 Issue 10.7.1 ..........
Newsletter of the Colorado Opera Network ............5 July 2010
  Dr. Rebecca Koenigberg
has enjoyed a marvelous combination of performing and teaching
throughout her career. She has maintained and run private studios from
St. Louis, MO, to Brooklyn, NY, performed throughout the United States
and exotic locations such as Tel Aviv, Israel, and now has chosen one
of her favorite places to live: Denver, CO. Rebecca has been a national
finalist in the Metropolitan Opera auditions. a finalist in the San
Francesco Opera competition, the Eleanor Lieber Awards and the Young
Patronesses of the Opera Competition in Miami. She has performed lead
roles with the Milwaukee Skylight Opera, New England Lyric, Chicago
Pocket Opera, and Ohio Light Opera. She performed her favorite role of
Marie in Donizetti’s La Fille du
Regiment with the Israel Vocal Arts institute in Tel Aviv.
Rebecca was also seen in the role of Frasquita in Opera Colorado’s
production of Carmen in 2005.
She has sung with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Musica Sacra
Orchestra, the Arapahoe Philharmonic and the Longmont Symphony
Orchestra and Chorale, and she was the featured soprano soloist with
the Larimer Chorale in their production of Orff's Catulli Carmina and Carmina Burana excerpts. While an
assistant professor of music education at Mississippi State University
in Starkville, she was a regular guest artist with the Meridian
Symphony Orchestra. Rebecca sang the world premiere of John Eaton's
works Notes on Moonlight and Let's Get This Show On the Road
with the Chicago Chamber Players. Rebecca’s first tenure University position was at Mississippi State University, where she had a large studio and took the program from a handful of vocal majors to over 30 in just two years. She now teaches at Regis University in Denver, also assisting in the growth of their small music program and there she teaches Musical Theater History, Performance Class and Opera Scenes. She is also a Performer-in-Residence at the Denver School of the Arts where she coordinates many senior recitals and directs in the Opera Scenes Program each spring. Rebecca teaches and sings in multiple master classes and recitals throughout the academic year. Rebecca’s students have appeared on television productions such as the High School Musical Reality Show and MTV’s Made. Her many scholarship winners have attended prestigious programs such as Carnegie Mellon University, Lewis and Clark College and Oklahoma State University. She was recently awarded the honor of speaking at the national Student NATS workshop at Indiana University where she presented a paper on Haydn and Anne Home Hunter. Her latest passion includes writing children’s musicals based upon the abundance of brilliant children’s literature. Rebecca received her Doctorate and Master's degrees in vocal performance and pedagogy from the University of Colorado in Boulder. She has a Bachelor's degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. (Kaija wants you to know that, in the above photo, that's "Hammy" the Hamster she is holding in her right hand.)  Last Thursday, while Emily
Magee was performing as Lisa in The Queen of Spades in
Barcelona, Brian Noble,
her husband, was in the audience at the Carmike Cinema in Fort Collins
watching a live transmission of the opera. During intermissions and
scene changes, Brian and Emily were exchanging cell phone text
messages. Almost like being there-- and here!!Margaret
Ozaki currently is completing her fourth summer as a Corbett
Opera Fusion Young Artist at Cincinnati
Opera. In August, she will be returning to Colorado, having
completed her doctoral studies at the University of Cincinnati
College-Conservatory of Music. In the past year, she appeared in
workshop performances of Jarrod Radnich's new musical MACAW and presented a
lecture-recital at the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs. Her
document "A Performer's Guide to Minoru Miki's Sohmon III for Soprano, Marimba, and Piano
(1988)" will be published shortly.Laura Begley is at the Amalfi
Coast Music Festival this month. She will be performing in recitals
and scenes as Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte,
Mallika in Delibes’ Lakmé, and Nicklausse in
Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffman. Laura also will be singing
a
mainstage role as Third Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte
conducted by Joseph Walsh.  e-Letter
From Italy: Ciao! I send greetings form beautiful Orvieto,
Italy, a medieval walled town that sits on top of a hill and
it's about an hour north of Rome. The musical festival here, Orvieto Musica,
currently has three components: Trumpetfest, Art of Song, and Chamber
Ensemble. One of my students, Sara
Wise, is participating in the Art of Song portion. I am here
singing as a guest artist with the festival. I've also been
invited to explore the possibilities of starting an opera festival here
in Orvieto next year. After scouting the town and countryside, I'm
proud to announce that I will be launching Opera Orvieto in the summer of 2012.
I'll have more details soon, but I can tell you that it will be a
three-week, intensive Italian experience that will feature daily
Italian lessons and coachings, and a full production of Cosi fan tutte with orchestra. Hope
all is well in sunny Colorado.Central City Opera has
announced the productions for its 2011
Festival:
Bizet's Carmen, Handel's Amadigi di Gaula, and a double bill
of three one-act operas, Puccini's Gianni
Schicchi, Poulenc's Les
Mamelles
de Tiresias, and Weil's Seven
Deadly Sins.Here are two
10-minute videos of excerpts from last Sunday's excellent Arias@Avos in Fort Collins. Click
the triangle in the center of the frame
to play.   Tschaikovsky's Eugene Onegin,
starring René Fleming, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, will be
encored by the Metropolitan Opera in 14 Front Range theaters, starting
at
6:30
pm on
Wednesday, July 7. It also will be shown in nine theatres on Thursday,
July 8, at different times; see the Fathom
Events website for particular times, theatres, ticketing and
additional
information.  Central
City's
Operas:
Running through August
8, the Central City Opera
Festival includes Madama Butterfly with Yunah Lee
(Butterfly), Chad Shelton (Pinkerton), Mika Shigamatsu
(Suzuki), and Grant Youngblood (Sharpless); Offenbach's Orpheus
in
the
Underworld with Joanna Mongiardo (Eurydice), Edward
Mout (Orpheus), Ryan MacPherson (Pluto) and Matthew
Worth (Jupiter); and Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers with Joyce
Castle (Madeline), Emily Pulley (Beatrice), and Keith
Phares (Charlie). See this page for
ticket information.An Invitation to Meet the Artists at Central City: • Saturday, July 10: Have a drink and chat with Composer Jake Heggie and Librettist Gene Scheer of Three Decembers about how they collaborate in creating new American operas in the 21st century. Following their wildly anticipated premiere of Moby Dick in Dallas this past Spring, Jake and Gene will surely be the most sought operatic team for this generation. Williams Stables at 4:45 pm; $35 per person. • Saturday, July 17: Join us for champagne honoring Joyce Castle who is starring as Madeline in Three Decembers, marking her 40th year in opera. Joyce has performed numerous times in Central City including as Queen Elizabeth I in Gloriana and Augusta Tabor, the spurned first wife in The Ballad of Baby Doe. See this page for a collection of video clips celebrating Ms. Castle’s past productions. Williams Stables at 4:45 pm; $35 per person.  DLOG
Party: On Thursday, July
15,
the Denver
Lyric
Opera
Guild Summer Party at
Mt.
Vernon
Country
Club, high above Denver, Marcia
Ragonetti traces her course to singer stardom in
"Mad to Mild to Merry" with Kevin
Kennedy
accompanying. Members and guests are
welcome; the cost is $35.00 per
person. Social
time begins at 11:00 am, lunch at 11:45 am (with two entree
choices) followed by Marcia's program at 1:00 pm. Last Call for Reservations! Due by July 8 to Helen
Santilli 303.948.3609.Figaro in Aspen: Aspen Opera Theater Center will perform Il Barbiere di Siviglia July 15, 17 and 19, La Nozze di Figaro July 31 and August 2 and 4, and The Ghosts of Versailles August 19 and 21. See the Aspen Music Festival website for information and ticketing. (Nikki Boxer will be brodcasting the three operas live on Aspen Public Radio; we will announce the particular dates in e-Media as we receive them.) Western Slope Mikado: The High Desert Opera Summer production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado opens in Montrose at the Pavilion with a performance at 7:30 pm on Friday, July 16, co-sponsored by The Montrose Arts Council and The Magic Circle Players, and then moves to Grand Junction for an opening night performance in the Avalon Theatre at 7:30 pm on Saturday, July 17, with a second performance at 7:30 pm on Saturday, July 24. Click the Box Office link at the HDO website to purchase tickets on line or by phone. Griffey Recital: CU NOW Guest Recital with tenor Anthony Dean Griffey Sunday, July 25, 2 pm, Boulder Public Library, Canyon Theater, 1001 Arapahoe Ave. Tickets for the performance are $30 (General Admission). Call 303.492.8008 for tickets or more information at CU Presents. (See Guest Commentary below.) Aria Concert: Arias@Avos featured singers are Graham Anduri, Stephani Kavas, Alexandra Diessner, Andrew Diessner, Chaazi Munyanya, and Zac Wilson, on Sunday, July 25, 4-6 pm, Avogadro's Number, 605 S. Mason Street, Fort Collins. Sponsored by the Opera Fort Collins Guild, Arias@Avos showcases outstanding regional classical singers. National Convention: The 2010 National Association of Negro Musicians Convention in Colorado Springs will feature music master classes, workshops, seminars, roundtable discussions, competitions, live music performance of jazz, classical and opera, and a gala awards banquet, with special guest musical performers (including jazz songstress Dianne Reeves); lecturers and presenters (including Cliff Jackson, Chapman Nyaho, Robert Sims, Rollo Dilworth, and Julius Williams); and honorees (including George Shirley, John Bowen, Charles Burrell, Martile Rowland, and Arthur Jones). A World Premiere of a Chamber Opera by Julius P. Williams will occur on Monday, July 26, and the William Warfield Voice Masterclass will be taught by George Shirley on Tuesday, July 27. Various locations in Colorado Springs with major gatherings held at the Antlers Hilton Hotel, 4 S. Cascade Ave., July 25-28. Tickets, registration and general information: Shivers Fund at Pikes Peaks Peak Library District and Nation Association of Negro Musicians websites. Crested Butte Opera: La Bohème will be performed July 25, August 3 and 5. Conducted by David Syrus, Head of Music for the Royal Opera of Covent Garden, London, and directed by Metropolitan Opera Stage Director Sarah Meyers, with Keith Miller playing the role of Colline, Gregory Gerbrant will be Marcello, Alok Kumar will be Rodolfo and Sara Stewart will be Mimí. Eaglen in Boulder: Colorado Music Festival presents Jane Eaglen in Epic Opera Thursday, July 29 and 30, 7:30 pm at Chautauqua Auditorium, Boulder. Ms. Eaglen and the CMF Festival Orchestra perform Wagner’s Prelude and Love-Death from Tristan und Isolde and Lorin Maazel's arrangement of The Ring Without Words. CU NOW: In the New Opera Workshop at the University of Colorado, Boulder, College of Music singers will perform well-known pieces by composers Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein followed by an excerpt from Sister Carrie, a new adaptation of Theordore Dreiser's 1900 novel of the same name. Following the performance will be live commentary from the composers. Thursday, July 29, and Friday, July 30, at 7:30 pm, and Saturday, July 31, at 2:00 pm; ATLAS Black Box theater. Single tickets: $15 at this page. (See Guest Commentary next below.)   When I
was at Opera Colorado, I became very excited about new American opera
works when the National Performance Arts Convention came to town. I had
the opportunity to direct several new scenes from some very established
composers at the Ellie and we were concurrently in production for Nixon
in China. That's when I got the bug. Long story short: Since my arrival
at CU, I've brought that bug with me. With the help of Patrick Mason
and an energetic faculty and staff at CU, we are starting a new summer
program. I wanted to tell you a little bit about it and what we are
doing this year. We call it CU
NOW, From Score to Floor! CU New
Opera Workshop is a one-of-a-kind
program that will develop new operatic works in Colorado. Our students
will be working with great composers including Robert
Aldridge, Herschel Garfein (of Elmer Gantry, Rosencrantz and Gildenstern fame),
and CU's own Dan Kellogg to workshop and
perform sections of American opera works that haven't been seen
anywhere else. These sneak previews of future operas are a great chance
for audiences to learn more about how an opera is born. CU NOW will kick off on Sunday, July 25 with a Recital by four-time Grammy Award Winning tenor, Anthony Dean Griffey. Tony has made an international career out of performing lead roles in new American operas (and British Operas and others). He's performed at the Metropolitan Opera (in the lead role of Peter Grimes seen in HD a couple of years ago), San Francisco Opera (he originated the role of Mitch in Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire), the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera (he won a Grammy for his recording of the lead role of Jimmy in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogonney with Audra MacDonald and Patti LuPone!), New York City Opera (he's the best Lennie you have ever seen in Floyd's Of Mice and Men) and the Opera Nationale de Paris to name a few places. We can't wait for him to bring his beautiful voice and dramatic talent to Boulder! Tony and I did our master's together at Eastman and he's been a dear friend since. (We southerners stick together). He's a large talent with a large heart and he'll leave a large impression on yours. He's also agreed to do master classes with our CU NOW artists Monday July 26 and 27 in the evening and those are free and open to the public. So what is going to happen at CU NOW? We begin working daily with our composers in residence the week of the 26th. We'll open our opera workshops to the public July 29-August 7, in the ATLAS Black Box theatre on the CU-Boulder campus (it's a really high-tech new facility-- we'll use projections and lots of interesting high-tech toys!). The evening workshops will include stagings of sections of the new works in progress; performances of arias and scenes from the composers' other works; and conversations with composers, designers, and other artistic folk who help get an opera from initial score to polished production. Every workshop ends with a talkback so that audiences can have a conversation with the composers and performers about these works in progress. The Opera Pronto readers are the PERFECT audiences for this sort of experience. The workshop performances are intentionally inexpensive so we can encourage those with a sincere interest in the craft of opera to become an interactive part of the process. You ARE those people. I'm pretty excited about this program (can you tell?) and what this program might grow in to. It is my dream to be "the place" for composers like Jake Heggie, Ricky Ian Gordon, John Adams, Stephen Sondheim and others to workshop their new musical dramatic works, with great singers, in beautiful, creative surroundings, inhabited by the most intelligent audiences, per capita, of any place in the country (it's true, I couldn't make this stuff up). I'm sure most of you have already heard most of the artists participating in the program this summer: Emily Martin, Christie Hageman, Nicole Vogel, John Lindsey, Lukas Graf and Wei Wu. They are all CU students and have made quite an impression throughout the Colorado area and beyond (Met finalists, Central City mainstage, Opera Colorado mainstage, DLOG winners, and more.) Still have questions about CU NOW? We have answers. Go to CU Presents and check out the offerings we have for Colorado (and visiting out of town) audiences. And as a reminder, you don't want to miss Tony and Robert Spillman performing their American Recital in the Canyon Theater on July 25, Sunday afternoon at 2:00. It's a small house and there won't be one bad seat in the place. Get your tickets before they sell out: then join us for a reception for Tony in the art gallery outside of the theatre and see him in action with our artists in free masterclasses on Monday and Tuesday nights. Thanks for your excited support in keeping this art form alive and well in these United States. See you in July!
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