Internationally-beloved operatic star Voigt is making her first career appearance in a title role previously sung by such divas as Maria Callas, Eileen Farrell, Kirsten Flagstad and Jessye Norman.
Voigt will be joined by tenor Vinson Cole as King Admète, baritone Richard Zeller as The High Priest and Hercule, baritone Ryan Kinsella as Oracle, baritone Kyungmook Yum as Apollo, and the New York City Opera Orchestra.
Alceste premiered in Italian in 1767 but was heavily revised for a 1776 French-language debut. The piece, according to press notes, "recounts the internal struggle of Alceste, Queen of Pherae, who is told by the Oracle that the only way her mortally ill husband can survive is if she sacrifices her own life in exchange for his. When the King's inquiry about his miraculous healing leads to the discovery of his wife's ultimate act of love, he pleads to the gods in hopes that they will spare his wife. His pleas and her martyrdom are so moving that the gods show a change of heart, and Alceste is permitted to live."
"The Collegiate Chorale will be performing the 1776 French version of the opera. In adapting Alceste from Italian for the French version, Gluck reorganized the piece dramatically, adding new music, and altering much else, essentially creating a new - and ultimately more successful - opera."
Alceste
Tuesday, May 26 at 8 PM
The Collegiate Chorale
New York City Opera Orchestra
George Manahan, conductor
Deborah Voigt, soprano
Vinson Cole, tenor
Ryan Kinsella, baritone
Kyungmook Yum, baritone
Richard Zeller, baritone
Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater is located at Broadway and 60th Street in Manhattan. Click here for tickets, priced $25-$120.
For further information, visit The Collegiate Chorale.
One of today's preeminent dramatic sopranos, Deborah Voigt boasts an impressive career repertoire of dramatic heroines, such as Amelia, Aida, Lady Macbeth, La Gioconda, Tosca, Leonora, and Cassandre in Berlioz's Les Troyens. Voigt has received accolades for lead roles in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Walküre, Fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser, and Lohengrin and in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, Egyptian Helen, Elektra, Rosenkavalier, and Salome. Her discography of complete operas ranges from Tristan und Isolde to Les Troyens and Die Frau ohne Schatten. Voigt's numerous awards and honors include first prizes in Moscow's Tchaikovsky Competition and Philadelphia's Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition, and France's Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. She was Musical America's Vocalist of the Year 2003 and received a 2007 Opera News Award for distinguished achievement in the art form.
American tenor Vinson Cole's career has taken him to major opera houses across the globe including the Opéra National de Paris, Teatro alla Scala, Berlin State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian State Opera, San Francisco Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Opera Australia, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In 1988 Cole made his Metropolitan Opera debut in as Alfredo in Die Fledermaus and later returned to the house for Manon, Traviata, Boheme, L'Elisir D'Amore, Gianni Schicchi, and Carmen.
Ryan Kinsella performs regularly with several leading opera companies throughout the U.S., including New York City Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Opera Theatre of St. Louis, among others. Specializing in dramatic Italian and German repertoire, Mr. Kinsella made his well-received New York City Opera debut in La Traviata, followed by NYCO productions of Turandot, Daphne, and Capriccio. While Mr. Kinsella's initial endeavors in the baritone repertoire were rooted primarily in the full lyric Italian repertoire, most recently he has appeared as Amfortas in Parsifal, Holländer in Der Fliegende Holländer, and Wotan in Siegfried with the Wagner Society of Washington, DC.
Korean baritone Kyungmook Yum has been a member of the New York City Opera since 2004, where he has appeared as Schaunard in La Boheme, El Dancairo in Carmen, Masetto in Don Giovanni, The Master of Ceremonies in Cendrillon, and Yamadori in Madama Butterfly which was telecast in March 2008 on PBS. Yum has been the recipient of many awards including First Prize in: the Korean Musician's Association Competition, National Opera Association Competition, and Palm Beach Opera Competition. He was also a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions. Mr. Yum is a graduate of the Juilliard Opera Center.
Baritone Richard Zeller, known for his beautiful dramatic voice and presence as well as his outstanding musicianship, is internationally recognized for his concert and opera work. During the 2008-2009 season, Mr. Zeller returned to Scottish Opera where he portrayed Germont in La Traviata, a role he reprised in the U.S. at Portland Opera. On the orchestra stage, he performed Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Seattle Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic and Spokane Symphony, before singing Carmina Burana with the Virginia Symphony. Other recent engagements include Morales in Carmen at Portland Opera, the title role in Rigoletto with New Jersey Opera, Enrico in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor with New Orleans Opera.
New York City Opera Music Director George Manahan has conducted 53 different operas during his tenure, including two world premieres, four U.S. stage premieres and 41 new productions including: Margaret Garner, Cendrillon, Falstaff, L'elisir d'amore, La donna del lago, Capriccio, Il viaggio a Reims, The Mines of Sulphur, as well as Lizzie Borden, La Bohème, and Madama Butterfly ("Live from Lincoln Center" telecasts). Manahan has conducted at such notable venues as Glimmerglass Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Australia, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Recordings include Desire Under the Elms with London Symphony Orchestra (Grammy nomination).
The Collegiate Chorale, among New York's foremost vocal ensembles, has added to the richness of the City's cultural fabric for more than 65 years. Founded in 1941 by the legendary conductor Robert Shaw, The Chorale achieved national and international prominence under the leadership of late Music Director Robert Bass. The Chorale has established a preeminent reputation for its interpretations of the traditional choral repertoire, vocal works by American composers, and rarely heard operas-in-concert, as well as commissions and premieres of new works by today's most exciting creative artists. In the summer of 2007, The Chorale performed for the third consecutive season at Switzerland's Verbier Music Festival, where Mr. Bass conducted the ensemble in Orff's Carmina Burana. In July 2008, The Chorale toured with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem. This summer, The Collegiate Chorale returns to the Verbier Festival for performances of Faure's Requiem and Mozart's Don Giovanni.
