The Two Gay Geeks received this press release form our good friends at Arizona Opera concerning the launch of their new re-imagined season and what that will look like.
Have a read.
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ARIZONA OPERA TO LIVESTREAM
VIRTUAL STUDIO SPOTLIGHT SERIES RECITAL ONLINE OCTOBER 2 AT 6 PM
Arizona Opera, the state’s leading opera company, is proud to open its Reimagined 2020/21 Season with the inaugural presentation of the Studio Spotlight Series on Friday, October 2 at 6 PM
Featuring members of the esteemed Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio, the Studio Spotlight Series inaugural recital will take place at the newly-named Shoshana B. and Robert S. Tancer Plaza at the Arizona Opera Center, and the livestream will be available at no cost on Arizona Opera’s new online channel, “Arizona Opera OnDemand” (ondemand.azopera.org).
The performance of the Studio Spotlight Series on October 2 will be performed in front of a small, socially distanced audience of invited guests. Live attendance at future performances will be made available to the public, subject to health and safety guidelines, and the Series will be regularly streamed throughout the year on Arizona Opera OnDemand.
The October 2 Studio Spotlight premiere will feature performances by 2020/21 Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio Artists Cheyanne Coss (soprano), Caitlin Gotimer (soprano), Michaela Wolz (mezzo- soprano), Terrence Chin-Loy (tenor), Rob McGinness (baritone), and Robert Bosworth (pianist). This year’s Studio also includes Haley Stamats, the program’s first assistant stage director, whose work will be featured in various programs over the course of the season.
Each of these artists went through a rigorous process to be accepted into the prestigious program, which provides well-rounded, personalized instruction in order to propel each artist to the next level of their performance career. The Pullin Studio helps to bridge the gap between academic studies and a professional career in the operatic field.
Christopher Cano, Arizona Opera’s Head of Music & Director of the Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio, said, “I am thrilled Arizona Opera will present these six extraordinary talents through the Studio Spotlight Series. Audiences from around the globe will have an opportunity to tune in from the comfort of their own home to see what the Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio is all about on a monthly basis, and watch these artists in performances of operatic favorites over the course of the season.”
Additional Studio Spotlight Series engagements will be held throughout Arizona Opera’s Reimagined 2020/21 Season, with future dates and times to be announced in the coming weeks.
This Studio Spotlight Series concert also launches “Arizona Opera OnDemand,” a vibrant new online video platform that will bring the works of one of the world’s most treasured art forms into homes across the state and the world via streaming devices, including computers, phones, tablets and televisions.
Joseph Specter, the company’s President and General Director, said “Arizona Opera is proud to support the growth of these exciting young artists, and to share their work through this new Series with the world on our new channel, Arizona Opera OnDemand. The inaugural presentation of the Studio Spotlight Series on October 2 at Tancer Plaza is an important launch to an innovative season that we hope will bring the works of our company into the homes of tens of thousands of people. We eagerly look forward to sharing this Series and our whole Reimagined Season with our Arizona Opera family, and those new to our organization and to our art form.”
The program for the October 2 concert, which will run approximately 45 minutes, is as follows:
From Faust
“Air de bijoux”
C. Gounod
Caitlin Gotimer, soprano
Boy meets girl. Girl refuses him. Boy loves her even more. Boy is actually an old man that made a deal with the devil to regain his youth. In “Air de bijoux”, our young heroine, Marguerite, realizes she loves Faust, too, after receiving a beautiful gift of jewelry from him courtesy of Méphistophélès, the devil himself.
From La Clemenza di Tito
“Parto, ma tu ben mio”
W. A. Mozart
Michaela Wolz, mezzo-soprano
The Clemency of Tito is a story of a great ruler, Tito, who puts everyone else’s needs above his own. Sesto, Tito’s friend, plans to kill him to show his love for Queen Vitellia who is actually in love with Tito and, blinded by her jealousy, seeks revenge. In “Parto, parto ma tu ben mio”, Sesto’s love for Vitellia finally overrides his friendship with Tito. He will go to commit the murder of his friend but only if he can have one loving glance from Vitellia before he leaves.
From Pique Dame
“Vi tak pechalny”
P. Tchaikovsky
Rob McGinness, baritone
In The Queen of Spades (Pique Dame) forbidden lovers, Hermann and Liza, live in a society of class restrictions and extreme greed that celebrates the pastime of gambling. Liza’s grandmother, the Countess, was a successful gambler and is said to hold the winning secret in three cards and a supernatural melodrama continues to unfold. In “Vi tak pechalny”, Prince Yetelsky, Liza’s betrothed, declares he would do anything for Liza but also feels held back by her and is unhappy.
From Turandot
“Tu che di gel sei cinta”
G. Puccini
Caitlin Gotimer, soprano
Turandot is a Persian tale set in China with an Italian twist. The prince, Calaf, wins the hand of the ice queen, Turandot, by answering three impossible riddles correctly. An enraged Turandot pleads with him to have it not be so and he gives her a riddle—if she can find out his name by dawn then he will die. In “Tu che di gel sei cinta”, Turandot has captured Liù, a dutiful slave girl in love with Calaf, to torture out his name from her. Liù confronts the ice queen talking of care and compassion through love rather than being encircled by ice. Liù then grabs a soldier’s knife and stabs herself—making the ultimate sacrifice of love.
From Vanessa
“Must the Winter Come So Soon”
S. Barber
Michaela Wolz, mezzo-soprano
Vanessa is about a delusional Vanessa who lives with her mother, the Baroness, and her niece, Erika, as she waits for her lover, Anatol, to return. Scared of seeing herself age, Vanessa has covered all the mirrors in the house. A young Anatol, the former lover’s son by the same name, arrives and a love triangle ensues between the older Vanessa, the young Anatol, and her niece. In “Must the Winter Come so Soon”, Erika asks her aunt Vanessa why winter is coming soon and with it a gray dreariness to the castle which serves as a metaphorical foreshadowing of what’s to come.
From L’Elisir d’Amore
“Come Paride vezzoso”
G. Donizetti
Rob McGinness, baritone
The Elixir of Love is a romp. It has a beautiful girl, a lovesick boy, gossiping townsfolk and a quack-doctor that sells a potion to the boy to make the girl fall in love with him—only the elixir is actually just wine. In “Come Paride vezzoso”, Sergeant Belcore has come into town and starts courting Adina who lovesick Nemorino also loves. Belcore offers Adina flowers and talks of her beautiful body while also complimenting himself along the way.
From L’Elisir d’Amore
“Final Scene”
G. Donizetti
Cheyanne Coss, soprano
and Terrence Chin-Loy, tenor
In the Final Scene of Elixir, Nemorino has signed up to be a soldier and is leaving the town as a way to goad Adina in revealing her true feelings for him. He knows she loves him if only by a tear on her cheek when he ignored her earlier. Adina tells him to take, “prendi”, the contract she bought off of Belcore to gain his freedom. It’s proof of her love for him. But Nemorino still wants to hear Adina say the words—and she finally does.
Robert Bosworth, pianist
Those planning to watch should visit Arizona Opera OnDemand at ondemand.azopera.org on
Friday, October 2 at 6 PM.
Arizona Opera is deeply grateful to our 2020/21 Reimagined Season Lead Digital Sponsors, Ron and Kay McDougall.
Studio Spotlight Series
The Studio Spotlight Series is sponsored, in part, by Marlys A. Beider
Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio
Christopher Cano, Director of the Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio
Sponsored by Karen Fruen
Cheyanne Coss, soprano
Sponsored by Norman C. and Donna L. Harbert
Caitlin Gotimer, soprano
Sponsored by Peter and Lee Larson
Michaela Wolz, mezzo-soprano
Sponsored by Drs. Tom and Ginger Collier
Terrence Chin-Loy, tenor
Sponsored by Don Williams and Dan A. Klingenberg*, and Alan and Linda Englander
Rob McGinness, baritone
Sponsored by Roma Wittcoff
Robert Bosworth, pianist
Sponsored by Karen Fruen
Haley Stamats, assistant stage director
Sponsored by Helen Pierson, Shoshana B. Tancer, and Ole and Teresa Thienhaus
About Arizona Opera
Arizona Opera, entering its 49th season, produces fully staged operas, concerts, and collaborative programs throughout the state of Arizona each season, and is among only a handful of companies in the U.S. that performs annually in more than one city. Arizona Opera elevates the transformative power of storytelling through music, cultivating community and strengthening a state and people as adventurous and diverse as the place they call home. Since its inaugural year in 1971, Arizona Opera has produced more than 175 fully staged operas and concerts. The company’s artistic history is rich with a blend of opera’s traditional repertoire featuring baroque, bel canto, and verismo works, turn-of-the-century masterpieces, operettas, and contemporary operas.
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