mr. Fox, Richard Strauss's Salome and a double bill of Ermanno Wolf- Ferrari's Il segreto di Susanna and La voix humaine by Francis Poulenc.

Five years in the planning, OPERA San Antonio initiates a bold new chapter in the musical life of San Antonio. Founder and Chairman of the Board of OPERA San Antonio, Mel Weingart, commented ,"OPERA San Antonio is committed to producing opera of uncompromising quality. Opera is the culmination of all the arts---music, drama, voice, dance and theater. The arts nourish our souls and connect us as human beings. OPERA San Antonio will further enrich the cultural life of our community and the world of opera."

"We are honored to achieve the status of Resident Opera Company of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts", said Plato Karayanis. "This new complex is a great addition to San Antonio and will provide a premier setting for all the best in the performing arts. OPERA San Antonio is pleased to call the new Tobin Center our home."

Artistic Director Tobias Picker had this to say about the 2014-15 season: "OPERA San Antonio is proud to present an entire season of new productions. It is a pleasure to bring San Antonio a star- studded lineup that includes Patricia Racette, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Elizabeth Futral, Alan Held, Michelle De Young, Jay Hunter Morris, Wayne Tigges, John Brancy and Brian Jagde, most of whom will make role and company debuts this season. Patricia Racette sings the title role of Salome in celebration of the 150th birthday of Richard Strauss - the first time she has ever performed the role in a staged production and the first time Salome has been heard in San Antonio in more than thirty years. We welcome our new Resident Conductor, Andres Cladera, who will conduct our first and final operas of the season. Our first season as the Resident Opera Company of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts will be one not to be missed."

For its first offering, OPERA San Antonio has chosen the enchanting family opera, Fantastic Mr. Fox, composed by OPERA San Antonio Artistic Director Tobias Picker, based on the book by Roald Dahl. The opera has enthralled audiences of children and adults in this country and abroad. Heidi Waleson, critic of The Wall Street Journal, wrote, "With Mr. Picker's lyric gift and dramatic sense, the opera is a captivating and witty entertainment."

Fantastic Mr. Fox, commissioned by the Los Angeles Opera and premiered on December 9, 1998, is a fable that pits Mr. Fox and his family against three greedy chicken farmers. The Foxes evade capture by the farmers with the help of their woodland friends. The farmers are out-"foxed"; providing an entertaining and uplifting moral for all.

A cast of young American rising stars has been assembled, featuring John Brancy in the title role. He made his debut with Opera Frankfurt and in Paris at The?atre du Chatelet in 2013. He is winner of several important singing awards including the Sullivan Foundation Grand Prize and the first prize in the Marilyn Horne Vocal Competition. Also featured is soprano Elizabeth Futral who will sing the role of Miss Hedgehog. She has appeared on major American opera stages including the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera and the Metropolitan Opera.

OPERA San Antonio is collaborating with the Children's Chorus of San Antonio for this production.

FANTASTIC MR. FOX Tobias Picker
Based on the story by Roald Dahl Libretto by Donald Sturrock

September 23, 26, 27, 2014, 7:30 p.m. September 28, 2014, 2:00 p.m. Carlos Alvarez Studio Theater, Tobin Center

The second offering is Salome, Richard Strauss's one-act
Based on the play by Oscar Wilde, the opera has astonished audiences since its premiere on December 9th, 1905. The combination of the biblical theme, the erotic Dance of the Seven Veils, and the murderous ends of Jochanaan and Salome inspired Oscar Wilde. It will be OPERA San Antonio's first mainstage production in the H-E-B Performance Hall of the Tobin Center.

A cast of great artists will take on this complex narrative. The celebrated American diva, Patricia Racette, who has been a regular presence in major opera houses internationally, will sing the vocally and physically taxing role for the first time in a staged presentation. Jay Hunter Morris is

Herod, who is consumed by lust for his step-daughter, Salome. Mr. Morris earned international attention for his role as Siegfried in Wagner's Ring cycle at the Metropolitan Opera. Michelle deYoung is Herodias, Herod's vengeful wife. Jochanaan, the object of Salome's passion, will be sung by Alan Held, and Narraboth, who loves Salome, is Brian Jagde.

SALOME
Richard Strauss
Based on the play by Oscar Wilde

Thursday, January 8, 2015, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, January 11, 2015, 2:00 p.m. H-E-B Theater, Tobin Center

The third new production will be a double bill of one-act operas, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's
Il segreto di Susanna (The Secret of Susanna) and La voix humaine (The Human Voice) by Francis Poulenc.

Il segreto di Susanna, premiered in Munich in 1909, is a comedy in which Count Gil suspects his wife, the Countess, of being unfaithful to him because he notices tobacco odor in the house and neither he, his wife nor the servant smoke. What transpires is a domestic comedy "Italian style".

The opera stars Anna Caterina Antonacci as Susanna and Wayne Tigges as Gil.

Poulenc's La voix humaine, a monodrama, is based on the play of the same name by Jean Cocteau. This tragedie lyrique is about a woman abandoned by her lover. The opera has been a tour de force for many world renowned sopranos since its premiere in 1959 at The Opera Comique in Paris.

The Guardian had this to say about Miss Antonacci: "...She drew the audience into a space where all that mattered was the unadulterated revelation of the words and music as one fused entity...above all with the extraordinary resources of an instrument she could fine down to a thread or soar on to magnificent heights."

Baritone Wayne Tigges has sung with major opera houses in the United States and Europe including the Met, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Paris Opera, San Francisco Opera and the Santa Fe Opera.

IL SEGRETO DI SUSANNA (The Secret of Susanna) Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari Italian Libretto by Enrico Golisciani

Thursday, March 12, 2015, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 15, 2:00 p.m.
Carlos Alvarez Studio Theater, Tobin Center

All three productions will be sung in the original language with English super-titles projected above the stage.

Season Subscriptions will go on sale beginning Monday, May 1 at 10:00am through the Tobin Center online, http://tobincenter.org/opera-san-antonio, or by telephone at the Tobin Box Office at (210) 223-8624; and OPERA San Antonio's website, operasa.org, or by calling (210) 673- 7270. Individual tickets will go on sale June 23, 2014 at 10:00am.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The mission of OPERA San Antonio is to produce opera of uncompromising artistic quality, enriching the community through its education and outreach programs.

OPERA San Antonio was formed in 2010 by Mel Weingart with Tobias Picker as Artistic Director. Plato Karayanis joined the Opera as Interim General Director and CEO in April of 2013. The first performance was in May, 2013, a Gala Concert of Stars featuring Patricia Racette, Dolora Zajick, Jay Hunter Morris, Eric Owens, Lucas Meachem, Lisette Oropesa, Daniela Mack and Alek Shrader, accompanied by the San Antonio Symphony under the direction of their music director, Sebastian Lang-Lessing. This was followed in January, 2014, by a collaborative costumed, semi- staged production of Rusalka with the San Antonio Symphony as part of their Dvor?a?k Festival and starring Joyce El-Khoury, Brian Jagde, Alan Held, Christine Goerke and Kirstin Cha?vez.

Support for OPERA San Antonio comes from the City of San Antonio, Department of Cultural and Creative Development; The Tobin Endowment; Kronkosky Charitable Foundation; Russell Hill Rogers Fund for the Arts; H-E-B; Charles Schwab, San Antonio; Frost Bank; The Gorman Foundation, and International Asset Management Group Ltd.

To post a comment, you must register and login.