Category Archives: opera

Early Music Ensemble Invited to Nationally Acclaimed Festival

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BGSU Early Music Ensemble[2] (1)

BGSU’s Early Music Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Arne Spohr, has been selected by Early Music America to perform at Early Music America’s Young Performers Festival in Berkeley, CA. This nationally recognized festival will be featuring top university early music ensembles from around the United States, including groups from Indiana University, University of Southern California, Case Western Reserve University, and Brigham Young University Idaho. All performances will take place at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church from June 8th – 10th as part of the Berkeley Music Festival.

Professors Papanikolaou and Merritt presenitng pre-performance talks at Toledo Opera’s production of Porgy and Bess

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porgyandbess

Eftychia Papanikolaou, Associate Professor of Musicology, and Myra Merritt, Professor of Voice, will present two pre-performance talks at Toledo Opera’s production of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Friday, February 12 at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday, February 14 at 1 p.m. in the Grand Lobby of the Valentine Theatre.

For more information please visit:

http://www.toledoopera.org/events/main/porgy-bess/

http://www.toledoopera.org/learn/pre-opera-talks/

Toledo Symphony Orchestra featured in BGSU’s composer reading session

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TSO reading_15

BOWLING GREEN, OH— Orchestral compositions written by Bowling Green State University College of Musical Arts students will be read, rehearsed and recorded by Toledo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) musicians on Tuesday, Nov. 10, from 3:30-6 p.m. in BGSU’s Kobacker Hall. Michael Lewanski, a prominent figure on the international contemporary music scene, will lead the orchestra while acclaimed composer, conductor author and educator Samuel Adler will be present to observe the session and give comments in an evening masterclass.

After a review of the submitted scores, the following works were selected for the session:

– Richard Arndorfer       Aurora
– Andrew Binder           Endleofan
– Emily Custer               Seelenruhe
– Matthew Ramage        Mutability
– Jacob Sandridge           I-77

The TSO will be bringing its largest complement of players to BGSU, 72 musicians in all. “Few academic institutions can offer this kind of professional experience, making this a unique opportunity for BGSU students,” said Christopher Dietz, a faculty member in musicology, composition and theory and organizer of the session.

The event is open to students, faculty and staff of the BGSU College of Musical Arts and invited guests. Members of the public who would like to attend should email faculty liaison Christopher Dietz (cjdietz@bgsu.edu) to be included on the guest list.

Arne Spohr lectures at Symposium to celebrate the Berlin Staatskapelle

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spohr_staatsoper

BGSU music history professor Arne Spohr has been invited to lecture at the symposium celebrating the 450th birthday of the Berlin Staatskapelle, one of the oldest orchestras in the world. The symposium takes place in the Staatsoper im Schillertheater and in Charlottenburg Castle in Berlin, Germany, October 18-20, 2015. Professor Spohr gives a lecture outlining the importance of English instrumentalists for the history of this orchestra during the early 17th century. Daniel Barenboim, chief conductor of the Staatskapelle, will give the welcoming speech to open this event.

Professor Papanikolaou to present pre-performance lectures at Toledo Opera’s production of Madama Butterfly

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Butterfly_Papanikolaou

 

Eftychia Papanikolaou, Associate Professor of Musicology, has been invited to present two pre-performance lectures at Toledo Opera’s production of Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Friday, October 2 at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 4 at 1 p.m.

The allure of the East had captivated opera audiences for the better part of the nineteenth century—tales of the Other constructed through European lens offered boundless opportunities for visual splendor and aural opulence. Written at the dawn of the new century, Madama Butterfly (1904) constitutes Giacomo Puccini’s answer to japonisme, the overwhelming fascination with everything Japanese that thrilled Europeans and Americans alike after 1860.

The opera transports us to the exotic world of nineteenth-century Japan and the ill-fated love between a 15-year-old geisha and an American naval officer. The innocent but passionate Cio-Cio-San (Butterfly) marries the conceited Lieutenant Pinkerton, only to be abandoned when he returns to the US. The stereotypical portrayal of the two protagonists gives us a glimpse into the uneasy historical context that surrounded the encounter between East and West. Puccini’s score, peppered with traditional Japanese music he studied while composing the opera, leaves no doubt about the irresistible power of the music to move, surprise and seduce us. It invites us to leave behind our present-day post-colonial anxieties and rather indulge in the emotional cornucopia and dramatic finesse of one of the composer’s finest creations.

Toledo Opera’s Madama Butterfly is a production of the so-called “Brescia version” of May 1904, the revision that Puccini fashioned three months after the disastrous premiere at La Scala. The opera would undergo several more revisions, until its standard version was established in the Paris production of 1906.

Eftychia Papanikolaou, Ph.D.

Bowling Green State University

For more information please visit ToledoOpera.org.

BGSU Voice Alumna to make Metropolitan Opera debut

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tammie_bradley_crop

BGSU alumna, soprano Tammie Michelle Bradley, currently resides in Houston, Texas. She was recently selected by Maestro James Levine to become a part of the prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera.  The Lindemann Young Artist Development Program was created in 1980 by Maestro Levine to identify and develop extraordinarily talented young singers in the field of opera. The program has trained a new generation of renowned American and International opera singers, as well as coaches and pianists, who perform at the highest standards in productions not only at the Met, but in opera houses around the world.

Ms. Bradley has won prizes in several prestigious vocal competitions, including the first prize in the Marilyn Horne Song Competition at The Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California held last July 2014. She has also won prizes in the Gerda Lissner Vocal Competition in New York City, and the Lois Alba Vocal Competition in Houston, Texas.  She is currently performing a recital tour of the U.S. as winner of the Marilyn Horne Song Competition. The tour has taken her to cities in California, Texas, and New York.

Ms. Bradley begins her contract with the Metropolitan Opera on September 8, 2015. Ms. Bradley received her master of music degree in vocal performance from BGSU in 2009 and studied voice with soprano Myra Merritt.

Also from the studio of Myra Merritt, Elizabeth Hood, who graduated from BGSU in May 2015 has recently completed an operatic training program.  Elizabeth had the chance to sing the demanding role of The Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Lyric Opera Studio Weimar this past summer.  The program is an intensive opera training program designed for emerging young professional singers and focuses on the German theatre system. The program consisted of 39 students representing 18 different countries. The students were given master classes and the opportunity to learn a role and sing it with orchestra in Weimar.