OPERA San Antonio Presents Verdi's MACBETH Next Month

OPERA San Antonio presents the first production of its 2017-18 season, Giuseppe Verdi's Italian opera Macbeth, based on the dark and powerful Shakespearean drama. OPERA San Antonio is a resident company of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, and both performances - on Friday, September 8, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, September 10, 2017 at 2:00 p.m. - will be in the Tobin Center's H-E-B Performance Hall.

This is the second season for General and Artistic Director of OPERA San Antonio Enrique Carreón-Robledo, but Macbeth will be the first production in which he has been fully involved in selecting the repertoire and gathering the team of creative and technical artists. Starring international guest artists are Bass-baritone Greer Grimsley as Macbeth and German Soprano Nadja Michael as Lady Macbeth. Grimsley and Michael are both familiar with the roles and have the vocal presence and acting power to bring the characters to life. The production will be directed by Crystal Manich who will be working with sets, costumes, and other design elements from the Glimmerglass Festival in New York. Sebastian Lang-Lessing, music director of the San Antonio Symphony, will bring his experience with opera to the task of conducting Macbeth in the orchestra pit.

"Loyal to OPERA San Antonio's Mission of producing Opera of uncompromising artistic quality, I have gathered world-class talent and the best possible artistic and technical resources to deliver a powerful rendition of this less often performed Masterwork of the Verdi Catalogue," said General and Artistic Director of OPERA San Antonio Enrique Carreón-Robledo. "Greer Grimsley and Nadja Michael have made these greatly demanding leading roles their own, and they bring their artistry and unparalleled dramatic intensity to perform them for us. Counting on Crystal Manich and Sebastian Lang-Lessing, as Stage Director and Conductor respectively, to lead this outstanding team is artistic gold."

Based on the play by William Shakespeare, Macbeth is a tale of ambition that leaves a trail of death, guilt and paranoia. Spurred by a prophecy that he will be king of Scotland, Macbeth will stop at nothing to advance his cause, abetted by his fierce wife, Lady Macbeth. Macbeth was the first Shakespeare play that Verdi adapted for opera, and it proved to be a showcase for Verdi's sense of political drama and the uncanny. The stellar cast and crew will bring this masterpiece to life on stage. The opera will be sung in Italian with English supertitles displayed above the venue stage.

Greer Grimsley

Greer Grimsley is internationally recognized as an outstanding singing actor. One of the most powerful interpreters of the role of Macbeth, he brings his rendition to OPERA San Antonio after unforgettable performances across the US and Canada, most prominently with the Atlanta Opera, Opera Lyra Ottawa, Minnesota Opera, and Vancouver Opera. He is a regular star at the Metropolitan Opera. One of the most prominent Wagnerian singers of our day, he is the leading interpreter of the god Wotan, around the world.

Nadja Michael

Nadja Michael brings her interpretation of Lady Macbeth to OPERA San Antonio after achieving acclaim and success with the role at the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the San Francisco Opera, and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich to name a few. She possesses the very qualities Verdi demanded of interpreters of the role in his time: an outstanding actress of imposing vocal power and dramatic presence. She regularly performs at the most important opera houses worldwide.

Crystal Manich

Crystal Manich, international stage director, has been called "masterly in presenting the dramatic confrontation" and praised for her "nuanced", "imaginative" and "lively staging" by The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, among other publications. Crystal is a sought-after opera director working around the world from Australia to Argentina and across the United States. Her widely recognized ability to inspire the most gifted singer-actors make her the ideal director for OPERA San Antonio's production of Macbeth.

The cast includes: bass Nathan Stark as Banco, tenor Eric Barry as Macduff, mezzo-soprano Tynan Davis as Dama di Lady Macbeth, baritone Matthew Arnold as Medico, and tenor Timothy Birt as Malcolm.

Tickets on Sale:

OPERA San Antonio 2017-18 season and single tickets are on sale now, with a 20 percent discount for purchases of both operas. Tickets can be purchased online at www.tobincenter.org, via phone (210) 223-8624 and in-person at The Tobin Center's Box Office located at 100 Auditorium Circle, 78205. Box office hours are Monday-Friday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Macbeth

The Tobin Center for the Performing Arts

H-E-B Performance Hall

September 8, 2017 - 7:30 p.m.

September 10, 2017 - 2:00 p.m.

Full Cast:

Director: Crystal Manich - http://crystalmanich.com/

Conductor: Sebastian Lang-Lessing - http://sasymphony.org/our-people/our-music-conductor/

Macbeth: Greer Grimsley - http://greergrimsley.com/

Lady Macbeth: Nadja Michael - http://www.nadja-michael.com/

Banco: Nathan Stark - http://www.nathan-stark.com/

Macduff: Eric Barry - http://www.eric-barry.com/

Dama di Lady Macbeth: Tynan Davis - http://www.tynandavis.com/

Medico: Matthew Arnold -- https://operasa.org/files/shared/Matthew%20Arnold.jpg

Malcolm: Timothy Birt - https://www.timothybirt.com/

About OPERA San Antonio

OPERA San Antonio was formed to produce and present world-class opera by the local resident opera company of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.

More than any other of the performing arts, opera makes us hear as we never have before, because we are hearing a unique instrument - the trained, un-amplified human voice, an instrument that can convey human emotion in a way nothing else can.

In the fifties and sixties, great opera had a continuous presence in San Antonio, when the Metropolitan Opera annually traveled to perform here. OPERA San Antonio brings big-stage opera back to San Antonio. As the seventh largest city in the nation, San Antonio needs opera as a civic asset to give to all its people. For more information, visit www.operasa.org.

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