Minnesota Opera's Rusalka

2015–2016 Season

JANUARY 23 – 31, 2016

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Music by Handel, Monteverdi, Purcell and Byrd

A King’s Quest for the True Cross

Holy Cross Catholic Church, Minneapolis, 8 pm * Church of the Incarnation, Minneapolis, 8 pm* Saint Paul Seminary Chapel, Saint Paul, 8 pm* Mary of the Angels Chapel, La Crosse, WI, 7 pm* * PRE-CONCERT TALK ONE HOUR BEFORE PERFORMANCE

A May Day “Crowning” Performance MAY 1, 2016 | Ordway Concert Hall | Saint Paul EVENTS INCLUDE

Festive BRUNCH | Celebration CONCERT | Post-concert PARTY

Introducing International Artist Series

Coffee Concerts in the Ordway Concert Hall

Igor Levit, piano February 17, 2016 10:30 AM

Michael Collins, clarinet Michael McHale, piano March 18 , 2016 10:30 AM

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WELCOME LETTER

Welcome to Minnesota Opera, Completed in 1901, Rusalka waited nearly 75 years for its first U.S. performance. When you hear this luscious music and enter the mystical world of the nymphs, you are likely to wonder why we took so long to include this work in the standard operatic repertory. Minnesota Opera’s production made its debut on our stage in 2008 and since then has traveled to Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Colorado, Opéra de Montréal and Lyric Opera of Kansas City. We thought it was time to bring it home again for your enjoyment.

This season Minnesota Opera offers our audiences the full range of opera, from the most familiar works represented by Tosca to The Shining — an exciting new work to add to the corpus of 41 works created by this company over the years. With Mark Campbell’s libretto, based on Stephen King’s iconic thriller, and music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec, The Shining promises to be a brilliant addition to the evolving American voice in opera. If you have not purchased your tickets to these final two operas in our season, I urge you to act quickly.

Looking forward to our 2016–2017 season, we are planning another great feast of opera. It will begin in September with the classic tale of love and betrayal with Charles Gounod's Romeo & Juliet, followed by our first performance of Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold, prologue to the Ring Cycle. Contrasting with the expansive sounds of Wagner will be the American premiere of Diana’s Garden, a comic delight by Mozart’s contemporary Vicente Martín y Soler and libretto by Mozart’s favorite Lorenzo da Ponte. We round out the season with Dinner at Eight, a new opera by legendary American composer William Bolcom and librettist Mark Campbell and close with La Bohème, Giacomo Puccini’s best-loved opera. Go to page 21 to learn more about our upcoming season. I encourage you to become a season ticket holder to guarantee the best seats and the best prices.

Thank you again for joining us today. Enjoy the show!

Sketch by Kärin Kopischke

NINA M. ARCHABAL General Director

Contents 6

Synopsis

7

Rusalka

8

About the Opera

11

Antonín Dvořák

12

Director's Notes

12

Social Media

13

The Artists

17 Meet the Artist: Kelly Kaduce 18

Upcoming Events

18

Tempo

19 Opera Education 20

Tosca Preview

21

2016–17 Season Preview

22

Minnesota Opera Board of Directors, Staff and Volunteers

23

New Works Initiative

24

Annual Fund

26

Institutional Giving

27

Legacy Circle

27 Minnesota Opera Information Large-print and Braille programs are available at the Patron Services Office.

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and thank you for attending our presentation of Antonín Dvořák’s fairy tale opera Rusalka.

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SYNOPSIS

ACT I

A glade at the edge of a lake deep within the forest Three dryads playfully tease Vodník as he tries to catch one of them.

His daughter, Rusalka, tells of her sadness — she wishes to be mortal in order to pursue her love for a princely young man who swims in the lake. Vodník tries to dissuade her, for he only sees doom in the world of humans, but she will not be deterred. She prays to the moon, hoping the Prince may return her affection.

Rusalka visits Ježibaba, an old sorceress who is willing to help. The witch has the necessary potion, but it has one side-effect — after her transformation, Rusalka will no longer be able to speak. If she should not find lasting love in the corporeal world, she will be forced to walk through life accursed. Rusalka bravely drinks the magic philter. As dawn breaks, a hunting party is in pursuit of game. The unsuccessful predators retire, but the Prince remains behind, magically drawn to the lake.

Meeting Rusalka for the first time, he immediately falls in love.

Intermission ACT II The castle grounds As a celebration takes place within the manor, Rusalka enters with the Prince, who is puzzled by her continued silence and her sad disposition.

Still enthralled, he vows to better understand his future bride once they are wed. One of the guests, an alluring Foreign Princess, reproaches the Prince for ignoring the festivities. The Princess lightly mocks Rusalka’s speechlessness, quietly enraging the former nymph, as she shamelessly escorts the Prince to the party. Vodník consoles his pitiful daughter as she watches the Princess successfully entice the Prince with her beauty.

Intermission ACT III

6

Tearfully, Rusalka has returned to the forest, ready to forsake humankind. Ježibaba agrees to switch Rusalka back to her original state, but as a result, her lover may never return, or he will die from her embrace. The witch even offers a knife so that she may kill the Prince and cleanse herself of his mortal stain, but Rusalka refuses and returns to the lake.

The dryads again try to play with Vodník, but he sadly admits that their carefree world has been marred by the taint of human existence. The Prince feverishly searches the woods for his lost love, and in a dreamlike state, Rusalka hauntingly appears before him. She scorns his renewed affection and cautions that his fate will be sealed with just one touch.

Ignoring her warning, the Prince kisses Rusalka, then dies in her arms.

Rusalka 2008 © Michal Daniel for Minnesota Opera

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A glade at the edge of the lake

MUSIC BY ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK | LIBRETTO BY JAROSLAV KVAPIL AFTER UNDINE BY FRIEDRICH DE LA MOTTE FOUQUÉ

World premiere at the National Theatre, Prague, March 31, 1901

JANUARY 23, 28, 30 AND 31, 2016 | ORDWAY MUSIC THEATER Sung in Czech with English translations projected above the stage

Ca t

THREE DRYADS Siena Forest, Bergen Baker, Jennifer Panara VODNÍK, A WATER GNOME AND RUSALKA'S FATHER Ben Wager

RUSALKA, A WATER NYMPH Kelly Kaduce

in order of vocal appearance

JEŽIBABA, A WITCH Marianne Cornetti

CONDUCTOR Michael Christie

WIG AND MAKEUP DESIGN David Zimmerman

A HUNTER David Walton

STAGE DIRECTOR Eric Simonson

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR David Radamés Toro

THE PRINCE Khachatur Badalyan

CHOREOGRAPHER Heidi Spesard-Noble

ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR Jonathan Brandani

THE FOREIGN PRINCESS Shannon Prickett

SET DESIGN Erhard Rom

CHORUSMASTER Robert Ainsley

COSTUME DESIGN Kärin Kopischke

RÉPÉTITEURS Jessica Hall, Lindsay Woodward

PROJECTION DESIGN Wendall K. Harrington

PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER Kerry Masek

LIGHTING DESIGN Robert Wierzel, Paul Hackenmueller

CZECH DICTION COACH Milan Mader

ESTIMATED RUNNING TIME Running time is approximately 2 hours and 56 minutes, including 2 intermissions. The intermissions will occur approximately 56 and 113 minutes into the opera, respectively.

▴ conducts April 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21 • conducts April 20, 22

This production has been made possible by the generous support of Lead Sponsors Chip and Vicki Emery, and Productions Sponsors Sara and Jock Donaldson, and William White.

Rusalka is a coproduction between Minnesota Opera and Boston Lyric Opera.

By arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., agent in the usa for dilia Theatrical Agency, Czech Republic, publisher.

The appearances of Kelly Kaduce, grand prize winner; David Walton, regional finalist; and Shannon Prickett, district finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, are made possible through a Minnesota Opera Endowment Fund established for Artist Enhancement by Barbara White Bemis.

The appearances of the Resident Artists are made possible, in part, by the Virginia L. Stringer Endowment Fund for the Minnesota Opera Resident Artist Program.

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Rusalka 2008 © Michal Daniel for Minnesota Opera

Creative Team

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ABOUT THE OPERA

8

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (Mayskaya noch’; 1880) composed operas on the subject.

Undine/Ondine continued to fascinate artists well into the 20th century, giving impetus to a piano piece by Maurice Ravel as part of Gaspard de la nuit in 1908, a ballet by a perilous locale) for the principal purpose of Hans Werner Henze from 1958 and a 1939 Fantasy and folklore have always piqued the drowning them. In contrast, their land-based play by Jean Giraudoux, to be set as an opera operatic imagination and remain an integral

by Daniel Lesur in 1982. So a definite trend part of the art form’s dramaturgy to this day. cousins, the vilis, immortalized by Heinrich had been in place by the time Antonín Heine and brought to life in Puccini’s Le Spawning out of the ennui of dilettantish Dvořák composed his penultimate opera. He French aristocrats, fairy tales were realized on villi (1884) and Adolphe Adam’s ballet was no stranger to the spectral world. Drawn Giselle (1841), cause their ex-paramours to the musical stage as early as the 18th century, from the folk ballads of Karel Jaromír Erben, with works by Grétry, Isouard and Rossini all dance until they expire from exhaustion. whose symphonic poems dating from this The Slavic and Russian vodyanoi covered the way into the early 21st century, with the period carry eerily evocative titles such as all water-borne creatures — one legend American premiere of Jonathan Dove’s The The Noon Witch, The Water Goblin, The Wild purported that, should a maiden drown, Adventures of Pinocchio by the Minnesota Dove and The Golden Spinning Wheel, and she became a rusalka, destined to reside in Opera in 2009. Frenchman Charles Perrault detail ghastly acts of dismemberment and the waters where she perished. Others claim was a master raconteur, but by the early 19th massacre. His most recent opera to date, rusalki actually had been murdered by their century, his flights of fancy faced some very Čert a Káča (The Devil and Kate; 1899), a lovers and sought eternal revenge. Much stiff competition, albeit with a more sinister loose adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew tone, where “happily ever after” often remains like the Greek sirens, the lorelei are Rhenish (whose female title character shares a mermaids who sweetly sing on the edge of inconclusive. The German Romantics, most common name with Shakespeare’s spitfire waterways, enticing sailors ever closer until notably Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm and E.T.A. Hoffmann, began to mix superstition they crash their boats on the rocks. Similarly, leading lady) has his calamitous harpy spend a little time with Lucifer in his hellish the Rheinnixen entrap men with a watery with fact, and soon witches, ghosts and domain. Dvořák’s final opera (Armida; 1904) embrace, resulting in their victims’ demise, even the devil began to make their presence also involves magical forces at play. while the tradition of Mélusine involves a known. The creative mind of the Romantic nymph who marries a man who can’t keep his Somewhat predating the fairy tale vogue, the period was obsessed with the cruel, violent subject was derived from Torquato Tasso’s promise and eventually discovers her secret and macabre side of nature and asserted identity, causing her to flee and never return. 16th-century epic poem Orlando furioso and the merits of imagination and peculiarity worked into an opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully of phantasm. Though the traditional tales and Philippe Quinault. It would be set by a would survive in the repertoire, now frightful Though the story of malevolent water nymphs would be set as a Singspiel by number of 18th-century opera seria and fantastic stories of lore were fair game.

Ferdinand Kauer early in 1798 as Das composers, namely George Frideric Handel Symbolist literature followed suit, with Donauweibchen (Women of the Danube) at (as Rinaldo; 1711), Carl Heinrich Graun mystical poetry by Maurice Maeterlinck as Vienna’s Theater in der Leopoldstadt (one of (1751), Tommaso Traetta (1761), Antonio well as hauntingly beautiful paintings by Magic Flute librettist/impresario Emanuel Salieri (1771), Christoph Willibald Gluck artists Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon.

Schikaneder’s main rivals), the sprightly (1777), Franz Joseph Haydn (1784) and later Some artists would revert to ancient Greek Undine, would soon capture the German

by Rossini in 1817. A young librettist yet to folklore, better known as “mythology,” and psyche, most notably in a novel of that name prove himself, Jaroslav Kvapil must have been the recorded oral traditions that comprise published in 1811 by Friedrich de la Motte delighted when Dvořák accepted his text for the Old Testament.

Fouqué (both Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Rusalka after several other composers had Walter Scott would become his Water myths were of special interest, turned him down. On its face, the narrative admirers — Scott, in particular, loved to particularly in the interplay between the appears to be the classic by Andersen (though include frightful subplots in his writings). real and spiritual worlds. Most cultures in a much darker vein) where the temporarily Numerous staged works followed, including fishtailed heroine saves, falls in love with and had parasitic and life-draining, yet sexual those by Hoffmann (1816), Cesare Pugni and emasculating femme fatales, a sorority then is abandoned by a nameless prince. Not (1844) and Albert Lortzing (1845). Inspired quite Disney™, Andersen’s version of desirable young women in league with

by Motte Fouqué, traveling Danish author some greater pernicious force — the Greek incorporates some gruesome details à la Hans Christian Andersen wrote Den lille nymphs and sirens, the Scottish banshee, Brothers Grimm — the mermaid’s tongue is the German lorelei and Rheinnixen, France’s Havfrue (The Little Mermaid; 1836). Farther cut out as payment for her transformation, Celtic Mélusine and Eastern Europe’s rusalki. east, the Russians would also plunder these the conversion from webbing to legs is hardly legends. Based on texts by Alexander Pushkin painless, and the new young woman must Whether jilted lovers, victims of suicide, (Rusalka; 1832) and Nikolai Gogol unbaptized souls or the unclean dead, all endure the equivalent of “walking on knives [Mayskaya noch’ (May Night; 1831)], of these menacing incarnations seemed to so sharp your blood must flow.” The price of Alexander Dargomïzhsky (Rusalka; 1856), have the same modus operandi — to lure returning to her former self is the Prince’s unsuspecting victims into the woods (always Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Undina; 1870) and blood, drawn after she plunges a dagger into

ABOUT THE OPERA his heart. Andersen’s mermaid is an estranged outsider, vainly hoping for acceptance within civilized society, and her plight emphasizes the impossibility of melding the natural and the otherworldly — as a result, she opts for self-sacrifice rather than murder. Kvapil credits another menacing tale, Gerhart Hauptmann’s Die versunkene Glocke (The Sunken Bell), which also employs a witch, a gnome and an ill-fated romance ending with the death of a male protagonist (treated operatically by Ottorino Respighi in 1927). Dvořák’s opera reveals a closer parallel to Motte Fouqué’s work, yet there are significant differences between the two renderings. Having lost their daughter when she was swept out to sea, an old fisherman and his wife accept the responsibility of a mysterious young girl (Undine) who unexpectedly shows up — visibly damp — on their doorstep. She grows up to become a headstrong young temptress, accepting the affections of a brave knight, Huldbrand. He brings her back to court with the intention of marrying her. Undine befriends Bertalda, the supposed offspring of the duke and duchess, who was tentatively pursuing a love affair with Huldbrand before he left.

Bertalda manages to ensnare her man, but not before being exposed — she is really of peasant stock, the longtime missing daughter of the fisherman. A malicious water sprite and a hermit priest add grotesque touches to the story as does the final scene — at the wedding ceremony, Undine’s unearthly

powers are exposed when she mysteriously appears, kisses Huldbrand to death and vanishes into the waters.

Kvapil draws freely from all these stories, adding depth to the witch Ježibaba (her character only slightly more pleasant than her Andersen counterpart) and improving the disposition of the water gnome, who becomes a wise and loving father to Rusalka and a solemn commentator on humanity’s destructive nature. Holding to an abstraction akin to the fairy tale, no one has a proper name (Rusalka, Vodník and Ježibaba all being types of creatures in Czech folklore, reinforced by the anonymous Prince and Foreign Princess). The inclusion of the Turnspit and Gamekeeper (cut in this production) gives comic relief, grounding the opera with rustic charm, and in traditional stagings, sharply differentiate the normal and fantastical dominions. The addition of the ballet (a polonaise) to the party scene, while a requisite of Czech opera at the time, further stresses Rusalka’s alienation from the mortal world, as does the arrival of the Foreign Princess — some sympathy is afforded to the fickle Prince, who has become weary of the socially awkward, melancholic and soon-to-be-abandoned being’s lack of speech. As in those other abundant cases of make-believe, multiple interpretations can be drawn from a simple contrast of natural and supernatural.

“

... the opera accentuates the lyricism of silence through its wistful title character.”

These wondrous tales rarely offer a solution to the reality and frustrated love of human experience — the inevitable Liebestod at the conclusion is unavoidable.

Hugely popular in Czechoslovakia since the date of its premiere, Rusalka was slow to catch on elsewhere. Nine years passed before a foreign staging could take place in Vienna. Even today, it is infrequently produced in the United States, having appeared at only a handful of major companies over the past two decades. With its luscious orchestration, shimmering and heartfelt melodies, through-composed urgency, leitmotif character portrayals and harmony reminiscent of Wagner, the opera accentuates the lyricism of silence through its wistful title character. Rusalka’s deathblow caress becomes as romantic as a kiss when she learns too late the tragic consequences of that classic adage — be careful what you wish for.

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Sketches by Kärin Kopischke

– David Sander

9

ABOUT THE OPERA

Supernatural Operas FAIRY TALES/FOLKLORE

VAMPIRES

HENRY PURCELL

CLAUDE DEBUSSY

NICOLAS BRAZIER

The Fairy Queen (1692)

Pelléas et Mélisande (1902)

Les trois vampires (1820)

ANDRÉ-ERNEST-MODESTE GRÉTRY

NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV

HEINRICH AUGUST MARSCHNER

Zémire et Azor (1771)

Le coq d’or (1909) (The Golden Cockerel)

Der Vampyr (1828)

PETER VON WINTER

PETER JOSEPH VON LINDPAINTNER

Der Sturm (1798) (The Tempest)

FERRUCCIO BUSONI

NICHOLAS ISOUARD

PAUL DUKAS

Cendrillon (1810) (Cinderella)

Ariane et Barbe-Bleu (1918) (Ariane and Bluebeard)

GIOACHINO ROSSINI

SERGEI PROKOFIEV

La Cenerentola (1817) (Cinderella)

L’amour des trois oranges (1921) (The Love for Three Oranges)

CARL MARIA VON WEBER

GIACOMO PUCCINI

Oberon (1828)

Turandot (1926)

HEINRICH AUGUST MARSCHNER

HANS WERNER HENZE

Hans Heiling (1833)

Il re cervo (1956) (The Stag King) Pollicino (1980)

FROMENTAL HALÉVY

La tempestà (1850)

Turandot (1917)

Der Vampyr (1828)

WITCHES VARIOUS COMPOSERS

Armida GIUSEPPE VERDI

Macbeth (1847) RICHARD WAGNER

Parsifal (1882) ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK

Rusalka (1901)

DEMONS LOUIS SPOHR

Faust (1816)

BENJAMIN BRITTEN

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1960) THOMAS ADÈS

The Tempest (2004)

ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK

Hänsel und Gretel (1893)

JONATHAN DOVE

The Adventures of Pinocchio (2007)

CARL MARIA VON WEBER

Der Freischütz (1821) (The Freeshooter) GIACOMO MEYERBEER

Robert le diable (1831) (Robert the Devil)

JULES MASSENET

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Cendrillon (1899) Griséldis (1901)

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IGOR STRAVINSKY

Le rossignol (1914) RICHARD STRAUSS

Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919) (The Woman without a Shadow) RICHARD WAGNER

Die Feen (1834) (The Fairies) Der fliegende Holländer (1843) (The Flying Dutchman)

GHOSTS GIOACHINO ROSSINI

Semiramide (1824) GIUSEPPE VERDI

Macbeth (1847) AMBROISE THOMAS

Hamlet (1868) BENJAMIN BRITTEN

The Turn of the Screw (1954) PAUL MORAVEC

The Shining (2016)

CHARLES GOUNOD

Faust (1859) ARRIGO BOITO

Mefistofele (1868) ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK

Čert a Káča (1899) (The Devil and Kate) FERRUCCIO BUSONI

Doktor Faust (1925)

Production Images: The Magic Flute, 2014 © Michal Daniel for Minnesota Opera

JACQUES OFFENBACH

Les contes d’Hoffmann (1881) (The Tales of Hoffmann)

COMPOSER Alfred (1870/1938; set to German text) tells the struggle between England’s Alfred the Great and the invading Danes. Vanda (1876), written in the style of French Grand Opera, is set among Polish royalty, and the equally epic Dimitrij (1882) plays out in the Russian court, a sort of sequel to Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov.

Jakobin (1889), though taking place in Bohemia, has its undercurrents in the rhetoric of the French Revolution and the tried-and-true theme of Armida (1904) is set during the Medieval Crusades. Coupled with charges of excessive Wagnerism, Dvořák was one to step to his own tune.

Nelahozeves (Bohemia), Sept. 8, 1841 DEATH Prague, May 1, 1904

Antonin DVORAK 1841–1904 Czech composer | Conservatoire Prague | Alfredo Dagli Orti / The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK

M

ostly known for his symphonies, concerti and chamber works, Antonín Dvořák composed 10 operas, an art form he once declared to be his preferred genre. Born to humble peasant stock, Dvořák barely escaped oblivion when he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle at the age of 12. There he fostered an interest in music, becoming adept on a number of instruments and graduating from Prague’s School of Organ in 1859.

He joined a band of local players, which eventually became the pit orchestra of the city’s new Provisional Theater three years later. In 1863, he had the opportunity to play a concert of Richard Wagner’s music, with the great composer himself conducting, and was influenced as a result. A violist for almost a decade, Dvořák would be exposed to a wide variety of operatic styles during this period, including works by Gioachino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Charles Gounod, Jacques Offenbach and Carl Maria von Weber.

At that time, the notion of opera in Czech was in its infancy (as the transitory word “provisional” in the theater’s title

would seem to indicate). Then part of the Austrian Empire, Bohemia was required to use German as its official language. Only by the middle of the century were major works being performed in Czech. The leader of the movement was the theater’s director, Bedřich Smetana, whose operas began to define a national style. Not willing to succumb to this patriotic fervor, Dvořák was strangely out-of-pace with his contemporaries, often choosing subjects and locales far from his native lands. His first opera,

“

Mostly known for his symphonies, concerti and chamber works, Antonín Dvořák composed 10 operas, an art form he once declared to be his preferred genre.”

Toward the end of his life, Dvořák turned away from “abstract” music to more programmatic works. Rusalka dates from this period as does Armida, his final opera.

Sadly, the composer died within months of the controversial premiere, unable to defend its merits or revise accordingly.

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BIRTH

Written by a composer with a rich musical palette underlying problematic texts (unfortunately, he was not a strong dramatist), Dvořák’s operas were met with mixed reviews and are seldom produced beyond the Czech border. His fame chiefly rests on his orchestral works, which after a few false starts, he began to tour around Europe. In 1891, he was invited by Jeanette Thurber (founder of the ill-fated American Opera Company, a brief rival to the newly opened Metropolitan Opera) to become the director of the National Conservatory of Music, a three-year commitment with generous summer breaks. Rather than returning to Prague, Dvořák spent his first vacation in Czech-populated Spillville, Iowa. A great lover of trains, the composer took many short trips around the Upper Midwest, including one to Minneapolis for a visit to Minnehaha Falls while considering a setting of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha. From this period comes one of his most popular works, the Symphony No. 9 “From the New World,” as well as several other regionally-inspired pieces such as the two string quartets (in F and E-flat), both titled the “American,” and the famous Cello Concerto in B minor.

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DIRECTOR'S NOTES

y ir Not So Fa Tale

Though Rusalka is based on a fairy tale, I never approached this production from that standpoint. The very term “fairy tale” is loaded and conjures up images of Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk. It immediately diminishes our expectations for great art and complexity.

But Dvořák’s Rusalka is anything but simple. The music, of course, is manylayered and rich, with exquisite melodies, but the story itself is messy and stocked with contradictory characters. Rusalka’s choices, and the tests she is put through, are wrong-headed and disappointing. One wonders what she sees in a prince who is all too ready to throw her off at the sight of another beautiful conquest. These bumps in the storytelling are curious, but they also mirror the unstructured clumsiness of real life. Nothing is black and white — the lessons learned are elusive, or maybe even nonexistent. What is important, however, is that, in the end, true love prevails, even if the results are tragic.

To tell this messy tale, I’ve attempted to create a clear and unambiguous dichotomy between nature and city: Rusalka’s home, the forest, is balanced and harmonic, while the city, where Rusalka is literally a fish out of water, is cold and dehumanizing.

To achieve this, I’ve been aided immensely by a very talented design team, and in particular the talents of projection designer Wendall Harrigton, who has given us some breathtaking backdrops. They serve the dual purpose of placing us in the world of the opera, while leaving the singers to concentrate exclusively on activating and illuminating this beautiful and heartfelt story.

ERIC SIMONSON Stage Director

Mr. Simonson’s biography appears on page 15.

I ha e lo t my bea ty.

M y lo e ha aba do ed me.

Rusalka 2008 © Michal Daniel for Minnesota Opera

Rusalka’s complex story requires stark contrasts

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THE ARTISTS

the prince In 2010–2011, tenor Khachatur Badalyan made his Italian debut at Teatro Massimo Bellini as Rodolfo in La bohème and appeared as Ismaele in Nabucco at Teatr Wielki in Poland. He also performed Alfredo in La traviata and the Duke in Rigoletto at the Novaya Opera Theatre in Moscow as well as making his North American debut as the Prince in Rusalka with Opéra de Montréal.

Recent engagements include the Prince in Rusalka and Don José in Carmen at the Opéra National de Paris; Rodolfo in La bohème at Venice’s Teatro La Fenice; Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut with Den Nye Opera; Alfredo in La traviata for Deutsche Oper Berlin; La bohème at Teatro Massimo Bellini (Catania); and Alfredo in La traviata and Ismaele in Nabucco for Wielki Teatr (Warsaw). Mr. Badalyan also has appeared at the Mariinsky Theatre (the title role in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly and Lensky in Eugene Onegin).

Future roles include Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana with Teatro Municipal de Santiago, Ismaele with Ópera de Las Palmas and the Prince (Rusalka) for Arizona Opera.

Marianne Cornetti

jeŽibaba Marianne Cornetti is recognized internationally as one of the leading Verdi mezzo-sopranos in the world.

She has appeared as Amneris in Aida, Azucena in Il trovatore and Eboli in Don Carlo at theaters including the Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House–Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Theatre Royale de la Monnaie (Brussels), Teatro Comunale (Florence), the Arena di Verona, Gran Teatro del Liceu (Barcelona), the Teatro San Carlo (Naples), and many others. Recent engagements include Lady Macbeth in Macbeth and Laura in La Gioconda with Deutsche Oper Berlin; Azucena in Il trovatore at the National Centre for the Performing Arts of China in Beijing and the Teatro Municipal in São Paulo (Brazil); Verdi concerts at the the Teatro Regio as well as Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera on its tour to Japan; Ulrica for the Royal Opera House–Covent Garden; and the Witch in Hansel and Gretel for Minnesota Opera. Other roles include Ortrud in Lohengrin in São Paulo; Eboli in Parma (Italy); Dame Quickly in Falstaff in La Coruña (Spain); the Principessa in Adriana Lecouvreur in Cagliari (Italy); and the Witch for Lyric Opera of Kansas City.

Bergen Baker

second dryad Hailed by the Star Tribune as having a “fetching blend of grace, warmth and humor on stage,” Bergen Baker recently served as Teaching Artist for Minnesota Opera. In addition to performing as a concert soloist across the Upper Midwest, Ms. Baker has performed both locally and abroad. Most notably, she has sung the roles of Nanette in Mlle. Modiste with Skylark Opera, the Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte with the Minnesota Orchestra and Minnesota Opera, and Tisbe in La Cenerentola with La Musica Lirica in San Marino, Italy. Her concert and oratorio experience includes performances of Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Mass in C minor, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Igor Stravinsky’s Les noces. She recently sang Papagena in The Magic Flute, Mercédès in Carmen and Wowkle in La fanciulla del West for Minnesota Opera.

Ms. Baker holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from DePaul University and the University of Minnesota, respectively. At the U of M, she appeared in the role of Sharon Falconer in Elmer Gantry by Robert Aldridge and returned as a guest artist for the title role in Aldridge’s Sister Carrie.

Siena Forest

first dryad Soprano Siena Forest appeared as the Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel and Frasquita in Carmen with Minnesota Opera during its 2014–2015 season. This season, she returned as Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos and Pamina in the Duluth touring performance of The Magic Flute and will cover Wendy Torrance in The Shining. This past summer, Ms. Forest covered the role of Marie (La fille du régiment) with Mill City Summer Opera. In December, she was the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the South Dakota Symphony.

In summer 2014, Siena starred as Pamina in The Magic Flute and was the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, with the ok Mozart International Music Festival. In the summer of 2013, she was a studio artist with Central City Opera, where she received an award in honor of Patsy Rose Musser. At cco, she sang scenes as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice, Noémie in Cendrillon and Rose Maurrant in Street Scene. With the Indiana University Opera Theater she has sung Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Nannetta in Falstaff and Musetta in La bohème.

Michael Christie

conductor Michael Christie became music director of Minnesota Opera in September 2012.

Before coming to Minnesota, he served as music director of the Phoenix Symphony (2005–2013), the Brooklyn Philharmonic (2005–2010), the Queensland Orchestra (Brisbane, Australia; 2000–2004) and the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder (2000–2013).

Recent opera engagements have included productions with Opera Theatre of St. Louis (Alice in Wonderland, The Ghosts of Versailles and The Death of Klinghoffer), Wexford Festival Opera (Silent Night and The Ghosts of Versailles), Minnesota Opera (La traviata, Wuthering Heights, Silent Night, Madame Butterfly, Nabucco, Anna Bolena, Turandot, Manon Lescaut, Arabella, Macbeth, La fanciulla del West, The Manchurian Candidate, Carmen, Ariadne auf Naxos and The Magic Flute) and Aspen Opera Theatre (The Ghosts of Versailles and West Side Story). He has also conducted at Opéra de Montréal and Opera Philadelphia (Silent Night) and Lyric Opera of Chicago (Rising Stars). He made his San Francisco Opera debut with the world premiere of The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, and in 2017, he leads the world premiere performances of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs by Mason Bates with Santa Fe Opera.

Paul Hackenmueller

lighting design A Minneapolis native that has spent the last 13 years in New York, Paul is delighted to be “home” and now splits his time between New York and Minneapolis. His opera work has been seen at The Dallas Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Bucharest National Opera, Rome Opera, Gotham Chamber Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Colorado and Palm Beach Opera. His theater work includes work on more than 10 Broadway productions as well as regional theater productions at the Guthrie Theater, Geva, Syracuse Stage, Alliance Theater, Merrimack Rep, Perseverance Theater, Portland Stage, Berkshire Theater Group and McCarter Theater Center/Princeton University. Work with musical artists includes Katy Perry, Michael Buble, Norah Jones, Tony Bennett, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, Garth Brooks, Lionel Ritchie, Ricky Martin, Luke Bryan and James Taylor. Commercial work and clients include the Carlson Companies, Target, Starkey and Helms Briscoe. He received his Master of Fine Arts from nyu’s Tisch School and his Bachelor of Arts at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities). sparkdesigncollaborative.com

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Khachatur Badalyan

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THE ARTISTS Wendall K. Harrington

projection design Wendall K. Harrington, called “the godmother of all projectors” by John Simon in New York Magazine, has been creating projected media for live events since the mid-1970s. She is the head of the Projection Design Concentration at the Yale School of Drama and received the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and American Theatre Wing awards for The Who’s Tommy on Broadway. Other designs include All The Way, Annie, Driving Miss Daisy, Grey Gardens, They’re Playing Our Song, My One and Only, The Heidi Chronicles, The Will Rogers Follies, Having Our Say, Company, Ragtime, John Leguizamo’s Freak, The Capeman and Putting It Together.

Off-Broadway credits include Angels in America, Hapgood and Merrily We Roll Along. Ballet credits include Anna Karenina, The Firebird and Pictures at an Exhibition with Alexei Ratmansky.

Opera design includes Werther at the Met; A View from the Bridge at Chicago Lyric Opera and the Met; Die Gezeichneten and Lucia di Lammermoor at LA Opera; Nixon in China for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; The Photographer at bam; and Transatlantic, The Grapes of Wrath and Rusalka for Minnesota Opera.

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Jennifer Panara

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third dryad Critics in the United States and Europe have described mezzo-soprano Jennifer Panara’s voice as a “warm, focused, fluid mezzo” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), “rich, compelling” (Cincinnati Enquirer), possessing “immense brilliance and versatility” (General Anzeiger Bonn) and have praised her “deeply communicative” and “winning” stage presence (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The New York Times). Recent engagements include Flora Bervoix (La traviata) with The Santa Fe Opera, Hansel (Hansel and Gretel) with Dayton Opera, Stéphano (Roméo et Juliette) with St. Petersburg Opera and covering the title role of Handel’s Richard the Lionheart with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. The 2015–2016 season brings several company and role debuts, including Third Dryad (Rusalka) with Minnesota Opera, Siébel (Faust) with Annapolis Opera and a concert series of Handel’s Messiah with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Further information regarding Jennifer’s upcoming engagements may be found at jenniferpanara.com.

Kelly Kaduce

rusalka Kelly Kaduce is a soprano with a warm and rich voice, stunning beauty and superb acting ability. For her creation of the title role in Anna Karenina, Opera News proclaimed her “an exceptional actress whose performance was as finely modulated dramatically as it was musically … and her dark, focused sound was lusty and lyrical one moment, tender and floating the next.” For her Boston Lyric Opera debut in the title role of Thaïs, Opera News observed, “Kaduce sings with bell-like purity and silvery sweetness, and she suspends her legato with an effortless, sensual spin.”

In 2015, Kelly Kaduce sang Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly with the Minnesota Orchestra, and returned to Boston Lyric Opera as Mimì in La bohème and to Houston Grand Opera in the title role in Tosca, and will be seen again at Minnesota Opera (where she was last seen in the title role of Manon Lescaut) to create the role of Wendy in The Shining. In 2014–2015 she debuted with Lyric Opera of Chicago as Katya in The Passenger with Canadian Opera Company, Florida Grand Opera as Cio-Cio San and Houston Grand Opera as Helmwige in Die Walküre.

Shannon Prickett

the foreign princess Soprano Shannon Prickett has appeared as the Fortuneteller in Arabella, the Lady-in-waiting in Macbeth, the Woman in Red in The Dream of Valentino, Giannetta in L’elisir d'amore, Dora in The Manchurian Candidate, Micaëla in Carmen and the Second Lady in The Magic Flute for Minnesota Opera, and will soon be seen as Mrs. Massey in The Shining. Hailed as a soprano with “… a vocalism that is rich and unforced, equally capable of a sudden drop to a sustained whisper or being ratcheted up to a thrilling forte without a hint of strain …” by Madison Magazine, Shannon Prickett completed her master’s degree in opera, singing the title role in Médée and Suzel in L’amico Fritz. In 2012, she performed the title role of Suor Angelica in Siena (Italy), and advanced to the regional competition of the Metropolitan National Council Opera Auditions, in which she received third place.

At the University of Wisconsin, Shannon was the soprano soloist in Verdi’s Requiem as well as Mimì in La bohème and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. In 2010, she made her debut at Des Moines Metro Opera, singing the role of the Lady-in-waiting in Verdi’s Macbeth.

Kärin Kopischke

costume design Kärin Kopischke continues her work with Minnesota Opera, having designed the costumes for The Dream of Valentino, Silent Night, Rusalka and The Grapes of Wrath and, this spring, The Shining. She has designed at some of the finest theaters across the country, including world premieres at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, American Conservatory Theater, Goodman Theater, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Huntington Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre, Court Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and Children’s Theatre Company. Ms. Kopischke has designed classics and revivals at Chicago Shakespeare, Long Wharf Theatre, the Kennedy Center, Crossroads Theatre, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, California Shakespeare Festival, Arizona Theatre Company, Milwaukee Shakespeare and Skylight Opera Theatre. She is a recipient of the Joseph Jefferson Award, the AriZoni Award and was nominated for the Prague Quadrennial. Ms. Kopischke is currently a member of the theater faculty at Lawrence University, having previously taught at DePaul and Northwestern.

Erhard Rom

set design Erhard Rom was named as a finalist for Designer of the Year in the 2015 International Opera Awards. He has designed settings for more than 200 productions across the globe, and his design work has been displayed in the Prague Quadrennial exhibition and at the National Opera Center. He also teaches design at Montclair State University.

Mr. Rom’s credits include San Francisco Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Seattle Opera, Bard Summerscape Festival, Glimmerglass, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Minnesota Opera, Vancouver Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Opera Colorado, Opéra de Montréal, Atlanta Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Syracuse Stage, Geva Theatre Center, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz and Merrimack Repertory Theatre. He designed the European premiere of Silent Night which won two accolades at the 2015 Irish Times Theatre Awards. Future engagements include The Shining for Minnesota Opera and Nixon in China for the Royal Swedish Opera.

THE ARTISTS stage director Eric Simonson directed The Dream of Valentino, Wuthering Heights, Rusalka and The Handmaid’s Tale for Minnesota Opera, as well as its world premieres of Silent Night, The Grapes of Wrath, Bok Choy Variations and, this spring, The Shining. Other credits include Rusalka at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Colorado and Boston Lyric; numerous plays at Steppenwolf Theatre; and productions at The Huntington Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, Primary Stages in New York, Court Theatre in Chicago, l.a. Theatre Works, The Kennedy Center, City Theater in Pittsburgh, Seattle Rep and San Jose Rep. His The Song of Jacob Zulu played on Broadway and received six Tony Awards including Best Director. His film directing credits include A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin (Academy Award), On Tiptoe (Academy Award nomination) and Studs Terkel: Listening to America, all of which aired on hbo (Emmy nomination).

Playwriting credits include Lombardi, Magi/Bird and Bronx Bombers (all on Broadway), Bang the Drum Slowly, Work Song (co-written with Jeff Hatcher), Honest and Fake. Mr. Simonson is a member of Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

David Walton

a hunter Tenor David Walton returns to Minnesota Opera for the 2015–2016 season, most recently as Brighella in Ariadne auf Naxos, Tamino in The Magic Flute in Duluth, Il Postiglione in La fanciulla del West and Ed Mavole in the world premiere of The Manchurian Candidate. Later he will perform the roles of Spoletta in Tosca and Delbert Grady in the world premiere of The Shining.

Mr. Walton has also appeared as Tamino and Ernesto (Don Pasquale) with Atlantic Music Festival. He spent three years with the Cantus Vocal Ensemble in Minneapolis and as a Gerdine Young Artist this past summer with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, covering Matthew Gurney in Emmeline. Mr. Walton recently toured Azor in Grétry’s Zemire et Azor with Opera for the Young and was a regional finalist in the Upper Midwest Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He will participate as a Young Artist this summer with the Glimmerglass Festival, performing Parpignol in its production of La bohème and covering Reverend Parris in The Crucible.

Heidi Spesard-Noble

choreographer Heidi Spesard-Noble began her professional career with Minnesota Dance Theater and has performed classical and contemporary ballets by George Balanchine, Petipa, Eugene Loring, Frederick Ashton and as a soloist in Loyce Houlton’s Nutcracker Fantasy and Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Her professional career continued at Kansas City Ballet and Chanhassen Dinner Theater, where she appeared in more than 15 musicals, including 42nd Street, Phantom, Oklahoma!, Crazy for You and My Fair Lady; The Merry Widow and La traviata with Minnesota Opera; and Nutcracker Not so Suite and Cinderella with the Ballet of the Dolls. Among Heidi’s choreography credits are Brigadoon and Big Bang (cdt); Carmen, The Dream of Valentino, Griffelkin, Manon Lescaut, Noye’s Fludde, Down in the Valley, Nabucco, La traviata, Carmen, Orazi e Curiazi, Wuthering Heights and Lakmé with the Minnesota Opera; and she was assistant choreographer for the world premiere of The Grapes of Wrath in Minnesota, Utah and Pittsburgh. Most recently, she choreographed Big Fish at St. Olaf College and Spitfire Grill at Lyric Arts Theater. She returns to Minnesota Opera this spring for The Shining.

Ben Wager

vodnÍk Bass Ben Wager was last seen on Minnesota Opera’s stage as Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, General Audebert in Silent Night and Hindley in Wuthering Heights. He was most recently seen in the title role of Le nozze di Figaro with Opera San Jose. Mr. Wager’s 2014–2015 season brought an anticipated debut with Den Norske Opera (Oslo) as Escamillo in Carmen and as the Hotel Manager in Powder Her Face with Odyssey Opera. Following his highly successful house debut as Colline in La bohème, he returned to the Lyric Opera of Kansas City for two roles: Taddeo in L’italiana in Algeri and Angelotti in Tosca. He concluded the season with Washington D.C.’s Cathedral Choral Society. Mr. Wager performed the role of Colline in La bohème with PORTOpera and his other 2013–2014 roles included Nourabad in Les pêcheurs de perles with Nashville Opera, as well as a company debut with Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Colline. He returned to Deutsche Oper Berlin to perform such roles as Doctor Grenvil (La traviata), Zuniga (Carmen), Angelotti (Tosca), Der Steuermann (Tristan und Isolde) and Johann (Werther).

Robert Wierzel

lighting design Mr. Wierzel has worked with artists from diverse disciplines and backgrounds in theater, dance, contemporary music, museums and opera on stages throughout the country and abroad. Productions with Minnesota Opera include The Dream of Valentino, Wuthering Heights, Rusalka, The Grapes of Wrath and, this spring, The Shining. Recent projects include the Broadway production of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill. Upcoming projects include Another Word For Beauty, a new play premiering at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and Lost In The Stars at Washington National Opera

Additional credits include productions with the opera companies of Paris (Palais Garnier), Tokyo, Toronto, Bergen and Kristiansand (Norway), Folk Opera of Sweden, nyco, Glimmerglass Festival, Seattle, Boston Lyric, San Francisco, Houston, Virginia, Chicago Lyric, Opera Theater of Chicago, Montreal, Vancouver, Portland, Wolf Trap and San Diego, among others. Dance work includes the btj/az Dance Company (Bessie Awards) as well as the Lyon Opera and Berlin Opera Ballets. For more information, visit sparkdesigncollaborative.com.

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Eric Simonson

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THE ARTISTS Minnesota Opera Chorus

Minnesota Opera Orchestra

Tori Adams *

Joel Mathias

Violin I

Cello

Bassoon

Emma Bearss *

Chandler Molbert

Michael Burton

Jessica Nesbit Grace Seeley *

Alexis Cairy *

Joe Shearer *

Jim Jacobson Teresa Richardson Rebecca Arons Kirsten Whitson Dale Newton

Coreen Nordling Laurie Hatcher Merz

Corissa Bussian Christina Christensen

Rebekah Sheih *

Stefan Egerstrom

Lauren Stepka

Natalie Harrison *

Clare Tichawa *

Timothy James

Kristie Tigges

Ben Johnson

Kelly Turpin

Allison Ostrander Concertmaster Natalia Moiseeva Assistant Concertmaster Julia Persitz David Mickens Angela Waterman Hanson Heidi Amundson Conor O’Brien Jill Olson Maisie Block

Cassie Klinga *

Colyn Tvete

Tessa Larson * Michelle Liebl Sterling Lind * Maggie Lofboom

* denotes Project Opera member

Dancers Erin Drummond

James Kunz

Betsy Gaasedelen

Jennifer Mack

Kevin Iverson

Tony Vierling

Lauri Kraft

Joey Weaver

Supernumeraries Andy Flamm, Kevin Klein

Violin II Laurie Petruconis Elizabeth Decker Stephan Orsak Melinda Marshall Huldah Niles David Block Alastair Brown Alexandra Early

John Michael Smith Constance Martin Jason Hagelie

Flute Michele Frisch Amy Morris

Trumpet John G. Koopmann Christopher Volpe Martin Hodel

Trombone Piccolo Hannah Peterson Green

Phillip Ostrander John Tranter David Stevens

Oboe Michael Dayton Jeffrey Marshak

Tuba

English Horn

Timpani

Robert McManus

Kory Andry

Clarinet

Percussion

Karrin Meffert-Nelson Nina Olsen

Matthew Barber Steve Kimball

Bass Clarinet

Harp

Michelle Campbell

Min J. Kim

Itai Agmon

Viola David Auerbach Emily Hagen Laurel Browne Susan Janda James Bartsch Valerie Little

Chorus Auditions March 14–19, 2016

For more information, visit mnopera.org/auditions

Matt Wilson Charles Hodgson Timothy Bradley Lawrence Barnhart

Nabucco, 2012 © Michal Daniel for Minnesota Opera

Gary Kubert

Bass

Horn

Rusalka 2008 © Michal Daniel for Minnesota Opera

MEET THE ARTIST

ANDREW WILKOWSKE

KELLY KADUCE KK Naturally, I love coming back to Minnesota. It's in my bones, and I'm not talking about the freezing cold! I was born, raised and educated here. It always feels like coming home. My family and friends are still in the area and Minnesota Opera is my favorite place to work!

Tell us about the first time you heard or saw an opera.

KK The first opera I saw was here, at Minnesota Opera. It was Pelléas et Mélisande. I was a sophomore at St. Olaf College and was just beginning to study opera and voice, so I took myself up to the Ordway. Pelléas et Mélisande is a notoriously difficult opera for a first time attendee, but I was hooked! I knew nothing about this opera, but it was mesmerizing. I wonder what I would have thought then if I knew I would be performing with Minnesota Opera as a professional many years later!

Why did you fall in love with this Dvořák opera?

KK I fell in love with the “Song to the Moon” aria first. I was participating in an Ms. Kaduce’s biography appears on page 14.

opera workshop during my years of study and heard another girl sing the aria. I was smitten.

A few years later I learned the aria and added it to my repertoire. It became my favorite aria to sing and I always used it at my auditions. I won a lot of competitions singing the “Song to the Moon,” including the Metropolitan National Council Auditions. My first opportunity to sing the role in its entirety was with Minnesota Opera.

Because of that, she is bullied and cast out.

That is something everyone has experienced in some form or another and can relate to.

Why do you like performing the title role of Rusalka?

KK I will be returning to Minnesota Opera to sing Wendy Torrance in the world premiere of Paul Moravec's The Shining.

KK I love performing the role of Rusalka because the music is lush, gorgeous and heavenly to sing!

List five things that you can’t live without when you’re away from home.

KK My son, my dog, my husband, the Internet and coffee.

What’s next for you?

What are the underlying elements of this story that audiences can relate to today?

KK There is a reason fairy tales and folk tales are a big part of every culture. They speak to and describe our human emotions and sympathies. Rusalka comes from an idealized world, but longs for a connection with an outsider. Once she leaves her world, she experiences the gamut of painful human emotions. She is unable to be understood, and unable to make a connection with anyone.

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What’s it like to be back performing in Minnesota?

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UPCOMING EVENTS Memory Boy

La fanciulla del West Broadcast

Project Opera presents Memory Boy, based on a popular young adult science fiction novel about the aftermath of recurring volcanic eruptions, and a struggle to survive in a catastrophic, ash-filled world. Sixteen-year-old Miles Newell and his family realize they must leave their comfortable, suburban Minneapolis home for a rustic cabin in the northern woods if they are to stay alive.

Minnesota Public Radio broadcasts Minnesota Opera’s production of Giacomo Puccini’s La fanciulla del West, which features Claire Rutter, Rafael Davila and Greer Grimsley.

Michael Christie conducts.

FEB. 5–7

MNOPERA.ORG/MEMORY-BOY

Bésame Mucho at Cafe Levain FEB. 22, 5 pm

Join us for an evening filled with love, food, wine and music hosted by Harvey McLain at his extraordinary restaurant – Cafe Levain. The evening includes a live auction and performances

by Minnesota Opera’s Resident Artists. Please call 612-342-9553 for more details.

Tempo Happy Hour FEB. 24, 5 pm

Meet up at Parlour, a North Loop neighborhood hot spot, for cocktails and nosh.

Behind the Curtain FEB. 24, 7 pm

At the historic Minnesota Opera Center, get the inside scoop on Tosca as opera experts and members of the cast and creative team lead discussions exploring the music, history and design of the opera.

MAR. 9, 8 pm

MNOPERA.ORG/LISTEN

Social Media Preview Night MAR. 10, 6:30 pm

Minnesota Opera allows a pre-screened group of press members, bloggers and social media influencers to attend the Tosca final dress rehearsal at Ordway. We encourage live tweeting, blogging, note taking and illustrating.

MNOPERA.ORG/PREVIEW

Tosca

MAR. 12–26

A fiery prima donna, an idealistic artist and a manipulative chief of police find themselves entangled in a web of drama in this spellbinding classic. Tosca’s allegiance to her lover, Cavaradossi, is put to the ultimate test by the obsessive Scarpia who will stop at nothing to possess her. This magnificent tale of deceit, love and honor brims with sumptuous music and unforgettable arias.

Opera Insights

Come early and enjoy free, fun and informative half-hour sessions, hosted by Minnesota Opera artistic staff in Ordway’s mezzanine lobby one hour prior to each performance. Join us for Opera Insights and get an overview of the characters and music, historical and cultural context for the opera and highlights to watch for during the show.

MNOPERA.ORG/OPERA-INSIGHTS

Taste of Opera MAR. 20

Enhance your opera-going experience with a delicious pre-show brunch at The Women’s Club of Minneapolis and casual conversation with the experts of Tosca. Leave the logistics to us and enjoy an all-inclusive afternoon out at the opera. For more information, call Brian at 612-342-9563.

MNOPERA.ORG/TASTE

Cabaret

APR. 2, 5 pm

Join Minnesota Opera’s Resident Artists for an evening of song set in a 1930s nightclub at the Metropolitan in Golden Valley. Please call 612342-9553 for more details.

MNOPERA.ORG/TOSCA

JOIN TEMPO, OUR YOUNG PROFESSIONALS GROUP! Are you 21 – 39 and interested in experiencing opera, meeting new people and receiving invitations to After Parties and one-of-a-kind events? Join Minnesota Opera’s young professionals group and enjoy a steep discount on the hottest tickets in town.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT TEMPO AND TO PURCHASE YOUR MEMBERSHIP, VISIT MNOPERA.ORG/TEMPO OR CALL THE MINNESOTA OPERA TICKET OFFICE AT 612.333.6669, M – F, 10am – 5pm.

© 2015 Christine Photography for Minnesota Opera

MNOPERA.ORG/BTC

OPERA EDUCATION Memory Boy

Music Director: Dale Kruse Stage Director: Doug Scholz-Carlson

Project Opera is proud to perform the world premiere of Memory Boy. With music by Reinaldo Moya and libretto

by Mark Campbell, the piece is uniquely created for young voices. All performers on stage and in the pit are musicians from the Twin Cities and beyond who meet most Saturdays over the course of the school year to learn about opera.

(L–R) Claire Walsh, Emma Shine, Miranda Kettlewell and Erica Thelen rehearse Memory Boy music.

Students hear about the production from Lighting Designer Wu Chen Koo.

The story, based on the popular young adult novel by Minnesota author Will Weaver, is about a Minnesota family trying to survive the aftermath of several volcanic eruptions of the Cascade Mountains.

As ash continues to fall two years after the catastrophe, food is hoarded and violence is everywhere. Sixteen-year-old Miles Newell and his family come to the realization that they need to leave their suburban Minneapolis home for a cabin in the woods if they are to survive. By building the Ali Princess, a vehicle that is part bicycle and part sailboat, the family quickly learns about the level of desperation that has descended upon Minnesota.

FEB 5–7, 2016 The Lab Theater

700 North First Street Minneapolis, MN 55401

TICKETS

$5 (children under 18), $15 adult Memory Boy chorus smiling for the camera.

They may be purchased through the Minnesota Opera’s Ticket Office at 612-333-6669 or at mnopera.org.

Project Opera Alumni Concert

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Photos by Sigrid Redpath

After eleven years of innovation in opera training, Minnesota Opera’s Project Opera training program celebrated Dale Kruse’s final year as music director with its first ever Alumni Concert at Augsburg College. More than 125 current Project Opera members and alumni performed selections from past productions and concerts.

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TOSCA PREVIEW

A

fter the huge success of La bohème, Puccini turned to something completely different for his next opera. He was entranced with the French drama, La Tosca, by Victorien Sardou.

This was a very melodramatic play with depictions of torture, murder and suicide.

All of this was very different from the beloved Bohemians of Paris.

“

Today, we can fully understand the power of this story, and with these exciting and vital characters, Puccini created some of his best arias and duets ...”

Today, we can fully understand the power of this story, and with these exciting and vital characters, Puccini created some of his best arias and duets. The two tenor arias, Tosca’s “Vissi d’arte” and the Te Deum that ends the first act, have a visceral power to accompany the lyricism of Puccini’s compositional style.

Puccini was also striking out into new harmonic experiments that were definably influenced by the bitonal works of Richard Strauss and Claude Debussy. The orchestral writing is strong and sure, and overall, the opera is one of the world’s favorite works.

For this upcoming production of Tosca, we have invited Italian director Andrea Cigni to make his American operatic debut.

He and designer Lorenzo Cutùli have envisioned a very theatrical production that is set in the time period of Napoleon Bonaparte’s historic invasion of Italy.

We will welcome many new singers to Minnesota Opera with this new production.

Dramatic sopranos Csilla Boross and

HURRY – TICKETS SELLING FAST!

PUCCINI

| MINNESOTA OPERA mnopera.org

March 12–26

20

Live for art. Live for love.

mnopera.org 612-333-6669

“

... overall, the opera [Tosca] is one of the world’s favorite works.”

Alexandra LoBianco share the title role.

Leonardo Capalbo returns to the Minnesota Opera after his sensational performance in The Elixir of Love. He shares the role of Cavaradossi with Dominick Chenes in his Minnesota Opera debut. Scarpia, one of opera’s best villains, will be sung by Stephen Powell and Mark Walters. Anne Manson returns to conduct the Minnesota Opera Orchestra.

I hope you enjoy this powerful new production.

DALE JOHNSON Artistic Director

Announcing the

2016–17 season Romeo & Juliet Das Rheingold GOUNOD / Sept. 24–Oct. 2, 2016

WAGNER / Nov. 12–20, 2016 AMERICAN PREMIERE

Diana‘s Garden SOLER / Jan. 21–29, 2017

See 3 or more operas, save up to 25%, and get the best seats!

mnopera.org

WORLD PREMIERE

Dinner at Eight Mar. 11–19, 2017

Music by WILLIAM BOLCOM Libretto by MARK CAMPBELL Based on the play by GEORGE S. KAUFMAN and EDNA FERBER

La Bohème PUCCINI / May 6–21, 2017

612-333-6669 Ticket Office: M–F, 10am–5pm

Season Sponsor

STAFF, BOARD AND VOLUNTEERS BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MINNESOTA OPERA STAFF

OFFICERS

General Director | Nina M. Archabal

Chair | James E. Johnson General Director | Nina M. Archabal Vice Chair | Margaret Wurtele Secretary | Robert Lee Treasurer | Christopher Romans

DIRECTORS­­­­­ Richard Allendorf Nina M. Archabal Patricia Beithon Karen Brooks Bernard J. Brunsman Jane M. Confer Sara Donaldson Sidney W. Emery Maureen Harms Sharon Hawkins Ruth S. Huss Mary IngebrandPohlad Philip Isaacson James E. Johnson Patricia Johnson John C. Junek Christine Larsen

Cynthia Y. Lee Robert Lee Leni Moore Albin “Jim” Nelson Kay Ness Jose Peris Elizabeth Redleaf Connie Remele Don Romanaggi Christopher Romans Mary H. Schrock Linda Roberts Singh Nadege Souvenir David Strauss Virginia Stringer H. Bernt von Ohlen Margaret Wurtele

Artistic Director | Dale Johnson

EMERITI Julia W. Dayton

John A. Blanchard III

Mary W. Vaughan

Burton Cohen

Production Director | Karen Quisenberry Production Stage Manager | Kerry Masek

Music Director | Michael Christie

Assistant Stage Managers | Jamie K. Fuller, Hannah Holthaus

ARTISTIC

Assistant to the Production Director | Julia Gallagher

Artistic Administrator | Roxanne Stouffer

Production Assistant | Lorely Dedrick

Artist Relations and Planning Director | Floyd Anderson

ADMINISTRATION

Dramaturg | David Sander

Finance Director | Jeff Couture

Head of Music | Robert Ainsley

Operations/Systems Manager | Steve Mittelholtz

Resident Artists | Jonathan Brandani, Siena Forest, Jessica Hall, Jeni Houser, Andrew Lovato, Shannon Prickett, Nickolas Sanches, Benjamin Sieverding, David Radamés Toro, David Walton, Lindsay Woodward Master Coaches | Lara Bolton, Mary Jo Gothmann, Eric McEnaney

HR/Accounting Manager | Jen Thill Director of Board Relations | Theresa Murray Finance Associate | Dylan Howell

DEVELOPMENT Chief Development Director | Carley Stuber Associate Development Director |

COSTUMES Costume Director | Corinna Bohren Assistant Costume Director | Beth Sanders Tailor | Yancey Thrift Drapers | Chris Bur, Emily Rosenmeier First Hands | Helen Ammann, Kelsey Glasener, Rebecca Karstad Stitchers | Annie Cosper, Ann Habermann, Sara Huebschen

Karen Bachman

PRODUCTION

Wardrobe Supervisor | Jessica Minczeski Wig/Makeup Supervisors | Priscilla Bruce, Manuel Jacobo Wig/Makeup Crew | Dominick Veldman

Dan Sassenberg Institutional Gifts Manager | Jaden Hansen Special Events Manager | Kristine Migely Development Associate | Danielle Ricci Institutional Gifts Associate | Diana Konopka

EDUCATION Community Education Director | Jamie Andrews Teaching Artist | Alisa Magallón Project Opera Music Director | Dale Kruse Project Opera Accompanist | Kathy Kraulik Project Opera Program Manager | Lorely Dedrick

HONORARY DIRECTORS

SCENERY

MARKETING/COMMUNICATIONS

Dominick Argento

Norton M. Hintz

Technical Director | Mike McQuiston

Philip Brunelle

Liz Kochiras

Properties Master | Jenn Maatman

Senior Director of Marketing and Communications | Kyle Clausen

Dolly Fiterman

Patricia H. Sheppard

Properties Assistant | Michael C. Long

LEGAL COUNSEL

Lighting and Video Coordinator | Raymond W. Steveson Jr.

James A. Rubenstein, Moss & Barnett

Production Carpenter | JC Amel Scene Shop Foreman | Larry Kline Master Carpenters | Max Gilbert, Nate Kulenkamp, Eric Veldey

TEMPO BOARD MEMBERS

Projections Technician | Martin Reitz

Marketing Director | Katherine L. Castille Marketing Assistant | Kate Saumur Program Manager, Marketing and Communications | Kristin Matejcek Communications Specialist | Eric Broker Ticket Office Manager | Kevin Beckey Associate Ticket Office Manager | Karl Annable Ticket Office Assistants | Carol Corich, Brian Johnson-Weyl, Johanna Owen, Delaney Ryden

| MINNESOTA OPERA mnopera.org

OFFICERS

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Chair | Jennifer Engel Audience Development Co-chair | Chrissi Reimer Audience Development Co-chair | Jana Sackmeister Programming Chair | Thomas Bakken Staff Liaisons | Kristin Matejcek, Eric Broker Secretary | Alexis DuPlessis Treasurer | Faris Rashid

MEMBERS Brad Benoit Kamruz Darabi Melissa Daul Kara Eliason Mark Giga

Laura Green Brian Halaas Rhonda Skoby Aimee Tritt

MINNESOTA OPERA VOLUNTEERS The following volunteers contribute their time and talent to support key activities of the company. Get involved with Bravo! Volunteer Corps at mnopera.org/volunteer, or email volunteering@mnopera.org for more information.

Lynne Beck Gerald Benson Debra Brooks Jerry Cassidy Judith Duncan Jane Fuller Joan Gacki

Merle Hanson Robin Keck Mary Lach Jerry Lillquist Joyce Lillquist Melanie Locke Suzan Lynnes

Mary McDiarmid Barbara Moore Douglas Myhra Candyce Osterkamp Pat Panshin Sydney Phillips Kari Schutz

Janet Skidmore Wendi Sott Stephanie Van D’Elden Barbara Willis

Minnesota Opera is a proud member of The Arts Partnership with Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and The Schubert Club.

NEW WORKS INITIATIVE

The

shining Photo by CJ Standish

Music by Paul Moravec | Libretto by Mark Campbell Based on the novel by Stephen King

And this was just a workshop in the big, bare rehearsal room of the Opera Center in Minneapolis, with Michael Christie leading the full orchestra, the cast in street clothes and the creative team seated at a table. For the final production, Stage Director Eric Simonson said, “We’re going to coordinate the media and the set and the lights and the sound and the music, all at once, to see if we can make people jump out of their seats.”

Campbell added, “The libretto is an adaptation of the novel. It was mainly a matter of condensing the novel from 600-plus pages into something that will last for two hours on stage and allow for the expression of music.”

The Shining is a part of Minnesota Opera’s

New Works Initiative. Margaret Wurtele, Chair of the NWI Committee, believes that “new works are the lifeblood of any art form, and we at Minnesota Opera are so proud of this program’s contributions to the field.” The commission, premiering next May, promises to be a noteworthy addition to a line of successful and influential works.

The Shining opens May 7 and continues through May 15 at the Ordway.

What is the NWI? A pioneering movement in new opera when it was launched in 2008, Minnesota Opera’s New Works Initiative (NWI) was designed to invigorate the operatic art form with an infusion of contemporary works, and formalize the company’s commitment to artistic growth, leadership and innovation.

This season’s world premiere of The Shining marks the latest opera created through the NWI.

| RUSALKA

A final week-long workshop for The Shining took place in November with principal singers, the orchestra and chorus members, alongside composer Paul Moravec, librettist Mark Campbell, Minnesota Opera artistic director Dale Johnson and music director Michael Christie. There’s a lot of ground being broken with this commission of The Shining, arguably Stephen King’s best-known thriller. Composer Moravec appeared to like what he heard, smiling as he tapped his foot to one of the cinematically lush orchestral interludes used to convey the passage of time. All in all, the final presentation was nothing short of thrilling.

Moravec, recipient of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Music, seems to be relishing the project of working on The Shining. “It wasn’t hard to adapt [King’s book] because it’s practically an opera to begin with. ... Opera for me is about three things: love, death and power. ... This story has all of those elements in spades. ... For all of its sophistication, opera is very simple.

It’s primordial. The reason it speaks to us so deeply is that it deals with who we are on the most fundamental level. That’s certainly what Stephen King does in The Shining. He’s dealing with rock-bottom fundamental issues in a high-voltage kind of way. And that’s operatic.”

Arthur Woodley as Dick Hallorann and Alejandro Vega as Danny Torrance

23

ANNUAL FUND I N D I V I D UA L G I V I N G It is with deep appreciation that Minnesota Opera recognizes and thanks all of the individual donors whose annual support helps bring great opera to life. It is our pleasure to give special recognition to the following individuals whose leadership support provides the financial foundation which makes the Opera’s artistic excellence possible.

bel canto circle Platinum $50,000 and above

Julia W. Dayton Vicki and Chip Emery Ester and John* Fesler Ruth and John Huss Lucy Rosenberry Jones and James E. Johnson Elizabeth Redleaf Mrs. Mary W. Vaughan C. Angus and Margaret Wurtele Wayne Zink

Platinum $20,000 – $49,999

Anonymous Dr. Tracy and Mr. Eric Aanenson Patricia Beithon Mary and Gus Blanchard Sara and Jock Donaldson

camerata circle Platinum $7,500 – $9,999

Allegro Fund of the Saint Paul Foundation Karen Bachman Daniel and Adriana Blanco Barry and Wendy Brunsman Peter and Theresa Carter Miriam and Erwin Kelen Cynthia and Lawrence Lee Steven Mahon and Judy Mortrude Ken and Nina Rothchild

Gold $5,000 – $7,499

Anonymous Nina and John Archabal Martha and Bruce Atwater Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation William Biermaier and David Hanson Ken and Peggy Bonneville Dr. Lee A. Borah Jr. Estate of Robin J. Carpenter Peter Davis and Pamela Webster Mary Dearing and Barry Lazarus Dorothy Horns and James Richardson Jay and Cynthia Ihlenfeld Robert and Sandy Klas Robert Kriel and Linda Krach Ilo and Margaret Leppik

Sharon Hawkins Heinz Hutter* Mary Ingebrand-Pohlad Mr. and Mrs. Philip Isaacson John and Kathleen Junek The Art and Martha Kaemmer Fund of HRK Foundation Helen L. Kuehn* Chris Larsen and Scott Peterson Mrs. Walter Meyers Estate Albin and Susan Nelson H. Bernt von Ohlen and W. Thomas Nichol William White

Gold $15,000–$19,999 Anonymous Donald E. Benson

| MINNESOTA OPERA mnopera.org 24

Anonymous Mark W. Addicks Charles and Mary Anderson Eric S. Anderson and Janalee R. Aurelia Floyd Anderson Jamie Andrews and Jane Kolp-Andrews Rebecca D. Arons and Thomas J. Basting Jr. Ruth and Dale Bachman Ann and Thomas Bagnoli Jo and Gordon Bailey Family Fund of the Catholic Community Foundation Carl and Joan Behr Barbara S. Belk Daniel Biaggi Karen and John Blank Mrs. Paul G. Boening Ed and Mimi Bohrer Allan Bradley Drs. Eli and Jan Briones Keith and Carolyn Campbell Joan and George Carlson

Silver $10,000–$14,999

Anonymous Susan Boren and Steve King Michael and Alexis Christie Cy and Paula DeCosse Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Dolly J. Fiterman

Mr. and Mrs. William Frels Beverly N. Grossman Warren and Patricia Kelly Leni and David Moore Jr./Moore Family Fund for the Arts of The Minneapolis Foundation Luis Pagan-Carlo and Joseph Sammartino Connie and Lew Remele Paul and Mary Reyelts Don and Patricia Romanaggi Jennifer and Chris Romans Mahlon and Karen Schneider Mary H. and Christian G. Schrock Linda and Jesse Singh Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Memorial Foundation

Anonymous Dan and Martha Goldberg Aronson Annette Atkins and Tom Joyce Alexandra O. Bjorklund Shari and David Boehnen Margee and Will Bracken Ann and Glenn Buttermann Laurie Carlson and William Voedisch Nicky B. Carpenter Darlene J. and Richard P. Carroll Family Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation

Rusty and Burt Cohen Ruth and Bruce* Dayton Jay and Rebecca Debertin Thomas and Mary Lou Detwiler Mary Dolan Restricted Family Fund of The Longview Foundation Ralph D. Ebbott Dr. Mary Anne Ebert and Paul Stembler Joyce and Hugh Edmondson Rolf and Nancy Engh Ann Fankhanel Bruce and Melanie Flessner Patricia R. Freeburg Woessner Freeman Family Foundation Friborg Family Charitable Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Judith Garcia Galiana and Alberto Castillo Meg and Wayne Gisslen Dr. Richard Gregory Mrs. Myrtle Grette Susanne Haas and Ross Formell Michele Harris and Peter Tanghe Alfred and Ingrid Lenz Harrison Stefan and Lonnie Helgeson Linda and Jack Hoeschler Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Horowitz Bill and Hella Mears Hueg Thomas Hunt and John Wheelihan Diane and Paul Jacobson Dale A. Johnson

Janet N. Jones Robert and Susan Josselson Lyndel and Blaine King Stefanie Lenway and Tom Murtha From the Family of Richard C. and Elizabeth B. Longfellow David MacMillan and Judy Krow Dorothy and Roy Mayeske Barbara McBurney Mary Bigelow McMillan Sandy and Bob Morris Richard and Nancy Nicholson Fund Kelly and Michael Palmer Jose Peris and Diana Gulden Marge and Dwight Peterson Mrs. William S. Phillips The Redleaf Family Foundation John and Sandra Roe Foundation Thomas D. and Nancy J. Rohde James and Andrea Rubenstein Fred and Gloria Sewell Frank and Lynda Sharbrough Julie Steiner Dr. Andrew J. Thomas Dr. Craig S. and Stephanie Walvatne Jerry Wenger Patricia C. Williams*

Kyle Clausen and Bethany Moritz Barb and Jeff Couture Mike and Stacey Crosby – The Longview Foundation Helen Crosson and John T. Crosson Shana Crosson and John Gisselquist Jeff and Wendy Dankey Vanessa Dayton Charles M. Denny Jr. and Carol E. Denny Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Susan DeNuccio Elise Donohue* Joan Duddingston Rondi Erickson and Sandy Lewis Gail Fiskewold Terence Fruth and Mary McEvoy Family Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Joan and Bill Gacki James and Teddy Gesell Heidi and Howard Gilbert Goodale Family Foundation Roger and Karen Hale

Marion and Donald Hall Tom and Susan Handley Don Helgeson and Sue Shepard Elfrieda Hintze Jean McGough Holten Chuck Jakway and Teresa Williams Barbara Jenkins Bryce and Paula Johnson Sharon and Fredrik Johnson Nancy and Donald Kapps Margaret V. Kinney Sally and Bill Kling Gerard Knight Mrs. James S. Kochiras Krystal Kohler and Dan Norris Anna Kokayeff Kyle Kossol and Tom Becker Constance and Daniel Kunin Christl and Andrew Larson Kent Larson and Christine Podas-Larson Mr. Bryan Lechner Laurence and Jean LeJeune

Sy and Ginny Levy Family Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Diane and David Lilly William F. Long Leland T. Lynch and Terry Saario Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Reid MacDonald Tom and Marsha Mann Carolyn and Charles Mayo Laura McCarten Helen and Charles McCrossan Deb and Jon McTaggart Mary M. McVay Eileen and Lester Meltzer David and LaVonne Middleton Jennifer and David Miller Mary M. Montgomery Diana and Joe Murphy Betty Myers David E. and Judy L. Myers Joan and Richard Newmark Jane and Robert Oberrender

Diana Lee Lucker Margery Martin and Dan Feidt Kendrick B. Melrose Donor Advised Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Velia R. Melrose Karla Miller Dr. and Mrs. Alfred Moore Sarah and Rolf Peters Lois and John Rogers Dr. Donald V. Romanaggi Sr. Nadege J. Souvenir and Joshua A. Dorothy Stephanie C. Van D’Elden Charles Allen Ward Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation Nancy and Ted Weyerhaeuser

Silver $2,500 – $4,999

artist circle $1,000 – $2,499

Rachelle Dockman Chase Jane M. and Ogden W. Confer Ellie Crosby – The Longview Foundation William I. and Bianca M. Fine Charitable Trust Patricia Johnson and Kai Bjerkness Robert L. Lee and Mary E. Schaffner Harvey T. McLain Kay Ness and Chris Wolohan Virginia L. and Edward C. Stringer

artist circle (continued) Ruth and Ahmad Orandi Derrill M. Pankow Paula Patineau Suzanne and William Payne Bill and Barbara Pearce Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Kay Phillips and Jill Mortensen Mary and Robert Price

patron circle Gold $750 – $999

Anonymous Laurie Anderson and Jon Hanson Gerald and Phyllis Benson Christine Fleming Susan E. Flint and Michael Leirdahl Robert and Venetia Kudrle Ruth W. Lyons The Mahley Family Foundation Lucia Newell and Steven Wiese David E. Sander Warren Stortroen Michael P. Tierney Cindy and Steven Vilks James Wire

Silver $500 – $749

Anonymous (2) Meredith B. Alden Thomas O. Allen Arlene and Tom Alm John and Ashley Anderson Katherine Anderson August J. Aquila and Emily Haliziw Dr. and Mrs. Orn Arnar Kay C. Bach

associate circle $250 – $499

Anonymous (3) Paul and Val Ackerman Carolyn M. Adams Jerry Artz James and Gail Bakkom Bender Vocal Studio Kenneth J. Berglund John and Cindy Beukema Beth Bird Mitch and Michele Blatt Allen Brookins-Brown Debra Brooks and James Meunier Roger and Ronnie Brooks Renee Campion and David Walsh Jean and Bruce Carlson Alan E. and Ruth Carp Kyle and Shelley Carpenter Dr. Mark and Denise Carter Katherine L. Castille Laura Green Chaffee and Matthew Chaffee Margaret Clouthier Kay Constantine Jeanne E. Corwin Catherine Coult and Robert Benjamin Mary T. Cummings Mr. Andrew Dahlen Virginia Dudley and William Myers Holli and Stefan Egerstrom Candace and Dan Ellis Charlie and Anne Ferrell Mina Fisher and Fritz Nelson C.D.F. Foundation

ANNUAL FUND

George M. Reid Sampson Family Charitable Foundation John Sandbo and Jean Thomson Morris and Judith Sherman Cherie and Robert Shreck Kevin and Lynn Smith Matthew Spanjers and Annie Carvalho Mark and Kristi Specker

Daniel J. Spiegel Family Foundation Donna Stephenson Dana and Stephen Strand Carley and Bill Stuber Michael Symeonides and Mary Pierce Lester Temple Jill and John Thompson Bryn and Schelly Vaaler

Mrs. Joanne Von Blon David L. Ward John W. Windhorst Jr. Carolyn, Sharon and Clark Winslow Rory and Diane Yanchek

Chuck and Estelle Bennett Anthony Benz Martin and Patricia Blumenreich Thomas and Joyce Bruckner Philip and Carolyn Brunelle Scott Cabalka Elwood and Florence Caldwell Brenda Colwill Page and Jay Cowles Amos and Sue Deinard Barry Divine Ellen Doll and Jay Swanson Leah and Ian Evison Brian M. Finstad David Francis Bradley Fuller and Elizabeth Lincoln Carol and Mike Garbisch David and Terry Gilberstadt Jennifer Gross and Jerry LeFevre Rehael Fund – Roger Hale/Nor Hall of The Minneapolis Foundation Russell and Priscilla Hankins Alfred E. Hauwiller Norton Hintz and Mary Abbe Steve Horan Mark and Jeanne Jacobson Chris and Nick Jermihov Charles and Sally Jorgensen

Herbert and Erika Kahler Carole and Joseph Killpatrick Jennifer Konz-Alt and Aaron Alt James and Gail LaFave Judy Lebedoff and Hugh Klein Tim and Susanna Lodge Dr. Caliann Lum Stuart MacGibbon Donald and Rhoda Mains Bridget Manahan and Joe Alexander Kristin and Jim Matejcek Frank Mayers Carla K. McGrath Kris and Bill McGrath Judith and James Mellinger Anne W. Miller Steven J. Mittelholtz Kathleen and Donald Park Ilya Perepelitsyn and Lioudmila Sitnikova Carol Peterson Corine and John Petraborg Walter Pickhardt and Sandra Resnick John and Norma Pierson Dwight and Christina Porter Lawrence M. Redmond William and Sue Roberts Ann M. Rock Bob and Donna Rose

Ruth Rose Liane A. Rosel Enrique and Clara Rotstein Jon L. Schasker and Debbie Carlson Paul L. Schroeder Schwarzmann Family Doris Jean Seely Gale Sharpe Madeline Simon Stanislaw Skrowaczewski Dr. Leslie W. Smith Jim Snustad Clifford C. and Virginia G. Sorensen Charitable Trust of The Saint Paul Foundation Jon Spoerri and Debra Christgau Michael Steffes Thomas and Sharon Stoffel Vern Sutton Dan and Erika Tallman Dr. Anthony Thein Marie J. Thomas Andrejs Vape Olga Viso and Cameron Gainer Elizabeth Wexler Barbara White Frank and Frances Wilkinson John M. Williams

Rick and Nancy Foss Jane Fuller Greta and Paul Garmers Randy Goetz Stanley and Luella Goldberg Marsha and Richard Gould Stephanie Haack Jaden Hansen and Kathryn Louis Laurie Hansen Douglas and Doris Happe Patrick and Susan Haub Holly C. Hickman Mary K. Hicks Clifton and Sharon Hill Andrew and Gary Whitford Holey Stuart Holland Burton and Sandra Hoverson Worth L. Hudspeth Mark and Kathleen Humphrey Thomas and Vicki Hurwitz Mr. Rob Hutter Ray Jacobsen Charlie Johnson Samuel L. Kaplan and Sylvia Chessen Kaplan Jim and Kathleen Karges Richard and Linda Kerber Janice Kimes Andrea M. Kircher Tara and Peter Klatt John Krenzke and Michelle Davis Nathan Kulenkamp Alexandra Kulijewicz

Beatrice H. Langford Kenyon S. Latham John and Marilyn Lieske William Lough Rebecca A. Lowe Elizabeth and Whitney MacMillan Joan E. Madden Dusty Mairs Diane Malfeld Walt McCarthy and Clara Ueland Orpha McDiarmid Family Fund Laurie and David Mech Adele Mehta Curtis and Verne Melberg Robert and Marlys Melius Sonny Miller Virginia Miller Michael J. and Judith Mollerus Brad Momsen and Rick Buchholz Myers Foundation Merritt C. Nequette and Nancy Hartung William and Sharon Nichols Patricia A. O’Gorman Dennis R. Olson Donna and Marvin Ortquist Julia and Brian Palmer James A. Payne Lana K. Pemberton Jane M. Persoon Charles Petersen Anne and John Polta Lorraine Potuzak Nicole and Charles Prescott

Dennis M. Ready Christina Reimer Robert E. Rocknem Dr. Pringle and Nancy W. Rodman Tamara and Michael Root Daniel Roth Patricia and Stephen Rowley Dan Sassenberg Kate Saumur Mary Savina Steve and Beth Schneider Jamie Schultz and Keith Beveridge Alan E. Shapiro Glenn Shifflet Marianne Settano Shumaker and Gordon Shumaker Juliana Simmons Bonnie and Peter Sipkins Debra Sit* and Peter Berge Arthur and Marilynn Skantz Linda Soranno and Howard Bolter Danielle St. Germain-Gordon Barbara Stoll Mark Stutrud Lori Sundman Katharine E. Thomas Susan Truman John Vilandre John and Sandra White Jeff Wiemiller Barb Wildes Wendy Wildung * Deceased Ruth Wood

These lists are current as of January 1, 2016, and include donors who gave a gift of $250 or more during Minnesota Opera’s Annual Fund Campaign. If your name is not listed appropriately, please accept our apologies and contact Dan Sassenberg, Associate Development Director, at dsassenberg@mnopera.org or 612.342.9574.

become a donor Bring innovative opera productions to life with your charitable gift, and join Minnesota Opera’s family of donors today. Visit mnopera.org/support to give online. THANK YOU!

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INDIVIDUAL GIVING

25

INSTITUTIONAL GIVING Minnesota Opera gratefully acknowledges its major institutional supporters: $100,000 +

minnesota opera sponsors Production Innovation System General Mills

Tempo After Parties Sakura

Tempo Print Sponsor

Touring Support

Press Sure Print

Minnesota State Arts Board

Resident Artist Program

Official Make-Up Partner

Wenger Foundation

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

$50,000 – $99,999

$25,000 – $49,999

corporations, foundations and government Sponsors $25,000+

3M Foundation Ameriprise Financial Inc. Aroha Philanthropies f.r. Bigelow Foundation Cargill Foundation The Ruth Easton Fund General Mills Foundation Knight Foundation The McKnight Foundation Medtronic Philanthropy through Medtronic Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Minnesota State Arts Board National Endowment for the Arts The Saint Paul Foundation Target United Health Foundation Wenger Foundation

Platinum $10,000 – $24,999

| MINNESOTA OPERA mnopera.org

$10,000 – $24,999

26

Ascent Private Capital Management of U.S. Bank Fred C. and Katherine B. Andersen Foundation Faegre Baker Daniels Dorsey & Whitney Foundation Ecolab Foundation Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation MAHADH Fund of HRK Foundation The Opera Fund, a program of OPERA America Pine River Capital Management l.p.

Rahr Foundation Securian Foundation Travelers U.S. Bank Foundation Wells Fargo Foundation Minnesota Xcel Energy Foundation

Gold $5,000 – $9,999

The Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc. Best Buy Children’s Foundation Boss Foundation Briggs & Morgan p.a.

Dellwood Foundation Ernst & Young Hardenbergh Foundation Harlan Boss Foundation for the Arts Anna M. Heilmaier Charitable Foundation r.c. Lilly Foundation Mayo Clinic Maslon llp RBC Wealth Management Rothschild Capital Partners James Rubenstein, Moss & Barnett Schwegman, Lundberg & Woessner p.a.

Silver $2,500 – $4,999

Anonymous Fredrikson & Byron Foundation Hutter Family Foundation Margaret Rivers Fund Morgan Family Foundation Maurices Minnesota Power National Bank of Commerce Peravid Foundation The Elizabeth C. Quinlan Foundation Robins Kaplan llc Squam Lake Foundation Tennant Foundation Thomson Reuters

Bronze $250 – $2,499

Carlson Family Foundation Enterprise Holdings Foundation Hammel, Green and Abrahamson Inc. Longview Foundation McVay Foundation Onan Family Foundation Sit Investment Foundation Wells Fargo Insurance Services

In-Kind Donations Dunn Bros. Coffee Jefferson Lines

production multimedia Publicity Photographer | Brent Dundore

For information on making a corporate or foundation contribution to Minnesota Opera, please contact Jaden Hansen, Institutional Gifts Manager, at 612.342.9566 or email him at jhansen@mnopera.org.

Production Photographer | Dan Norman Videographer | Flight Creative Media Broadcast Recording

Event Photographer | CJ Standish

LEGACY CIRCLE

MINNESOTA OPERA INFO

MINNESOTA OPERA THANKS the following donors who, through their foresight and generosity, have included the Opera in their wills or estate plans. We invite you to join other opera lovers by leaving a legacy gift to Minnesota Opera. If you have already made such a provision, we encourage you to notify us so that we may appropriately recognize your generosity.

Anonymous (4)

Margaret Kilroe Trust*

Paul and Val Ackerman

Lyndel and Blaine King

Thomas O. Allen

Gretchen Klein*

Dr. and Mrs. Rolf Andreassen*

Sally and William Kling

Mary A. Andres

Gisela Knoblauch*

Karen Bachman

Liz and Jim Krezowski

Randolph G. Baier*

Robert Kriel and Linda Krach

Mrs. Harvey O. Beek* Barbara and Judson Bemis Sr.*

Robert and Venetia Kudrle Helen L. Kuehn* Robert J. Lawser Jr.

Dr. Lee Borah Jr.

Jean Lemberg*

Allan Bradley

Joyce and Jerry Lillquist

C.T. Bundy II

Patricia Ruth Lund*

Margaret M. Carasik

David Mayo

Joan and George Carlson

Barbara and Thomas* McBurney

Darlene J. and Richard P. Carroll

Mary McDiarmid

Julia and Dan Cross Julia and Kenneth* Dayton Charles M. Denny George and Susan Doty Rudolph Driscoll* Anne P. Ducharme

Mildred McGonagle* Mrs. Walter Meyers John L. Michel and H. Berit Midelfort Susan Molder* Edith Mueller* Kay Ness

Ester and John* Fesler

Joan and Richard Newmark

Dr. Paul Froeschl

Philip Oxman and Harvey Zuckman

Katy Gaynor

Scott J. Pakudaitis

Nettie Grabscheid*

Lana K. Pemberton

Robert and Ellen Green

Sydney M. and William S.* Phillips

Dr. Ieva M. Grundmanis*

Richard G.* and Liane A. Rosel

Julia Hanna* Ruth Hanold* Frederick J. Hey Jr.* Norton M. Hintz Trust Elfrieda Hintze Jean McGough Holten Charles J. Hudgins* Dale and Pat Johnson Ruth Jones* Charles and Sally Jorgensen Robert and Susan Josselson Charlotte* and Markle Karlen Mary H. Keithahn Warren and Patricia Kelly

Ken and Nina Rothchild Berneen Rudolph Mary Savina Frank and Lynda Sharbrough

Regular Hours: Monday – Friday, 10am – 5pm.

Performances: Weekdays — phones open until curtain. Weekends — phones open at 2pm for evening performances and at 10:30am for matinee performances.

Minnesota Opera staff will be available at the Ordway’s Box Office 90 minutes prior to curtain. mnopera.org Visit mnopera.org to watch behind-the-scenes videos, read synopses, browse digital programs and more. Join our e-club to receive special offers and opera news.

Ticket Policies Tickets are not refundable. Subscribers may make exchanges for a different performance or opera up to one hour prior to curtain. Any ticket may be turned back for a tax deductible donation up until curtain. Call the Minnesota Opera Ticket Office at 612.333.6669.

Parking Prepaid parking is available for opera patrons at the Lawson Commons Ramp. Call 612.333.6669 to purchase passes, or online at mnopera.org. Subject to availability.

Opera Insights Come early for Opera Insights — free, fun and informative half-hour sessions held in the lobby one hour before curtain.

Accessibility For patrons with disabilities, wheelchair-accessible seats are available. Audio description will be available for select performances. Please call 612.333.6669 for details and indicate any special needs when ordering tickets.

At Ordway, accessible restrooms and other facilities are available, as well as Braille or large-print programs and infrared listening systems.

At the Ordway Ordway is a smoke-free facility.

Latecomers will be seated at an appropriate break.

Please have all cell phones and pagers turned to the silent mode.

Drew Stewart James and Susan Sullivan Gregory C. Swinehart Stephanie C. Van D’Elden Mary W. Vaughan Bernt von Ohlen Sandra and Dale Wick Richard Zgodava* Daniel Richard Zillmann * In remembrance

For more information on making planned giving arrangements, please contact Dan Sassenberg, Associate Development Director, at dsassenberg@mnopera.org or 612.342.9574. Your attorney or financial advisor can then help determine which methods are most appropriate for you.

Children under six are not permitted in the hall.

Cameras and recording equipment are strictly prohibited in the theater. Please check these items with an usher.

All beverages purchased from Concessions are welcome in the theater. (Hot beverages require lids.)

The phone number for emergencies is 651.224.4222. Please leave seat locations with the calling party.

Lost and Found is located at the Stage Door.

Call 651.282.3070 for assistance.

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Patricia and Mark Bauer

Minnesota Opera Ticket Office 620 North First Street, Minneapolis, MN 55401 612.333.6669

27

Minnesota Dance Theatre January 29-31, 2016

presents its 2016 Festival featuring The award-winning romp the NYT calls “ridiculously sublime”:

On the 20th Century

Photo: Erik Saulitis

mndance.org

The unparalleled sophistication and wit of one of the master songwriters of the 20th century in Oh, Coward!

Don’t delay! Buy your tickets now!

www.ticketworks.com

Tickets:

thelabtheater.org or 612-333-7977

Illusion Theater presents

e n o only

e i h p o

S

Family. Culture.

Secrets. Truth.

Only One Sophie explores a young boy’s longing to understand his place in the world as he remembers his beloved grandmother through colorful stories and heartfelt songs. Steeped in Jewish immigrant traditions that connect and conflict with a modern American upbringing, this engaging new musical spans history and continents, and asks if it’s possible to imagine a future while being haunted by the past.

FEBRUARY 12 – MARCH 5, 2016

BOOK & LYRICS BY MICHAEL ROBINS MUSIC & ADDITIONAL LYRICS BY ROBERTA CARLSON

small stage. giant impact 612.339.4944 | ILLUSIONTHEATER.ORG

Group discounts available

“Mesmerizing, Absolutely Extraordinary!

Reclaiming the Divinely-Inspired Cultural Heritage of China.”

— Donna Karan, Fashion Designer & Creator of DKNY

®

ENJOY GREAT OPERAS AND CO NC ERT S IN MILWAUK EE, WI

Feb. 12 -14, 2016 in the Wilson Theater at

Vogel Hall

’S

Mar. 11 - 20, 2016 in the Wilson Theater at

Vogel Hall

Johann Strauss II’s

Feb. 19-21 • ORPHEUM THEATRE

Timeless Stories • Exquisite Dance • Live Orchestra

Profound Culture

THERE WAS A TIME when emperors ruled dynasties, heroes became legends, and the world was full of magic and miracles. What if you could journey back and visit this lost paradise?

THROUGH THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE of music and dance, Shen Yun weaves a wondrous tapestry of heavenly realms, ancient legends, and modern heroic tales, taking you on a journey through 5,000 years of Chinese culture. Its stunning beauty and tremendous energy leave audiences uplifted and inspired.

“It’s really out of this world!

You cannot describe it in words, it must be experienced!”

— Christine Walevska, “Goddess of Cello,” 4-Time Shen Yun Viewer

Feb. 19–21 • Orpheum Theatre • Tickets: 800.554.5109 | ShenYun.com/MN

May 13 & 15, 2016 in Uihlein Hall

SEE EACH PERFORMANCE FOR AS LITTLE AS $30 C all

414 291 5700 ext. 224 or visit

www.florentineopera.org

Th

A

W La ea or tt t ld é e Pr D r em a ie re

a creative agency for the arts artsink.org For advertising opportunities in Minnesota Opera programs: emily@artsink.org | 612.791.3629

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Photo by Joe Dickie

DON’T MISS

A play with music by Michael Elyanow • Featuring Music and Lyrics by Garrison Starr, Chris Dallman, Curt Schneider and Michael Elyanow • Directed by Jeremy B. Cohen • Music Direction by Peter Morrow Featuring Adelin Phelps, Annie Enneking, David Darrow and James Eckhouse

Lullaby is the first world premiere in Theater Latté Da’s robust new work initiative -NEXT 20/20- a five-year endeavor aimed at developing 20 new musicals or plays-with-music and shepherding many of them to full production.

JAN 13 - FEB 7 | RITZ THEATER 345 13TH AVENUE NE, MINNEAPOLIS

FOR TICKETS VISIT LATTEDA.ORG OR CALL 612-339-3003

Photo: Adam Barker/DG

International Arist Series

Bryn Terfel, baritone Natalia Katyukova, piano Wednesday, April 20, 2016 • 7:30 PM Ordway Music Theater

schubert.org 651.292.3268

2015 // 16

NORTHROP SEASON

MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP Wed, Mar 30, 7:30 pm Dido and Aeneas

with live orchestra, soloists, and chorus conducted

by Mark Morris This timeless story of love and betrayal combines the Baroque music of Henry Purcell’s hourlong opera with Morris’ highlydetailed, signature dance vocabulary.

Mark Morris Dance Group in Dido and Aeneas.

Photo © Susana Millman.

Osmo Vänskä /// Music Director

KULLERVO

F E B R UA R Y CONCERTS VÄNSKÄ CONDUCTS KULLERVO RECORDED LIVE IN CONCERT

Feb 4–6 The music world was rocked in 2010 when Alex Ross of The New Yorker said the Minnesota Orchestra sounded like “the greatest orchestra in the world” in a Carnegie Hall performance of Sibelius’ darkly beautiful early work Kullervo.

INSIDE THE CLASSICS HIPSTER VS. NERD

HIPSTER VS. NERD MOZART AND HAYDN

LECTURE + CONCERT

Feb 12 Sarah Hicks, conductor / Sam Bergman, violist-host Join Sam and Sarah as they explore two musical giants.

Mozart, the hipster: young, wickedly irreverent, amazingly gifted, impatient for the world to recognize his genius—and his mentor, Haydn, the granddaddy of composers.

Please note: First half is lecture/demo, second half performance

FLY ME TO THE MOON: FLY ME TO THE MOON

LOVE SONGS FROM THE BIG BAND ERA AND BEYOND

Feb 14 Sarah Hicks, conductor / Charles Lazarus, trumpet Kick off Valentine’s Day with fresh takes on classic love songs made famous during the glamorous Big Band era, plus feel-good, grooving originals.

CARNEGIE HALL PREVIEW

HILARY HAHN PLAYS SIBELIUS Feb 18–20

Osmo Vänskä, conductor / Hilary Hahn, violin

JON KIMURA PARKER PLAYS MOZART Feb 25-27

Gilbert Varga, conductor / Jon Kimura Parker, piano and harpsichord Piano virtuoso Jon Kimura Parker plays Mozart’s hauntingly beautiful Piano Concerto No. 21, then makes an amazing switch to the harpsichord with a chamber ensemble for Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5.

OSMO VÄNSKÄ, MUSIC DIRECTOR

HILARY HAHN

Hear our Minnesota stars in the program they’re taking to Carnegie. This all-Sibelius program features the sweeping Romanticism of the composer’s early symphonies, as well as the breathtaking virtuosity of American violinist Hilary Hahn.

612.371.5656 / minnesotaorchestra.org / Orchestra Hall PHOTOS Vänskä: Joel Larson; Kullervo Art: Akseli Gallen-Kallela; Hipster vs. Nerd Art: Emily Marti; Lazurus: Travis Anderson; Hahn: Michael Patrick O’Leary; Varga: Felix Broede; Parker: Tara McMullen Creative Partner:

JON KIMURA PARKER

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