Ensemble Parallèle - Contemporary Chamber Opera

Commemoration of the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11

admin — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:33:38 +0000

COMMEMORATION OF THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2:00 PM: OPERA IN THE PARK

San Francisco’s Civic Observance Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Sharon Meadow, Golden Gate Park

From the San Francisco Opera:
“To commemorate the tenth anniversary of 9/11, San Francisco Opera and our community partners will present a special Opera in the Park concert to honor the memory of those who perished on 9/11 and celebrate the service and heroism of the Bay Area’s first responders including fire fighters, paramedics and police, among others.

Music Director Nicola Luisotti will conduct the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Chorus and acclaimed soloists from the Company’s fall 2011 season in a concert featuring Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s masterpiece, the Requiem in D minor, and inspirational works by American composers Harold Arlen, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and John Williams, as well as music by Christopher Theofanidis, the award-winning composer of Heart of a Soldier.

General Director David Gockley will serve as master of ceremonies and will be joined on stage by a roster of distinguished political, interfaith and civic dignitaries offering remarks on this national day of remembrance.”

Ensemble Parallèle’s Opera Four Saints: From the Stage

admin — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 22:40:40 +0000

IN THE NEWS

ENSEMBLE PARALLÈLE’S OPERA FOUR SAINTS IN THREE ACTS: FROM THE STAGE

To know to know to love her so is the first line of Four Saints in Three Acts, the 1928 opera by Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein writes Michael Strickland. Michael is also known as SFMike who writes the Civic Center blog. Here is his account as a supernumerary (an extra) in EP’s production.

“To know to know to love her so” is the first line of Four Saints in Three Acts, the 1928 opera by Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein. Getting to know the opera after two weeks of daily rehearsals with Ensemble Parallele and the director Brian Staufenbiel (left center) has fulfilled the predictive nature of that opening line. Hearing this opera sung repeatedly by a superb cast of a dozen singers over and over has been an immersive education and a joy.

We moved from our rehearsal space at SFMOMA to the surprisingly lavish Novellus Theatre at Yerba Buena Center across the street this week, and opened with a sold-out preview performance on Thursday evening and an official opening on Friday. (Left to right, Brooke Munoz, Nicole Takesono, Joe Meyers, Eugene Brancoveanu, and Brendan Hartnett.)

The production design is about as far as can be from the cellophane original but it’s elegant, beautiful and fits the piece perfectly. (Dancing the tango above are Eugene Brancoveanu with Heidi Moss, and Nicole Takesono with Joe Meyers.)

I am one of two evil supernumeraries (left, with Mike Harvey on the right and Eugene Brancoveanu as Saint Ignatius in the center) who move furniture and singers around while occasionally playing a cop and a baliff and, during the tango, an Isadora Duncan dancing male couple. Yes, I am having too much fun.

More about the production, cast and the reviews:Read More

San Francisco Opera’s Heart of a Soldier

admin — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 15:44:05 +0000

IN THE NEWS

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA’S HEART OF A SOLDIER:

A COMMEMORATION OF THE 10th ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

Opening on September 10, 2011 • Opera House • San Francisco

Susannah Biller is Lolita the Bridesmaid and Dan Snyder is Dex in San Francisco Opera’s World Premiere of Christopher Theofanidis Heart of a Soldier, opening on the eve of the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Heart of a Soldier tells the story of Rick Rescorla, a British-born adventurer who fought in Vietnam before settling in New York as head of security for a brokerage firm based in the World Trade Center. On September 11, 2001, his extraordinary courage and calmness in a crisis paid off: Rescorla led all of the 2,700 people under his care to safety—literally singing them down the stairs—before heading back into the burning building for one last check. He never emerged.

There are several Heart of a Soldier events scheduled throughout the Bay Area.
http://sfopera.com/Season-Tickets/2011-2012-Season/Heart-of-a-Soldier/soldierevents.aspx

Biller will appear as Daisy and Snyder as Tom, her husband, in Ensemble Parallèle’s world premiere of the chamber orchestration of the opera The Great Gatsby. Composer John Harbison drew on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s tragic 1925 portrait of the Jazz Age for the original version of the opera commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera in 1999. Jacques Desjardins re-orchestration provides an intense, intimate audience experience of this masterwork. The opera will be presented on February 10-11-12, 2012 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Save the date.

This is the fourth major presentation of fully staged contemporary chamber operas by Ensemble Parallèle. Gatsby follows last year’s Orphée by Philip Glass, Alban Berg’s Wozzeck in 2010 and Lou Harrison’s Young Caesar in 2007 — all to acclaim from audiences and critics.

Ensemble Parallèle’s artistic team of Artistic Director/Conductor Nicole Paiement and Production Designer/Stage Director Brian Staufenbiel again collaborate on EP’s most ambitious production to date. The cast of 11 singers plus chorus and an orchestra of 30 are featured in an art deco inspired, multimedia staging of this conflict between old money, nouveau riche and working class Americans tangled in a downward spiral of decadence.

Susannah Biller, soprano, is an Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera, and appeared as Eurydice in Ensemble Parallèle’s 2010 production of Philip Glass’Orphée.

Eugene Brancoveanu; Susannah Biller

Dan Snyder, who plays Tom, is known for his dramatic stage presence and his adept musicianship. He has performed in major venues throughout the USA, and in South America, Germany and most recently Africa.

The Ring of the Nibelungen: Dan Snyder