Concert: July 2008 Archives

Singers Gather in Seattle for "Wagnerian Idol"

Second International Wagner Competition to be Held at McCaw Hall August 16

Competition Includes Audience-Voted Prize

Seattle – Eight singers from around the world will compete in Seattle Opera's second International Wagner Competition on Saturday, August 16. The first competition held in 2006 was dubbed "Wagnerian Idol", reflecting the audience-vote component to the competition. Seattle Opera is internationally well-known for its focus on the works of Richard Wagner, including the company's signature performances of Der Ring des Nibelungen. The company's next complete Ring cycle will be performed in August 2009.

Each of the finalists – aged between 25 and 39 – will perform two arias accompanied by the Seattle Opera Orchestra conducted by Asher Fisch, Seattle Opera's principal guest conductor. Full program details are listed below. The finalists were selected via a series of international auditions. They are competing for two cash prizes of $15,000. In addition to the two main prizes, there is an "Audience Choice" prize and an "Orchestra Choice" prize.

The judges for Seattle Opera's second International Wagner Competition are an international group of authorities in all aspects of opera production – Hans-Joachim Frey, general director and chief executive officer of the Theater Bremen, which includes Oper Bremen; tenor Ben Heppner, well known for his acclaimed performances of the Wagnerian repertoire; stage director Peter Kazaras, a Seattle Opera Artistic Director of the company's Young Artists Program; Pamela Rosenberg, administrative director of the Berlin Philharmonic and former general director of San Francisco Opera; Stephen Wadsworth, frequent director of Seattle Opera productions, including its highly praised 2001 and 2005 Ring cycles and upcoming 2009 Ring; and Eva Wagner-Pasquier, the daughter of Wolfgang Wagner and an artistic advisor to the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

The second International Wagner Competition is once again made possible by a generous contribution from the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences.

The first International Wagner Competition, held in August 2006, was created by Seattle Opera's General Director Speight Jenkins to identify and recognize qualified, emerging opera singers who demonstrate clear promise of an important career in the Wagnerian repertoire. The winners of the 2006 competition were soprano Miriam Murphy from Dublin, Ireland and baritone James Rutherford from Dulwich, England.

International Wagner Competition
Saturday, August 16, 2008
7:30PM
Marion Oliver McCaw Hall
Seattle, Washington

For tickets and information, call 800-426-1619 or 206-389-7676 or visit www.seattleopera.org

The music of Kaija Saariaho will be widely heard in the United States this summer. Saariaho's second opera 'Adriana Mater' will get its U.S. premiere on July 26, 2008, at the Santa Fe opera. In August, Saariaho is featured as the composer-in-residence of the Mostly Mozart festival in Lincoln Center, New York. The festival programme includes for example the U.S. premiere of the oratorio 'La Passion de Simone' on August 13, as well as Saariaho's cello concerto 'Notes on Light' (Aug 14) and the string quartet 'Terra Memoria' (Aug 21).

Full news in more depth can be found at http://www.fimic.fi/news

Pianist Charles Rosen, the 81-year-old classical music legend and Musical America’s 2008 Instrumentalist of the Year, will perform four works by Elliott Carter in Tanglewood’s “Elliott Carter Centenary Celebration” all in Seiji Ozawa Hall. On Sunday, July 20, at 10 a.m. he will play Carter’s Double Concerto for Piano and Harpsichord with Ursula Oppens in a concert conducted by Oliver Knussen. The following day on Monday, July 21, he will perform Carter’s Piano Sonata in the Prelude Concert at 5 p.m. And on Thursday, July 24, he will play 90+ and will join cellist Fred Sherry in Carter’s Elegy in the 5 p.m. Prelude Concert.

For tickets and information, call SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200 or visit the Tanglewood Web site at www.tanglewood.org

Charles Rosen and Elliott Carter have been lifelong friends. It’s been said that there is no other pianist who understands Carter's music better, and in fact, Charles Rosen was one of four pianists who commissioned Night Fantasies from Elliott Carter (Ursula Oppens, Gilbert Kalish, and the late Paul Jacobs were the others), Charles Rosen, at 81 years of age, is one of the most widely respected pianists of our time, internationally acclaimed for his performances and recordings of a diverse repertoire ranging from Bach to works by today’s most important composers. His combination of musical sensitivity and powerful intelligence produces interpretations of exceptional understanding and impact, as Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung noted when it wrote: “Rosen’s piano playing is riveting in the way it combines formal clarity and musical insight with an uncommon gestural and speech-like expressiveness.”

Featured Artists:

Los Angeles Philharmonic
Bramwell Tovey, conductor
Cyndia Sieden, soprano
Pacific Chorale (John Alexander, artistic director)
Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (Anne Tomlinson, artistic director)

TOVEY Urban Runway
STRAUSS  Don Juan
ORFF  Carmina Burana
 
Bramwell Tovey and the Los Angeles Philharmonic will launch the annual Tuesday/Thursday Classical concerts under the stars. The program concludes with Carl Orff's influential and powerful Carmina Burana, music heard so often at the movies and on TV.

To purchase tickets, visit: http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/tickets/performance_detail.cfm?id=3508
Enter code: BOWL

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Featured Artists:

Los Angeles Philharmonic
Bramwell Tovey, conductor
Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano (Carmen)
Pacific Chorale (John Alexander, Artistic Director; Robert Istad, Chorus Master)
Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (Anne Tomlinson, music director)

One of the most passionate and tuneful of all operas comes to life with the sultry Denyce Graves in the title role.  A benefit for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Musicians Pension Fund.

To purchase tickets, visit:
http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/tickets/performance_detail.cfm?id=3513
Enter code: BOWL