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2008-2009 season

 

Indianapolis Opera announces 2008-2009 Season

   
 

Subscription Season of Three Fully-Staged Productions PLUS One Added Special Collaboration with The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra

 

Indianapolis Opera’s Executive Director John C. Pickett and Artistic Director James Caraher are excited to announce the 2008-2009 season:

 

 

Il Trovatore 

Friday, October 3, 2008 at 8:00 pm

Sunday, October 5, 2008 at 2:00 pm

Title Translation: “The Troubadour”

Music by: Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

Libretto by: Salvatore Cammarano

First Performed: Rome, Italy, January 19,1853

Setting: Spain, 15th century

Last produced by Indianapolis Opera in 2001

 

 

An action-packed, romantic tragedy in four acts.  Few operas have spawned so many famous melodies, and few move along with so much action, fighting and emotion.  This opera contains an almost unbroken sequence of melody with both dramatic and lyric vocal lines resulting in classics that have stood for over 150 years.

 

Sung in Italian, with easy-to-read English translations projected above the stage

IO Artistic Director James Caraher conducts the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra

 

Hansel and Gretel

Friday, November 21, 2008 at 8:00 pm

Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 2:00 pm

Music by: Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921)

Libretto by: Adelheid Wette based on the fairy tale by Ludwig Grimm

First Performed:  Weimar, Germany, December 23, 1893

Setting: The Hartz Mountains in Germany; “Once Upon a Time”

Last produced by Indianapolis Opera in 1999

 

 

Indianapolis Opera remounts its acclaimed production of this dark but heart warming fairy tale designed by renowned children’s author/illustrator, Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are).  No adult is too old for this opera, nor any reasonable child too young.  This opera makes a splendid family outing filled with a score often inspired by folk-like melodies.

 

Sung in German, with easy-to-read English translations projected above the stage

IO Artistic Director James Caraher conducts the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra

 

The Pirates of Penzance

Friday, March 13, 2009 at 8:00 pm

Sunday, March 15, 2009 at 2:00 pm

Music by: Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900)

Libretto by: William Gilbert (1836-1911)

First Performed:  Dec. 31, 1879, Fifth Avenue Theater, New York City

Setting: On the coast of Cornwall, during the reign of Queen Victoria

Last produced by Indianapolis Opera in 1990

 

 

After a long absence and in answer to audience requests, IO returns to this Gilbert and Sullivan classic operetta after an almost two-decade absence from its repertoire.  Another family friendly production, this comedic tale is filled with frothy memorable melodies.  A Major General who knows more about history and art than about military strategy must call upon a company of faint-hearted policemen to rescue his daughters from the clutches of a band of orphaned pirates.

 

Sung in English, with easy-to-read English captions projected above the stage.

Guest Conductor William Boggs, Artistic Director, Opera Columbus (Ohio) conducts the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra.

 

The above three productions comprise the 2008-2009 Indianapolis Opera subscription series.

 

Additionally, Indianapolis Opera is producing a unique semi-staged Opera-in-Concert production in collaboration with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra:

 

Das Rheingold: In Concert  

Friday, May 15, 2009 at 8:00 pm

Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 2:00pm

Title Translation: “The Rhein Gold” 

Music and text by: Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

First Performed: Munich, Germany, September 22, 1869

Setting: Based on German mythology used in the “Nibelungenlied,” circa 1160, and on legends from Icelandic literature, especially the Volsunga Saga of the 12th and 13th centuries.

An Indianapolis Premiere - This is the first presentation of this opera by the Indianapolis Opera and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra

 

 

This epic tale of intrigue sets in motion the events of the succeeding dramas in Wagner’s renowned “Der Ring des Nibelungen – The Ring of the Nibelungs.” The soaring voices of Indiana’s only fully professional opera company coupled with one of America's premier orchestras, promises to make this one of the highlights of Indiana’s arts season.

 

Sung in German, with easy-to-read English translations projected above the stage.

Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Artistic Director Mario Venzago makes his Indiana opera-conducting debut.

 

All performances at Clowes Memorial Hall on the campus of Butler University.

 

Click here to purchase your 2008-2009 Subscription NOW!

 

   
 

 

 
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