The New Haven Symphony Orchestra (NHSO) and Yale Opera will present a fully staged performance of Puccini’s opera Suor Angelica at Puccini, Virtue and Redemption on Thursday, November 20 and Friday, November 21 at 7:30pm at St. Mary’s Church. Led by NHSO Music Director William Boughton, the program also will include the New England premiere of New Haven composer Christopher Theofanidis’ Virtue, featuring guest soprano soloist Tony Arnold, narrator Chris Dickerson, and the Elm City Girls’ Choir.
Music director William Boughton says, “What defines a person’s life as virtuous or sinful? Who deserves forgiveness? These are the themes that we will explore through music in this dramatic program. In addition to performing the New England premiere of Theofanidis’ newest work, we are very fortunate to be able to present a full opera with the incredible talents of Yale Opera. From the costumes to the gorgeous setting of St. Mary’s Church, this will be a completely unique orchestra concert experience.”
Suor Angelica is the second of three one-act operas Puccini composed during World War I, known together as Il trittico (Triptych). Puccini composed his operas to depict situations true to life, never shying away from the earthy and ugly in human nature – as well as never missing a chance to lace realism with melodrama. Suor takes place in a seventeenth-century convent in Italy and tells the story of a Princess (Angelica) who was forced into the convent after giving birth to a child out of wedlock. While at the convent, Anglica learns of the death of her son and struggles between this devastating loss and her search for spiritual redemption.
Suor will feature performers from Yale Opera, costumes by John Carver Sullivan and direction by Marc Verzatt. St. Mary’s Church, the founding church of the Knights of Columbus, will serve as the opera’s set.
Opening the program will be the New England premiere performances of Theofanidis’ Virtue, a commission by a consortium led by the New Haven Symphony. Theofanidis based the story on texts by the medieval mystic, herbalist, playwright, theologian and composer, Saint Hildegard of Bingen. The narrative of Virtue depicts a dramatic encounter between a human soul (portrayed by soprano Tony Arnold) and its temptation and confrontation with the Devil (narrated by Chris Dickerson).
In addition to the two concerts at St. Mary’s, the NHSO and Yale Opera will perform a concert version of Suor Angelica on Saturday, November 22, 2014 at 7:30pm at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Hartford, CT. This performance will not include costumes or staging. For information about this performance, visit www.cathedralofsaintjoseph.com/music-sacredsounds.
Yale Opera is the graduate opera program at the Yale School of Music. This highly selective program is led by Artistic Director Doris Yarick Cross. Over the years, Yale Opera has been very effective at launching successful careers for its graduates. This season alone, Yale Opera alumni are performing at virtually all of the major opera houses in the world including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House—Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera, and San Francisco Opera.
Founded in 1993, The Elm City Girls’ Choir has received national recognition, and has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Walt Disney World. The Choir has performed with many outstanding choral groups, including The American Boychoir, CONCORA, New York Virtuoso Singers, and Yale Schola Cantorum, and with professional orchestras including the Boston Philharmonic, New Haven Symphony, and Moscow State Orchestra. Based in New Haven, Connecticut, ECGC has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe, and has appeared on national television performing with Diana Ross at the women’s finals match of the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament.
Hailed by the New York Times as “a bold, powerful interpreter,” Tony Arnold is recognized internationally as a leading proponent of new music in concert and recording. Since becoming the first-prize laureate of the both the 2001 Gaudeamus International Competition and the 2001 Louise D. McMahon Competition, Ms. Arnold has collaborated with the most cutting-edge composers and instrumentalists on the world stage, receiving consistent critical accolades for a voice of beauty and warmth, an uncanny technical facility, sterling musicianship, and her riveting stage presence. Ms. Arnold is the soprano of the intrepid International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and is one of the most recorded singers of contemporary music, with more than two dozen CDs to her credit.
Christopher Dickerson is an alumnus of the Lyric Opera of Chicago Center for American Artists, and has performed with Connecticut Opera, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Minnesota Opera, and the Caramoor Festival. Dickerson studied at Texas Tech University before joining the professional Resident Artist Program of Opera San José.
Born in Dallas, TX and a graduate of Yale, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Houston, Christopher Theofanidis has been the recipient of the Masterprize, the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Charles Ives Fellowship, among others. He is a former member of the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory and the Juilliard School, and currently teaches at Yale. For the 2006-07 season he was composer-of-the-year of the Pittsburgh Symphony.
Tickets: Single Tickets are $15- 74. Student tickets are $10 and KidTix (children ages 7-17) are free with the purchase of an adult ticket. Blue Star tickets for active military personnel and their immediate families are free. For tickets and information call 203.865.0831 x.21 or visit www.NewHavenSymphony.org.
Pre-Concert Activities:
Symphony Supper: Indulge in a delicious three-course Symphony Supper with other music lovers at Consiglio’s Restaurant at 5:45pm on Thursday, November 20; visit NewHavenSymphony.org or call 203.865.0831 x15 for details.
Prelude: Join composer Christopher Theofanidis for an intriguing FREE pre-concert discussion on Thursday, November 20 from 6:30-7:00pm at 1 Prospect St. (around the corner from St. Mary’s).
Puccini, Virtue and Redemption is sponsored by The Knights of Columbus. The 2014-2015 Season media sponsor is the New Haven Register.
