Antony & Cleopatra From Curtis Opera Theatre this March! 03-01-2010 Kimmel Center Presents Curtis Opera Theatre's Antony & Cleopatra: Celebrating Samuel Barber in the First of the Sold-Out Perelman Series Productions! Last spring, the 2010 Opera at the Perelman Series sold out in less than 90 days as part of the Opera Company of Philadelphia's subscription campaign. Featuring Antony and Cleopatra and Orphee et Eurydice -- the latter of which now features two additional performances in June to accommodate audience demand -- Philadelphia's opera lovers made it clear that they love opera not only on stage at the Academy of Music, but in the intimate jewelbox Perelman Theater, as well! The love story of the ages, Antony and Cleopatra follows the Roman general Marc Antony and the queen Cleopatra as they weave their way through deception, political intrigue, and passions as hot as the sands of Egypt. Chas Rader-Shieber directs the fully staged production which is sung in English, with scenic design by David Zinn, costume design by Jacob A. Climer (sample sketch below) and lighting design by Lenore Doxsee. This fully staged production -- which features sold-out performances on March 17, 19, and 21m -- is part of the festivities marking the 100th birthday of famed Curtis alumnus composer Samuel Barber, and is produced by Curtis Opera Theatre in association with the Opera Company of Philadelphia and Kimmel Center Presents. This marks the third production as a part of this collaborative partnership, which first brought the Philadelphia Premiere of Grammy-winning composer Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar to the stage in 2008, and last year realized a riveting production of Berg's Wozzeck starring Tony-winning Curtis alumnus Shuler Hensley. Commissioned for the opening of the new opera house at Lincoln Center in 1966, Antony and Cleopatra was one of the greatest tributes to Barber’s career — and, ironically, his nemesis. The overblown Zeffirelli production created for the opera's premiere, with its complicated and problematic paraphernalia, eclipsed for the most part any serious evaluation of the music. In one scene there were 160 on stage -- including three horses, two camels, an elephant, and sixty-five senators. Barber, who believed the opera contained some of his best work (an appraisal critics later echoed), was not at all happy. "As far as I’m concerned," he said, "the production had nothing to do with what I had imagined." Over the next decade, Barber worked on revising the opera; the new version, staged and directed by Gian Carlo Menotti, placed the lovers into sharper focus and diminished the importance of the world at large. Elements of grand-opera spectacle are shunned in favor of a more intimate production in which the chorus, as in Greek tragedy, sings from each side of the stage. Antony and Cleopatra contains some of Barber’s most dramatically realized vocal music; his particular taste for the play of orchestral color, his treatment of individual instruments with exquisite subtlety of relief, and his ability to handle large blocks of sound that suddenly and dramatically dissolve into chamber music are living tokens of a great musical imagination. With three sold-out performances, orders are currently pouring in for the 2011 Perelman Series, which features Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen from Curtis Opera Theatre, with the American Premiere of Hans Werner Henze's Phaedra produced by the Opera Company of Philadelphia. And a reminder that while Antony and Cleopatra is sold-out, two additional performances are currently filling up for Orphee et Eurydice in June, and the best way to ensure seats for next season is to subscribe to the Perelman Series today! Want to learn more about Antony & Cleopatra? OCP Community Programs has great resources for you! Wednesday, March 10 at 7:30pm: See Antony & Cleopatra at the movies. Bryn Mawr Film Institute hosts the multi-Oscar-winning film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Click here for more info! Sunday, March 14 from 2-3pm: Taste of Opera: Antony & Cleopatra Join OCP Director of Community Programs Michael Bolton at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as he previews Samuel Barber's masterpiece, featuring excerpts from the opera and other Barber vocal works as performed by production stars! Download OCP's Free Podcast on Antony & Cleopatra! A great way to enjoy background information and plot to prepare yourself for this rarely-performed Barber gem! ~ Antony & Cleopatra is generously funded by The Pew Center for the Arts & Heritage, through the Philadelphia Music Project, and by The William Penn Foundation. Opera at the Perelman's Oprhee & Eurydice is generously funded by the Otto Haas Charitable Trust #2. With thanks to Barbara Heyman and Curtis Institute of Music's Overtones magazine, Spring 2010 for the core of this article.
Kimmel Center Presents Curtis Opera Theatre's Antony & Cleopatra: Celebrating Samuel Barber in the First of the Sold-Out Perelman Series Productions!
Last spring, the 2010 Opera at the Perelman Series sold out in less than 90 days as part of the Opera Company of Philadelphia's subscription campaign. Featuring Antony and Cleopatra and Orphee et Eurydice -- the latter of which now features two additional performances in June to accommodate audience demand -- Philadelphia's opera lovers made it clear that they love opera not only on stage at the Academy of Music, but in the intimate jewelbox Perelman Theater, as well!
The love story of the ages, Antony and Cleopatra follows the Roman general Marc Antony and the queen Cleopatra as they weave their way through deception, political intrigue, and passions as hot as the sands of Egypt. Chas Rader-Shieber directs the fully staged production which is sung in English, with scenic design by David Zinn, costume design by Jacob A. Climer (sample sketch below) and lighting design by Lenore Doxsee.
This fully staged production -- which features sold-out performances on March 17, 19, and 21m -- is part of the festivities marking the 100th birthday of famed Curtis alumnus composer Samuel Barber, and is produced by Curtis Opera Theatre in association with the Opera Company of Philadelphia and Kimmel Center Presents. This marks the third production as a part of this collaborative partnership, which first brought the Philadelphia Premiere of Grammy-winning composer Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar to the stage in 2008, and last year realized a riveting production of Berg's Wozzeck starring Tony-winning Curtis alumnus Shuler Hensley.
Commissioned for the opening of the new opera house at Lincoln Center in 1966, Antony and Cleopatra was one of the greatest tributes to Barber’s career — and, ironically, his nemesis. The overblown Zeffirelli production created for the opera's premiere, with its complicated and problematic paraphernalia, eclipsed for the most part any serious evaluation of the music. In one scene there were 160 on stage -- including three horses, two camels, an elephant, and sixty-five senators.
Barber, who believed the opera contained some of his best work (an appraisal critics later echoed), was not at all happy. "As far as I’m concerned," he said, "the production had nothing to do with what I had imagined."
Over the next decade, Barber worked on revising the opera; the new version, staged and directed by Gian Carlo Menotti, placed the lovers into sharper focus and diminished the importance of the world at large. Elements of grand-opera spectacle are shunned in favor of a more intimate production in which the chorus, as in Greek tragedy, sings from each side of the stage.
Antony and Cleopatra contains some of Barber’s most dramatically realized vocal music; his particular taste for the play of orchestral color, his treatment of individual instruments with exquisite subtlety of relief, and his ability to handle large blocks of sound that suddenly and dramatically dissolve into chamber music are living tokens of a great musical imagination.
With three sold-out performances, orders are currently pouring in for the 2011 Perelman Series, which features Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen from Curtis Opera Theatre, with the American Premiere of Hans Werner Henze's Phaedra produced by the Opera Company of Philadelphia. And a reminder that while Antony and Cleopatra is sold-out, two additional performances are currently filling up for Orphee et Eurydice in June, and the best way to ensure seats for next season is to subscribe to the Perelman Series today!
Want to learn more about Antony & Cleopatra?
OCP Community Programs has great resources for you!
Wednesday, March 10 at 7:30pm: See Antony & Cleopatra at the movies. Bryn Mawr Film Institute hosts the multi-Oscar-winning film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Click here for more info!
Sunday, March 14 from 2-3pm: Taste of Opera: Antony & Cleopatra Join OCP Director of Community Programs Michael Bolton at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as he previews Samuel Barber's masterpiece, featuring excerpts from the opera and other Barber vocal works as performed by production stars!
Download OCP's Free Podcast on Antony & Cleopatra! A great way to enjoy background information and plot to prepare yourself for this rarely-performed Barber gem!
~
Antony & Cleopatra is generously funded by The Pew Center for the Arts & Heritage, through the Philadelphia Music Project, and by The William Penn Foundation.
Opera at the Perelman's Oprhee & Eurydice is generously funded by the Otto Haas Charitable Trust #2.
With thanks to Barbara Heyman and Curtis Institute of Music's Overtones magazine, Spring 2010 for the core of this article.
