The Opera Orchestra of New York Announces its 2009-2010 Season

The Opera Orchestra of New York and its founding Music Director Eve Queler today announced the company’s 39th season, opening Nov. 17 with the New York recital debut of Aprile Millo.

The concert is one of four offerings by Opera Orchestra in 2009-10, a season carefully calibrated to balance artistic integrity with fiscal recovery, as the company prepares to return to full operas-in-concert in future seasons.

“We like to call 2009-10 our bridge season,” said Ms. Queler.  “It gives us a wonderful chance to focus on the young singers who have been the core of our productions and who have made extraordinary contributions to our opera concerts.  Nurturing young singers has always been the favorite part of my work with Opera Orchestra.”

“Suspending the opera-in-concert format is a decision we made for reasons of fiscal responsibility,” continued Board President Norman Raben.  “Our concerts this season are smaller in scale so that we can maintain the same high artistic standard for which Opera Orchestra has long been known.”

Aprile Millo New York Recital Debut
Tuesday, November 17, 2009,  8 p.m.
Frederick P. Rose Hall,
Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 60th Street
$85.00, $65.00, $45.00   VIP Package:  Recital + Artist Reception:  $125.00

The “Golden Voiced Diva” celebrates her 25th anniversary with Eve Queler and  The Opera Orchestra of New York, with which she has remained a loyal collaborator since covering – and performing -- the role of Mathilde in “William Tell” in 1984. The soprano is joined by pianist Lucy Arner in a program of lieder, opera and Italian art song in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s intimate, acoustically superb Rose Theater.

Opera Orchestra’s Rising Stars

A new series of intimate and informal dinner-hour recitals and talks, hosted by Metropolitan Opera commentator Ira Siff and featuring Maestro Eve Queler at the piano.  

Tenor Bryan Hymel
Tuesday, December 1, 2010,  6 p.m.
Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center
All tickets $25.00  VIP Package:  Recital + Artist Reception:  $45.00

On December 1, tenor Bryan Hymel sings his favorite arias and chats with Metropolitan Opera commentator Ira Siff. Mr. Hymel, an Opera Orchestra Young Artist alumnus, has made B.F. Pinkerton a signature role worldwide, and recently made his ENO debut in late director Anthony Minghella’s production of “Madama Butterfly.”

Soprano Julianna DiGiacomo
Thursday February 4, 2010, 6 p.m.
Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center
All tickets $25.00   VIP Package:  Recital + Artist Reception:  $45.00

On February 4, 2010 soprano Julianna DiGiacomo, also an Opera Orchestra Young Artist alumna, sings selected repertoire and talks with Ira Siff about her recent La Scala debut as Lucrezia Contarini in Verdi’s I Due Foscari, a role she first sang with the Opera Orchestra in December 2007.

Soprano Eglise Gutiérrez  -  2010 Vidda Award Recital
Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 8 p.m.
Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Center, Goodman House
All tickets $50.00   VIP Package:  Recital + Artist Reception:  $75.00

The final offering of the season is the highly anticipated New York recital debut of soprano Eglise Gutiérrez, made possible by a generous grant from the Vidda Foundation. Ms. Gutiérrez, an Opera Orchestra Young Artist alumna, last sang with Opera Orchestra in 2008 in the leading role of Amina in La Sonnambula. The Cuban-born soprano has a voice that The New York Times has compared to “high quality cashmere.” She partners with pianist Danielle Orlando in a wide ranging program of songs and arias.

Eve Queler, Music Director

As Music Director of The Opera Orchestra of New York, Eve Queler has conducted over 100 operas in concert at Carnegie Hall. Standing out among her many successes are Wagner’s Rienzi and Tristan und Isolde, Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini, Smetana’s Dalibor, and Richard Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae.   She has championed many neglected Russian and Czech operas that are staples in Central Europe but virtually unknown in America.  She was the first conductor here to perform Mussorgsky’s unfinished Khovanshchina with orchestration by Shostakovich, as well as the first Czech-language performance of Janacek’s Katya Kabanova (1979), Jenůfa (1988), and Dvořák’s Rusalka (1987).

Known for her ability to spot new talent, Eve Queler has provided critical early exposure to such opera luminaries such as José Carreras, Renée Fleming, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, James Morris, Aprile Millo, Lauren Flanigan, Stephanie Blythe, and Deborah Voigt.

Eve Queler has guest conducted opera companies worldwide, including the Kirov Opera, Hamburg Oper, Frankfurt Oper, Oper Bonn, the Australian Opera in Sydney and at the Liceu in Barcelona, with Montserrat Caballé and Placido Domingo. In 2004 she led Rossini’s Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra at Buenos Aires’ legendary Teatro Colón.  Her opera gala concerts have included performances at the Salle Pleyel, Paris, and with the Honolulu Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the National Symphony and the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

She has conducted numerous symphony orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Rome Opera, Montreal Symphony and San Antonio Symphony, and The Orchestra Sinfonia Siciliana in Palermo, Italy.  Last April she conducted the Grand Finals Concert for the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition.   Maestro Queler begins her 2009-2010 season conducting Bellini’s Norma in September at the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, Sicily.

Maestro Queler has been named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (one of the highest awards presented by the French government) for her commitment to French operas. She has also received the Sanford Medal, Yale University’s highest musical honor.

The Opera Orchestra of New York     

The Opera Orchestra of New York is a  New York City cultural phenomena. Long noted for important discoveries of repertoire and singers, each performance at Carnegie Hall is judged a “must attend” event for serious opera-goers from around the globe. Year after year, the stars whom Queler has discovered and brought up through the ranks come back to collaborate in new ventures.

The Opera Orchestra of New York has made a powerful and influential impact in the opera world, with sold-out concerts and featuring casts of singers carefully matched to the repertory, from artists of international stature (such as Placido Domingo, Nicolai Gedda, Montserrat Caballé, and Alfredo Kraus) to superlative young singers just launching their careers.

Most importantly, The Opera Orchestra of New York’s pioneering efforts have led national opera companies to add to their permanent repertoires works that received their first major modern hearing at The Opera Orchestra of New York. These include The Metropolitan, Chicago Lyric, San Francisco, and Houston Grand operas; repertoire includes Verdi’s I lombardi, Donizetti’s La Favorita, Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini, Dvořák’s Rusalka, and Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina.

Among the numerous American premieres it has performed are Puccini’s Edgar with Carlo Bergonzi and Renata Scotto; Boito’s Nerone with James Morris and Pablo Elvira; and Smetana’s Libuse with Gabriela Benacková and Paul Plishka. An important performance by The Opera Orchestra of New York was the New York premiere of Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orleans, featuring Dolora Zajick and Jorma Hynninen, marking the American premiere of the Russian language version.

The 2009-10 season marks the launch of Opera Orchestra’s “Rising Stars,” a series of intimate, informal dinner-hour solo recitals and chats with selected young artists.  Rising Stars is hosted by Metropolitan Opera commentator Ira Siff and features Maestro Queler at the piano.

SUBSCRIPTION AND SINGLE TICKET INFORMATION:

Call The Opera Orchestra of New York at 212-906-9137 or
visit  www.operaorchestrany.org.