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"The Met Live in HD" Broadcasts
The Metropolitan Opera's "Live in HD" series continues this month and Iowa Public Radio is the local media sponsor for the 2009/2010 broadcasts at movie theaters around the state. DMMO is once again partnering with IPR to host the Central Iowa broadcasts at Movies 12 in Ames and Century Theater at Jordan Creek Town Center in West Des Moines.
This month's broadcasts:
Der Rosenkavalier – Strauss
Saturday, January 9, 2010 (12:00 pm CT)
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 (6:30 pm CT)
Running time: 4 hours, 45 minutes (2 intermissions).
Strauss's comic masterpiece of love and intrigue in 18th-century Vienna stars Renée Fleming as the aristocratic Marschallin and Susan Graham in the trouser role of her young lover. Music Director James Levine conducts a cast that also includes Kristinn Sigmundsson and Thomas Allen.
Discounted vouchers for live performances for Cedar Falls, Dubuque, Ames, West Des Moines and Iowa City sold out. Vouchers for encore performances sold out at Iowa City. You can still purchase regular priced tickets at the local theater.
Carmen – Bizet
Saturday, January 16, 2010 (12:00 pm CT)
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 (6:30 pm CT)
Running time: 3 hours, 30 minutes (1 intermission).
One of the most popular operas of all time, Carmen "is about sex, violence, and racism—and its corollary: freedom," says Olivier Award-winning director Richard Eyre about his new production of Bizet's drama. "It is one of the inalienably great works of art. It's sexy, in every sense. And I think it should be shocking." Elîna Garanèa sings the seductive gypsy of the title for the first time at the Met, opposite Roberto Alagna as the obsessed Don José.
Discounted vouchers for live performances for Cedar Falls, Dubuque, West Des Moines, Ames and Iowa City sold out. Vouchers for encore performances sold out in Iowa City. You can still purchase regular priced tickets at the local theater.
Visit Iowa Public Radio's website to learn more about purchasing discounted ticket vouchers.
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Opera 101: Educational Outreach
by Michael Egel, Director of Artistic Operations
Opera 101 is a series of articles designed to give you insight and information about how the operas you see on DMMO's stage are created. We'll follow the planning stages from casting the singers right through to opening night! Let us know if you have questions for future articles by emailing mmcmanus@dmmo.org.
The new year always brings with it the launch of another touring season for our educational touring troupe, OPERA Iowa. The troupe is comprised of eight singers, a music director and a technical director. They arrived in Indianola on January 2 and immediately began rehearsing the three productions that will be offered on this year's tour: A Dream Fulfilled: The Saga of George Washington Carver, The Barber of Seville and Hansel & Gretel.
Why was OPERA Iowa created? Why is an educational outreach troupe so important to DMMO's mission?
OPERA Iowa, DMMO's traveling educational outreach group, was created to spark enthusiasm for opera in the next generation. Part of the Company's mission statement very wisely established a working goal to develop and engage our regional audiences through outreach programs such as OPERA Iowa and OPERAtion Opera. Students who are engaged by the vitality of the art form at an early age will often return to the opera house as adults.
What does a school get out of an OPERA Iowa residency?
Our goal with each OPERA Iowa school residency is to educate AND to entertain. Students are not merely assembled to watch the show and to see singing, dancing and clever antics, but they are engaged prior to the performance in interactive classroom workshops led by the singers themselves. These workshops are both active and informative - teaching students about opera, meeting national music education standards and also just plain having fun! The educational component to the residency is unique to DMMO's program and the students and teachers truly enjoy that chance to meet the singers and establish a rapport with them prior to seeing and hearing them in their performance.
Describe a typical day for the OPERA Iowa troupe.
OPERA Iowa typically books in half-day residencies. Each half-day consists of three classroom workshops and a performance. Most often, the morning will be spent in one school and the afternoon in another with travel over the noon hour. Many times, the noon-hour travel can be over sixty miles between schools! Many schools and some school districts, will book an entire day's residency, which the singers really appreciate as it means a slightly less frenetic day for them. The tour runs for ten weeks between February and April of each year. We also offer evening performances of a standard operatic work in a version for eight singers. This season, we are offering The Barber of Seville for community and family audiences across the state.
What else should opera fans know about OPERA Iowa?
The OPERA Iowa program has been used as a national role model for opera companies wishing to introduce children and families to opera and to support music education in the communities they serve.
Similar programs in opera companies across the nation appear to be working as statistics have shown a nationwide audience growth for the art form, especially in younger age groups. Since its inception, OPERA IOWA has visited 500 different communities in ten states and has toured internationally in Yamanashi, Japan and Hebei, China as part of the sister-state exchange program.
You can learn more about OPERA Iowa by visiting DMMO's website.
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Getting To Know You: Michael Patterson
Composer Michael Patterson has a distinguished 34-year relationship with Des Moines Metro Opera. A Dream Fulfilled: The Saga of George Washington Carver, is the second work that DMMO has commissioned for OPERA Iowa from him.
In 2003 and 2004, Dr. Patterson's The Tale of Peter Rabbit was seen by thousands of school children in Iowa and surrounding states. He holds degrees from Simpson College and the University of Iowa as well as a Ph.D. in music education from the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Patterson has served as a music educator in Iowa public schools and is currently a professor at Simpson College.
Dr. Patterson will be the guest speaker at the February meeting of the Indianola Chapter of the Guild. Details will be included in next month's OPERAzzi.
How did you choose George Washington Carver as the subject for your most recent commission for DMMO?
I'm pleased to say that great latitude was given to me by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs and the Des Moines Metro Opera. I was presented with a list of 200 names and offered my freedom of choice to search further. George Washington Carver was the most dramatic and musical of options presented or discovered. He was also a very appropriate choice, with his close connections to Simpson College, Iowa State University and Central Iowa.
Is there a different process for creating an opera for young people as opposed to an opera for adults?
I've never written an opera for adults but would love to. For both youth and adult audiences, you must
- Know your sponsors.
- Know your audience.
- Be true to yourself.
I never write down to children because they're smart, perceptive, they resent it and they need to learn new things.
Unlike many composers, you also write your own text. Does this present any challenges or benefits in the compositional process?
I can't blame anyone but myself! There are a number of benefits: it's cheaper for all parties concerned; it presents the most expedient process, if the composer wants to change a word, the librettist isn't going to be concerned; I can think of all aspects of the production while I work on the libretto, for instance, costumes, costume changes, sets, set changes, words, tessitura, range, melody and harmony.
What parts of the finished opera of A Dream Fulfilled are most satisfying to you?
Composers are at times the worst ones to ask about their music because objectivity is nearly impossible after such a significant investment of imagination and time. Oddly enough, some of my favorite parts would include the libretto, George Washington Carver's aria, Miss Budd's aria, some ensemble moments, the spiritual, Dr. Pammel's music and some measures of music that no one else would notice.
Do you have any new projects in the works?
I have a new choral piece and several songs for soprano that I am currently working on.
What is your favorite opera and why?
I find it difficult to name one favorite opera. I love American contemporary shows, some Wagner, Mozart and Britten and many of Verdi and Puccini's works. Certainly towards the top of my list of favorites would be La Rondine and La Bohème.
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Two Great OPERA Iowa Performances: January 23 & 24
There are two opportunities to enjoy an OPERA Iowa performance with the whole family this month: you can catch A Dream Fulfilled: The Saga of George Washington Carver on January 23 or Hansel & Gretel on January 24.
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The Iowa State Historical Museum and Des Moines Metro Opera present A Dream Fulfilled: The Saga of George Washington Carver at the State Historical Museum. This opera, commissioned by the Museum, written by Michael Patterson of Simpson College, and presented by OPERA Iowa chronicles the life of the Iowa and international scientist and humanitarian during his time in Winterset, Indianola and Iowa State University. This family presentation is a valuable experience for ages 7 through adult.
Date: Saturday, January 23, 2010
Time: Performances at 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm
Tickets: $7 each. Call Maureen Korte at 281-4132 or email Maureen.Korte@iowa.gov to reserve your seats.
Docent tours are also available. Tours at 11:30 and 2:00, limit of 20 in a group.
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Join us to launch the 24th annual tour of DMMO’s educational touring troupe, OPERA Iowa, with a special family-friendly performance of Humperdinck's Hansel & Gretel at Hoyt Sherman Place Theatre. The ten members of the OPERA Iowa ensemble will be accompanied on piano by the tour’s music director.
Date: Sunday, January 24, 2010
Time: Performance at 2:00 pm
Tickets: $7 each. Call DMMO's Box Office at (515) 961-6221, order online at desmoinesmetroopera.org, or buy in person at the Hoyt Sherman Place Box Office (1501 Woodland Avenue); tickets are also available through Ticketmaster.
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