Symphony stages Rigoletto A 19th Century Action Thriller

Mar 14, 2006

For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie Matlow 326-3136

Spokane the Spokane Symphony will present a creative and imaginative production of Guiseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto on Friday, March 24, at 8 p.m. in the Spokane Opera House under the direction of Music Director Eckart Preu.

Jeffrey Sichel, Associate Director of the Bard College Theatre Program, who retains an active career as a stage director in both opera and theater will join his friends and colleagues, Andrew Hill and Preu, to create this unique and exciting production of one of the standards of operatic production.

An open stage transformed through light and color will create the essence of a shadowy 16th century Mantua where the tragic love triangle between Rigoletto, Gilda and the duke unfolds. Performed by singers using broad gestural movements choreographed with a dance-like precision, the production will include a delicate balance between subtle story telling and grand operatic image, said Jeffery Sichel

Rigoletto has all the qualities to glue the audience to their seat: love, intrigue, sex, jealousy, violence, suspense and drama. Action thrillers are not just in the movies, they appear on stage with music that draws you into the choreography and singing. Censors did not approve of Verdi's concept of morality depicted in the opera; however, most of the censored demands backed down, and Verdi's Rigoletto became one of the greatest successes of his career and remains today one of the most popular and often performed of all his operas. Verdi was the greatest master of the dramatic ensemble in which each character is given his or her own music and separate text, which creates a glorious quartet in the final act.

The cast includes a menacing, charismatic, seducing libertine Duke of Mantua who debauches the daughter of his hunchback jester working at the court of the Duke. The jester seeks revenge on the Duke by hiring an assassin to kill him but in the end the daughter is mistakenly killed.

The Cast:

The Duke of Mantua: Eric Fennell
Rigoletto, the Duke's Jester, a hunchback: Charles Robert Stephens
Sparafucile, a professional assassin: Dean Elzinga
Marullo, a courtier: Max Mendez
Borsa, a courtier: Isai Jess Muñoz
Count Monterone, a nobleman: Dean Elzinga
Maddalena, sister of Sparafucile: Barbara Rearick
Gilda, daughter of Rigoletto: Lambroula Pappas
Giovanna, Gilda's nurse: Emily Callendar
Count Ceprano, a nobleman: William Rhodes
Countess Ceprano: Heather Hotlzapfel
A Page: Heather Holtzapfel
A Usher: Casey Tuckerman
Couriers, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Court, Servants: Spokane Symphony Chorale

The Spokane Symphony Chorale is under the direction of Dr. Lori Wiest. Rigoletto will be sung in Italian with English supertitles.

This concert is underwritten by Washington State University and Kop and Maxine Kopczynski.

Tickets are $15, $23, $31, and $35. Tickets are available in advance without service charge at the Spokane Symphony Ticket office, 818 W. Riverside, Suite 100, or by calling 509-624-1200. Tickets are also available at all TicketsWest outlets or by calling 1-800-325-SEAT or at spokanesymphony.org.

Biographies

JEFFREY SICHEL - holds a Bachelor of Arts from Skidmore College and an Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University, New York. He is Associate Professor and Head of the MFA Directing program at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. His areas of specialization include intercultural theatre, site-specific theatre and opera. Recent productions include Gods and the Good Women, an intercultural adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's play The Good Woman of Sezuan premiered at the Shanghai Theatre Academy in Shanghai, China; Cinederella's Bad Magic, an opera for which he wrote the libretto, which premiered in Moscow at the Dom Cultural Center. Custer and Sitting Bull an opera composed by Kyle Gann premiered at the Kitchen in New York City; the opera Gli Equivoci nel Sembiante by Allesandro Scarlatti performed in Palermo, Italy, at the Teatro Massimo; L'homme Unique, a site-specific theatre work performed in the Chateau of the Marquis de Sade in Lacoste, France; and Schoenberg's opera Die Gluckliche Hand for the American Symphony Orchestra. Sichel was the founder and Artistic Director of the Empty Space Theatre Company in New York (1993-1997). He is a Usual Suspect at the New York Theatre Workshop. Writer, director of over 30 Off and Off-Off Broadway productions over the last 10 years.

ANDREW HILL - Lighting and Stage Design, has a long list of credits, including many with Director Jeff Sichel. His recent work includes Respighi's La bella dormente nel bosco at Spoleto Festival USA and Lincoln Center Festival; Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique, Petrushka, and Dogugaeshi at Lincoln Center and the Japan Society in New York City and around the world; Len Jenkin's Margo Veil and Like I Say at The Flea Theater in New York City; Sam Shepard's The God of Hell at Contemporary American Theater Festival; Big Dance Theater's Shunkin at Jacob's Pillow and The Kitchen; The Alexander Archipenko exhibit at The Ukrainian Museum; The Henry Darger exhibit at The American Folk Art Musuem; and the Fiber Optic Gallery at the Corning Innovation Center. Other work with Jeffrey Sichel includes Gods and the Good Woman at Shanghai Theater Academy, Cinderella's Bad Magic in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and Custer and Sitting Bull at The Kitchen in New York City.

ERIC FENNEL - Originally from Pennsylvania, tenor Eric Fennell received a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Gettysburg College and a Masters in Voice and Artist Diploma from Boston University. Fennel is recognized for his high tenor vocal talent in opera and operetta roles. His experiences include the role of Romeo in Romeo et Juliette, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto as well as many others. He has debuted in Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. He has sung with the San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, Seattle Opera, Boston Lyric Opera and many more. Fennell has performed tenor solos for Mozart's Requiem, Verdi's Requiem, Händel's Messiah, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Haydn's Creation, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, as well as numerous recitals around the country. He now resides in New York City studying voice with Arthur Levy.

CHARLES ROBERT STEPHENS - Stephens is known for his wide span of roles and styles in opera and concert music. Stephens has performed for numerous occasions in Carnegie Hall. His operatic roles include Rigoletto, Amonasro, Rodrigo, Count di Luna and many other leading operas throughout the world. Nationally, he has sung in chamber music performances and recitals which continue to mark him as an accomplished recitalist. In addition to being a part of several world premieres at the Lincoln Center, he has distinguished himself as a Bach and Handel singer, singing the great cantatas and passions each year. He has performed with many orchestras including the Hartford Symphony, Colorado Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, American Classical Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Montevideo, Uruguay and Mexico.

DEAN ELZINGA - With keen theatrical and musical insight and an uncommonly flexible and handsome voice,
Elzinga is among the most sought-after bass-baritones on the concert and opera scene. His recent North American highlights included performing with the San Diego, Long Beach, Eugene Symphony, Ann Arbor and Baltimore, Florida Orchestra, Master Chorale of Washington (at the Kennedy Center) and New West Symphonies. In addition he performed Ramfis in Verdi's Aida for his debut with the Vancouver Opera; and his signature role of Mephistopheles at the Sacramento Opera; and his Chautauqua Festival debut, Uri Segal conducting the Mozart Requiem. Other engagements include with the Seattle Opera, the Portland Symphony, his Opera Omaha debut as Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and his Nashville Symphony debut, Britten's War Requiem.


MAX MENDEZ - Mendez holds a B.A. and M.A. in Music from Eastern Washington University. He is the Opera Plus! Chorus Master in Coeur d'Alene and Choir Director for Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral in Spokane. He also serves as North Idaho Concert Choir Director at North Idaho College and has joined their faculty as Vocal Instructor.

ISAI JESS MUÑOZ - Isai Jess Muñoz has had the honor of singing with The American Symphony Orchestra, The Ohio Light Opera, The Cincinnati Opera, The Center for Contemporary Opera, The New Jersey Verismo Opera, Ars Musica of New York, The Westchester Chorale, New York's 92nd Street Y, The Bard Summerscape Festival and the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival of Scotland. He is a two-time winner of The Dayton Opera Guild Competition and grand-prize winner of The National Orpheus Competition. Muñoz holds a Master's Degree in Vocal Performance from The Manhattan School of Music and a Bachelors Degree in Vocal Performance and Acting from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

BARBARA REARICK - A native of Pennsylvania, mezzo-soprano Barbara Rearick studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies in Suffolk, England. Her repertoire embraces opera, oratorio, lieder, and popular American song. She made her English debut at the 1987 Aldeburgh Festival and her Carnegie Hall debut in Handel's Messiah in 1993. She has given recitals with composer-pianist Sir Richard Rodney Bennett throughout Great Britain and the United States, and she has also sung with the Britten-Pears Ensemble.

LAMBROULA MARIA PAPPAS - A native from British Columbia, Pappas received her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance and a Master of Music in Opera from the University of British Columbia. Her sparkling coloratura and shimmering voice excels in opera, oratorio, concert and recital. As a rapidly emerging young singer, her career has led her to operas nationally, such as Pacific Opera Victoria and the Montreal Opera, and international performance halls. She received first place at the Metropolitan Opera Competition in Seattle and has placed in international competitors. Pappas has also been the recipient of several prestigious grants from various organizations in Canada.

EMILY MULLER CALLENDER - has performed with the Coeur d'Alene, Oregon East, and Grande Ronde Symphony Orchestras. She performed Graduate Recital last February at Eastern Washington University, where she was a student of Patricia Blankenship and Randel Wagner. Muller Callender was the 2005 winner of the Musicfest Northwest Young Artist's Sister Marietta Coyle award, and of the Eastern Washington/Northern Idaho division National Association Teachers of Singing competition.

WILLIAM RHODES - has performed over 50 opera and 25 musical theatre roles. He has soloed with most major U.S. orchestras. He has performed at Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center. He has sung on NBC's Today show. He has soloed with may festivals, including Spoleto, the Aspen music and Camel Bach festivals.