Vancouver Opera Opens 2013-14 Season With Puccini's TOSCA, 10/26

Rollercoaster emotions, intense drama and beautiful music are in store this fall as Vancouver Opera opens the 2013-2014 season with Puccini's exhilarating masterpiece Tosca.

Cherished for its heart-wrenching melodies and filled with treachery, murder and indestructible love, Tosca captures the events of a mere 17 hours in the year 1800 amid the political turmoil of Rome.

Opening night is Saturday, October 26, 2013, with subsequent performances Thursday, October 31; Friday, November 1; Saturday, November 2 at 7:30pm and a matinee performance on Sunday, November 3 at 2:00pm. All performances are at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Georgia and Hamilton Streets, Vancouver, B.C. Tickets are available exclusively through the Vancouver Opera Ticket Centre, online at www.vancouveropera.ca or by telephone at 604-683-0222. See complete ticket information below.

THE CAST

Sopranos Michele Capalbo and Tamara Mancini will share the role of Floria Tosca, the celebrated and fiery singer.

Michele Capalbo will be onstage for the October 26, 31 and November 2 performances. "Ms. Capalbo displays a rich and polished lyric voice full of color and fluidity. Her rendition of the work's famous aria "Vissi d'arte," is strikingly honest and varied, full of powerful waves of vibrato and soft tenuous lines that hang on the top of the scale, then descend in a flurry of passion," raved the New York Sun.

Tamara Mancini will sing the November 1 and 3 performances. Ms. Mancini studied at the Mannes School of Music in New York and was a San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow. Tosca will be both Ms. Capalbo's and Ms. Mancini's Vancouver Opera debuts.

Tosca's lover, Cavaradossi will be sung by tenors David Pomeroy (October 26, 31 and November 2 performances) and Adam Diegel (November 1 and 3).

Canadian tenor David Pomeroy was last seen on the VO stage as Alfredo in 2011's La traviata. "He has a beautiful sound and handled the technical challenges of the Flower Song well," declared the Vancouver Sun.

Adam Diegel has been praised by Opera News for his "impulsive, shaggily handsome Cavaradossi ... he delivered a stirring "Recondita armonia" and built "E lucevan le stelle" masterfully from hushed intimacy to an unfettered cri de coeur".

The evil Baron Scarpia will be sung by Gordon Hawkins. Mr. Hawkins has been critically acclaimed throughout the world for his complex interpretations and luxuriant baritone voice. He is a winner of the Luciano Pavarotti Competition and in 2006 was honoured as the Washington National Opera "Artist of the Year."

Baritone Stephen Hegedus will sing the political fugitive Angelotti. Mr. Hegedus was last seen on the VO stage as Colline in last season's La bohème. Thomas Goerz, who sang alongside Mr. Hegedus as Benoit and Alcindoro in La bohème, will sing the Sacristan. Frédérik Robert will sing Spoletta in his VO debut. Aaron Durand, who appeared in VO's The Pirates of Penzance and The Magic Flute last season, will sing Sciaronne. Mr. Durand is a participant in VO's Yulanda M. Faris Young Artists Program.

VO's Music Director Jonathan Darlington will lead the VO Orchestra and VO Chorus (Leslie Dala, Chorus Director). Joseph McClain will direct. Mr. McClain followed a distinguished career as a singer and stage director by founding, and for fifteen years serving as Artistic Director of, Lyric Opera of Austin. He is currently the Founder and Artistic Director Emeritus of Ópera de San Miguel. Mr. McClain last appeared at VO as the director of 2009's Salome.

THE STORY IN BRIEF
In Rome in 1800, the cruel chief of police, Baron Scarpia, is consumed with desire for Floria Tosca, the city's most celebrated singer. Using terror, extortion, and fraud, Scarpia threatens Tosca and imprisons her revolutionary lover, Mario Cavaradossi. Before Scarpia can have his way with Tosca, she plunges a knife into his heart. In the opera's harrowing climax, the lovers are reunited, only to be betrayed, from the grave, by the evil Scarpia.

Set in a time of political and religious upheaval, Puccini's masterful drama paints three unforgettable portraits: the fiery, pure-hearted Tosca; the passionate political idealist Mario; and the deeply depraved Scarpia. Puccini's score is filled with soaring melody, authentic Roman atmosphere, and spellbinding tension.

BACKGROUND

Puccini's Tosca was the last great 19th century opera. When Tosca was first produced in 1900, Puccini already had La bohème and Manon Lescaut under his belt and was being widely hailed as the heir to Verdi's mantle. With Tosca, Puccini was on fire!

Tosca has everything a really great melodrama should have: sex, politics, and religion-a jealous diva; an artist willing to die to oppose tyranny; a depraved baron hiding a lust for dominance behind a mask of piety; love, jealousy, subterfuge, spies, violence, attempted rape, murder and betrayal. Add to that several of Puccini's greatest arias and the luscious orchestration and it's easy to see why Tosca has been one of the most frequently staged works in the operatic repertoire.

The character of Tosca is considered to be one of the composer's most varied and interesting heroines, fit for great operatic actresses. Indeed, the great Sarah Bernhardt originated the role on stage, and singers of the stature of Maria Callas have created their own indelible interpretations of the operatic version.

Puccini said of Sardou's play, upon which the opera is based, "in this Tosca I see the opera which exactly suits me, one without excessive proportions, one which is a decorative spectacle and one which gives opportunity for an abundance of music..."

With his uncanny sense of drama and his astonishing musical genius, Puccini delivered an abundance of thrilling music rarely equaled in intensity or effectiveness in his other operas.

Full Ticket Information

Single tickets are available from the Vancouver Opera Ticket Centre, online at www.vancouveropera.ca, or by phone at 604-683-0222. Visa, MasterCard and American Express are accepted.

Groups: For special pricing for groups of ten or more, call 604-683-0222.

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