Bits

New Windsor, NY -- Metropolitan Opera luminaries Elizabeth Futral, soprano, Jane Bunnell, mezzo-soprano, and Barry Banks, tenor, joined by New York City Opera bass-baritone Marc Embree and pianist Susan Caldwell, take the stage on Saturday, December 3, at 7:00pm for A Hudson Valley Holiday: Met Opera Stars Gala Benefit Concert. This dazzling evening marks the first gala benefit supporting the Opera Company of the Highlands under the direction of its new Artistic Director Cori Ellison.

This festive, holiday-themed evening benefiting the OCH features the World Premiere of a brand-new arrangement of the Hanukkah hymn Ma'oz tsur, composed especially for the Opera Company of the Highlands Chamber Chorus (under the direction of Dan Whitener) by New York composer Mary Feinsinger. The program also includes holiday favorites such as solo selections from Handel's Messiah, as well as works by Saint-Saëns, Sibelius, Reger, Yon, and Ives, and African-American spirituals and traditional Spanish, Italian, French, German, Irish, and Finnish songs of the season.

The benefit concert will support The Opera Company of the Highlands, the vital young opera troupe which is an arts cooperative in the Hudson Valley dedicated to both artistic excellence and community service. Ellison's inaugural season, Falling for Don Juan, launched on November 21 with a screening of The Adventures of Don Juan at the Downing Film Center in Newburgh, NY.

The company's season culminates in staged performances of Mozart's Don Giovanni in June. Other events leading up to this production include the First Annual Claudia Cummings "Opera Idol" Competition on January 21, a "town meeting" about the Don Giovanni production, lectures and interactive discussions led by Ellison, and OCH's own crackerjack chorus in Una noche en Sevilla, a benefit tribute to Don Juan's hometown and all [musical] things Spanish, on April 28.

Founded in the spring of 2005 by the distinguished American soprano Claudia Cummings, the Opera Company of the Highlands has presented eleven full-length operas, including La bohème, Madama Butterfly, Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, Hansel and Gretel, Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Rigoletto, as well as numerous concerts and outreach events. It is a 501(c)(3) independent non-profit performing arts organization.

"A Hudson Valley Holiday" takes place at the Union Presbyterian Church, 44 Balmville Road, Newburgh, NY. Tickets are $50 and include a gala post-concert reception; or $35 for the concert only. For tickets, call (845) 565-4148

New York, NY (November 25, 2011) – The Enchanted Island, a world premiere work that combines Baroque music with a new, English-language libretto featuring characters from Shakespeare’s The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, will premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on December 31, 2011. Devised and written by the acclaimed British theater artist Jeremy Sams in his Met debut, The Enchanted Island will be conducted by renowned Baroque specialist William Christie and seen in a fantastical production by director Phelim McDermott and scenic designer Julian Crouch that blends 18th-century theatrical techniques with advanced video projection designs.

The cast includes a number of the world’s leading virtuoso singers. Joyce DiDonato stars as the sorceress Sycorax and David Daniels is her supernatural foe, the sorcerer Prospero; also featured are Plácido Domingo as Neptune, god of the seas; Danielle de Niese as the air spirit Ariel; Lisette Oropesa as Prospero’s daughter Miranda; Anthony Roth Costanzo as the shipwrecked prince Ferdinand; and Luca Pisaroni as Sycorax’s monstrous son Caliban. The creative team for The Enchanted Island also includes costume designer Kevin Pollard, lighting designer Brian MacDevitt, animation and projection designers Fifty Nine Productions, and choreographer Graciela Daniele.

The musical advisor for the production is Ellen Rosand. The January 21 performance will be transmitted live around the world as part of the The Met: Live in HD series, which is now seen in more than 1,600 movie theaters in 54 countries.

The Enchanted Island is a contemporary take on the 18th-century tradition of operatic “pasticcios” (pastiches), in which new librettos were combined with music from various compositions to create entirely new theatrical pieces. The tradition was particularly popular in London, where Handel was a prominent practitioner. The score for The Enchanted Island comprises selections from a variety of Baroque operas, cantatas, and oratorios, many of which are rarely performed in contemporary opera houses.