Dallas Opera Breaks World Record For Simulcast by the Dallas Foundation

The Dallas Opera, in partnership with Cowboys Stadium, has entered world record territory: more than 30,500 tickets to the Dallas Opera's one-night-only April 28th Dallas Opera Cowboys Stadium Simulcast, presented by The Dallas Foundation, have been requested by opera lovers from throughout Texas and 26 additional states. Ticket requests have also come in from the District of Columbia and Canada since the joint announcement was made on January 26th at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

These numbers indicate that the groundbreaking North Texas simulcast may become one of the best attended opera performances in U.S. history. The reported attendance record for an opera in a sports venue appears to be 32,000 who gathered at AT&T Park in San Francisco in September 2010 for a simulcast of Aida from the War Memorial Opera House.

Additional data collected from those making ticket requests indicate that, as of April 18, 81% of participating households have no previous purchasing history with the Dallas Opera. For many, the Cowboys Stadium Simulcast will mark their first, live experience of the art form in any venue.
Free reserved seating-although quickly running out-is still available (up to 10 seats per person) through the Dallas Opera website at www.dallasopera.org/cowboys. Parking in the Cowboys Stadium lots that evening will be provided free, as well.

Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE will be simulcast live on Saturday, April 28, 2012 at 7:30 PM (doors open at 6:00 PM) at the home of the Dallas Cowboys at One Legends Way in Arlington, Texas. Patrons will be able to enjoy a complete, unabridged live performance from the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House in the Dallas Arts District, co-hosted by WFAA's Ron Corning (News 8 Daybreak/Midday News) and acclaimed tenor James Valenti (currently appearing in La traviata, Rigoletto, La bohème), on the world's largest high-definition video board structure, comprised of four massive viewing screens (the largest, 72 feet tall and 160 feet wide) suspended directly above the playing field.

Love of the arts will certainly be the predominant theme for the WRR, Classical 101.1 FM "Magic Flute" Tailgate Party planned for the parking lot of Cowboys Stadium from 5:00 pm that afternoon (Lot 5, near Miller Lite Plaza) until curtain time at 7:30 pm.

Media partner WRR will provide appropriate background music, as well as a chance to compare notes with some of your favorite classical music announcers. The radio station will also host an opera karaoke contest for those who will not be performing in the main event later that evening. Visit wrr101.com to sign-up for the tailgate party and to make your karaoke song request.

THE MAGIC FLUTE will star soprano Ava Pine, the Dallas Opera's very first Resident Young Artist, in the role of Pamina. Ms. Pine, a Baroque specialist, made her Dallas Opera debut as Anna in our 2006 production of Nabucco, and has appeared on our stage in numerous roles including Adele in Die Fledermaus, Zozo in The Merry Widow, Elvira in L'italiana in Algeri, the Slave in Salome and, most recently, as one of three featured artists in the Dallas Opera's Family Concert, performed in the Winspear last November.

Earlier this season, Ms. Pine appeared with the DSO in Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 2 conducted by Jaap van Zweden, Bach cantatas with the New Jersey Symphony, and Handel's Messiah with Boston Baroque and Duke University. She also made her role debut as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro at Opera Colorado and sang the title role in Handel's Theodora at the University of North Texas with Dallas Opera Music Director Graeme Jenkins conducting.

Ava Pine's performance is made possible with support from The Charron and Peter Denker Rising Stars Endowment Fund.

Alongside Ms. Pine, the Dallas Opera has cast tenor Shawn Mathey as Tamino. Mr. Mathey's 2011-12 Season engagements have included debuts with San Francisco Opera as Don Ottavio and with Rome's Teatro dell'Opera as Lysander in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. He is also slated to record Bruckner's Mass No. 3 in F minor with Marek Janowski conducting the Orchestre de la Suisse Romand.

Bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi returns in the role of the original Birdman, Papageno, Tamino's love-sick companion. The multifaceted Mr. Carfizzi's recent engagements include Paolo in Simon Boccanegra with San Francisco Opera, Brander in Le damnation de Faust (Berlioz) at New York's Metropolitan Opera, Nourabad in Les pêcheurs de perles for Seattle Opera, Dr. Bartolo in IL Barbiere di Siviglia for the Canadian Opera Company, and additional roles at the Met including Schaunard in La bohème, the Mandarin in Turandot, Masetto in Don Giovanni, Haly in L'italiana in Algeri and Peter Quince in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Slovakian soprano L'ubica Vargicová, has made the Queen of the Night a signature role since her operatic debut while still a student in Bratislava, and she has left audiences gasping around the world. She earned rave reviews as Lucia di Lammermoor, Ophelia, Amina in Bellini's La sonnambula, and Marie in La Fille du régiment opposite Juan Diego Flórez. She has appeared in venues from Carnegie Hall to Japan's finest concert halls, in the wake of her dazzling 2003 Salzburg Festival debut as Olympia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann (a landmark production staged by David McVicar and conducted by Kent Nagano).

Bass Raymond Aceto, the Sparafucile in the Dallas Opera's acclaimed 2011 production of Rigoletto, has appeared in more than a dozen productions with TDO since his 1995 debut as Monterone, portraying a host of unforgettable characters from Leporello in Don Giovanni (2003), Colline in La bohème (1999), and Fafner in Siegfried (2000) to Lodovico in the Dallas Opera's 2009 inaugural production in the Winspear Opera House: Verdi's Otello.

Engagements this season have included the roles of Banquo in Macbeth at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Timur in Turandot for San Francisco Opera. This summer, after appearing as Sarastro in our production of Mozart's The Magic Flute, Mr. Aceto will portray the cruel Baron Scarpia in the Santa Fe Opera Festival production of Tosca.

Bass Kevin J. Langan, who has sung numerous roles with the Dallas Opera, will appear in the role of The Speaker. Mr. Langan has nearly 1300 performances to his credit and a vast repertoire (more than 80 roles from the early Baroque through the 20th century) that has made him a leading bass for San Francisco Opera for three decades. Recently, he became the first artist in SFO history to sing 300 performances in leading roles. Mr. Langan has also been a leading bass for Lyric Opera of Chicago for the past eleven years, in addition to fourteen seasons-and 165 performances-at Santa Fe. It was at Sante Fe Opera that he created the role of Henry Mosher in the 1996 world premiere of Tobias Picker's Emmeline, broadcast on PBS.

A native of New York City, Mr. Langan's talents can be viewed on numerous opera DVD releases. His orchestral appearances have ranged from the Cincinnati May Festival as Rocco in Fidelio under Music Director James Conlon, The Caramoor Festival as Rocco in Leonore under John Nelson, The Pittsburgh Symphony in Mahler's Das Klagende Lied, and the Chicago Symphony in Janacek's Glagolitic Mass (both under Michael Tilson Thomas). Other appearances include Trulove in The Rake's Progress with The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra under Edo de Waart, and Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex with The National Symphony in Washington.

Tenor David Cangelosi, one of the most consistent opera artist bloggers in cyberspace, will sing the role of Monostatos.He most recently appeared with the Dallas Opera in the acclaimed 2011 production of Boris Godunov. Prior to the role of Shuisky, Mr. Cangelosi played a marriage broker in TDO's revival of the Francesca Zambello production of Madama Butterfly that closed the 2010 Season.

David Cangelosi has  established himself as an artist who combines both singing and winning characterizations with opera companies and symphony orchestras, worldwide. In 2004, Mr. Cangelosi made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Mime in Das Rheingold, conducted by James Levine, and returned in recent seasons for performances of Incredibile in Andrea Chenier, Tinca in Il tabarro, and the dual role of Nathanael/Spalanzani in Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Other roles at the Metropolitan Opera have included Basilio (The Marriage of Figaro), Goro (Madama Butterfly), and Spoletta (Tosca).

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