Dallas Opera’s Classic Revival of Rigoletto Opens Tonight

This evening, Rigoletto opens at The Dallas Opera, starring Italian baritone and world-renowned Verdi specialist Paulo Gavanelli in his company debut in the title role. Texas-born coloratura soprano Laura Claycomb will make her long-awaited Dallas Opera debut as Gilda. Tenor James Valenti, who wowed north Texas audiences as Rodolfo in the 2009 production of La bohème and won that season's Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year Award, portrays the magnetic but malevolent Duke. Bass Raymond Aceto returns to the Dallas Opera stage as the cold-blooded assassin Sparafucile. Mezzo-soprano Kirstin Chávez makes her Dallas Opera debut as Maddalena, and tenor Aaron Blake-this season's Dallas Opera Resident Young Artist-appears as Matteo Borsa. On the podium will be Pietro Rizzo, who elicited excitement from local audiences when he made his American operatic debut leading the Dallas Opera's most recent revival of La bohème. The staging is by director Harry Silverstein, with sets by Tony Award-winning designer Michael Yeargan, costumes by Peter J. Hall, and lighting by Steven Strawbridge.

The season finale will be a historic one for the Dallas Opera: the company presents for the very first time Mussorgsky's towering masterpiece Boris Godunov, which has been absent from any stage in Dallas since a Metropolitan Opera tour in 1978. The stunning production is from the UK's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The Dallas Opera Orchestra will be under the direction of music director Graeme Jenkins, with the chorus prepared by chorus master Alexander Rom. The huge ensemble cast includes bass Mikhail Kazakov, a highly regarded star of Moscow's Bolshoi Theater, making his Dallas Opera debut in the title role. Mezzo-soprano Elena Bocharova, hailed for a voice that "blooms at both top and bottom," will make her company debut as Marina, and bass Vitaly Efanov makes his house debut as Pimen. This production also marks the return of one of the world's most renowned baritone voices to the Dallas Opera stage; Sergei Leiferkus, who gave searing performances in earlier house productions of Beethoven's Fidelio and Wagner's Lohengrin, will play the role of Rangoni.

The Dallas Opera
The Dallas Opera's 54th season finds the company with a burnished reputation and creative spirits. The Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center opened to hosannas in October 2009 with a production of Verdi's Otello. Jonathan Pell, artistic director of the Dallas Opera, told the Dallas Morning News: "The move into the Winspear Opera House represents a major milestone in the history of the Dallas Opera. For the first time, we will be performing in a purpose-built opera house, with an extraordinary sense of intimacy and superb acoustics. ... It will encourage the company to greater heights." The Washington Post reported that the world premiere of Heggie's Moby-Dick ratified those ambitions: "While new work is often seen by audiences as more a duty than a pleasure, the opening-night crowd in Dallas broke into spontaneous applause three times during the first half, and screamed and yelled its approval at the curtain calls. It was a wonderful and rare reminder that new opera truly can excite people if it's done right."

For tickets and information, call the Dallas Opera ticket services office at 214-443-1000 or visit www.dallasopera.org.

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