The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Madison Opera announces its 2017-18 season

By Jacob Stockinger

The Madison Opera has announced its 2017-18 season, which features a classic popular opera and two Madison Opera premieres.

The season opens in November with Carmen by Georges Bizet, followed by The Abduction from the Seraglio by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in February, and then Florencia en el Amazonas by Mexican composer Daniel Catan (1949-2011) in April. The season concludes with the 17th annual Opera in the Park in July.

“I am delighted with this new season,” says Kathryn Smith (below, in a a photo by James Gill), Madison Opera’s general director. “Carmen was the piece that made me fall in love with opera in high school, so I always look forward to sharing it with our audience. The Abduction from the Seraglio has some of Mozart’s most virtuoso vocal writing, with an innate charm and comedy that is perfect for winter. Florencia en el Amazonas is quite simply ravishing, both in its music and its story. The season truly has something for everyone in it.”

The company’s 57th season begins in November with Georges Bizet’s Carmen in Overture Hall. One of the most popular operas in the world, Carmen was a flop when it premiered in Paris in 1875, but within a few years was widely acclaimed.

The story of a Spanish gypsy determined to live a life on her own terms, Bizet’s masterpiece blends passion, seduction, jealousy, dance, and even a little law-breaking, all set to one of the most famous scores ever composed.

Aleks Romano makes her Madison Opera debut in the title role; Cecilia Violetta López makes her debut as Micaëla. Sean Panikkar (Opera in the Park 2014) returns to Madison Opera as Don José, the soldier who falls in love with Carmen; Corey Crider (Sweeney Todd) returns as Escamillo, the toreador. E. Loren Meeker directs this traditional staging in her Madison Opera debut, with John DeMain  conducting members of the Madison Symphony Orchestra.

February brings the Madison Opera PREMIERE of Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, the composer’s first major operatic success, done in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center. Set in the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century, the opera starts with a Spanish nobleman arriving at a pasha’s palace to rescue his fiancée, who was captured during a shipwreck.

Together, they find that different cultures need not always clash, and romantic longings come in many forms. Comedy blends with the underpinnings of the Enlightenment in a masterpiece that is the perfect blend of humor and humanity.

Mozart’s brilliant score calls for virtuoso singing in every role. Caitlin Lynch (Don Giovanni) returns to sing Konstanze; the soprano has sung major Mozart roles at the Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera this season.  Also returning are Matt Boehler (below, Fidelio, Don Giovanni) as Osmin and Eric Neuville (Little Women) as Pedrillo.

Making their debuts are Ashly Neumann as Blonde and David Walton as Belmonte. Alison Moritz makes her Madison Opera directorial debut; John DeMain conducts.

Florencia en el Amazonas by Daniel Catán (below top), who also turned the movie “Il Postino” into an opera, concludes the MainStage season in Overture Hall.

 Inspired by the writings of the Colombian Nobel Prize-winner Gabriel García Márquez (below bottom), Catán’s gorgeously lyrical opera was the first Spanish-language opera to be premiered in the U.S. and has been performed worldwide since its 1996 premiere. (You hear the accessibility of Catan’s music in the opening scene that is in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

Set in the early 20th century, the story tells of Florencia Grimaldi, a famous opera singer, as she embarks anonymously on a voyage down the Amazon River, hoping to be reunited with her lover she left behind.  On the boat with her are a young journalist; a couple feeling the strain of their long marriage; the boat’s captain; the captain’s nephew, who falls in love with the journalist; and a man who is a rather mystical presence.

Returning to Madison Opera in the title role is Elizabeth Caballero (below, Don Giovanni, La Traviata), who was acclaimed for this role at New York City Opera. Nmon Ford (Tosca) returns as the mysterious Riolobo; Rachel Sterrenberg (Charlie Parker’s Yardbird) sings Rosalba, the journalist; Adriana Zabala (The Tales of Hoffmann) sings Paula; Mackenzie Whitney (La Bohème) sings Arcadio, the captain’s nephew; and Levi Hernandez (The Magic Flute in 2006) sings Alvaro. Ashraf Sewailam makes his Madison Opera debut as the Capitán.

Kristine McIntyre (below, The Tales of Hoffmann, Dead Man Walking) returns to direct this unique-to-Madison production, which features members of Kanopy Dance and choreography by Lisa Thurrell.  John DeMain conducts.

Subscriptions for the 2017-18 season will be available in late April at madisonopera.org and by phone at (608) 238-8085. Subscribers save up to 15% off single ticket prices.