OrpheusPDX Opens Its Second Season With Mozart's Comic Gem, THE ROYAL SHEPHERD (Il Re Pastore)

Portland's newest opera company, OrpheusPDX, kicks off its second season on August 3 with Mozart's charming and irresistible opera, The Royal Shepherd (Il Re Pastore). All performances will take place in Portland State University's Lincoln Performance Hall, hailed by Opera News as the best venue for opera in the city. Tickets, beginning at $50, are available at www.orpheuspdx.org. 

The Royal Shepherd is a tale of young love and royalty in disguise. This comic gem—at its heart a simple story of love vs. duty—wrestles with age-old questions about authenticity, identity, gender roles, and what makes a good leader. The question at its core—can you be true to yourself and thrive in the public sphere—is just as timely now as it was 200 years ago. It's exactly what we've come to know and love about Mozart. And he delivers with one stunning aria after another in this extraordinary vocal event. 

OrpheusPDX artistic and general director, Christopher Mattaliano says: “All that we love about Mozart is to be found in this unique opera—and much more. Mozart had the best singers in Europe at his disposal and provided them with a series of stunning, breathtaking, virtuosic arias—including “L'Amero,” which may be the most beautiful aria that Mozart ever composed. I chose this opera to open our second season with an evening of vocal fireworks—one that is particularly celebratory and joyful. With a double wedding ceremony that brings the opera to a delightful conclusion, it's the perfect summer evening's entertainment.”

OrpheusPDX's first opera also launches The Pathways Program, an innovative mentor-based training program conceived by Christopher Mattaliano, which pairs a student or young professional with an established professional artist engaged by OrpheusPDX for the 2023 season and, in the process, helps guarantee a thriving future for the operatic art form.

THE ROYAL SHEPHERD

(Il Re Pastore)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Thursday, August 3, 2023, 7:30 pm 

Sunday, August 6, 2023, 3:00 pm

Lincoln Performance Hall, 1620 SW Park Ave., Portland

Libretto by Pietro Metastasio

Sung in Italian with English surtitles

Director: Dan Rigazzi

Conductor: Nicholas Fox

Set Design: Peter Ksander

Costume Design: Sydney Dufka

Lighting Design: Connie Yun

Cast

Alessandro: Omar Najmi

Aminta: Katherine Whyte

Elisa: Holly Flack

Tamiri: Madeline Ross

Agenore: Brandon Michael

Tickets to individual productions, ranging in price from $50 to $110, can be purchased at www.orpheuspdx.org. Season subscriptions, ranging in price from $90 to $198, are still available at www.orpheuspdx.org or by calling (503) 308-4828. 

Student Tickets: $15.00 tickets are available for students at each performance. These can be purchased at the box office and online at www.orpheuspdx.org. Limited to one pair per person.

Inspired by the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, where Orpheus' singing is so beautiful that even the savage beasts of Hades are moved to tears, Portland's new opera company, OrpheusPDX, aspires to do the same—to touch the very soul of the community through the power of great music and singing. It will enhance that powerful experience by producing opera in the intimate, 475-seat Lincoln Hall Theater, where audiences enjoy an enriching and personal experience.

OrpheusPDX is committed to both honoring tradition and exploring new directions by presenting one opera from a well-loved Bel Canto composer and one from the body of great modern works that move and excite today's audiences—thus providing them with the best of both operatic worlds each season.

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