Welcome to Tulsa Opera’s 65th season!  Last October, the New Yorker magazine called Tulsa Opera “one of the sturdier and more adventurous companies in its class” and the Tulsa World called our production of Dead Man Walking “the best best production Tulsa Opera has staged in more than a decade.” We are excited to be raising the curtain on another season of amazing singing and productions passionately prepared by our talented staff, musicians and crew.

We open the season October 13th with The Daughter of the Regiment, one of Gaetano Donizetti’s lesser known but most entertaining works. Last October Tara Faircloth’s staging of The Barber of Seville received such a great audience response that we decided to open this season with a production in a similar vein, directed again by her. Sarah Coburn, the incomparable bel canto stylist, gives her first performance in the title role.  Tenor Greg Schmidt brings his thrilling top to the famous aria of the nine high C’s.  The irrepressible Peter Strummer returns as Sergeant Sulpice, and Grammy-nominated mezzo-soprano Dorothy Byrne makes her Tulsa Opera debut AND gives the final performance of a long and illustrious career as the Marquise de Berkenfield.

In February, Tulsa Opera joins some of the nation’s most prestigious opera companies in exploring the treasures of classic American musical theatre with the Tulsa premiere of “the most operatic work written for Broadway”.  The Most Happy Fella, by Guys and Dolls composer Frank Loesser, features such favorite tunes as “Standing on the Corner” and “Big D”.  The cast is led by Metropolitan Opera baritone and University of Oklahoma professor Kim Josephson as an aging Italian-American vineyard owner who falls in love with a young waitress.  Legendary stage director Dorothy Danner guides this exciting venture into the realm of Broadway.

In 2013, the world of opera celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi.  Beyond being a great melodist, Verdi was a profound dramatist who is often compared with Shakespeare for the dramatic power of his works and for his understanding and compassion for the human condition.  We join the celebrations with a production of Aida, last seen in Tulsa in 1997.  In the title role is soprano phenomenon Amber Wagner, whose debut performances in Lohengrin at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2011 took the opera world by storm.  She will be joined by a Tulsa Opera favorite, mezzo-soprano Dana Beth Miller, as Amneris and former Tulsa Opera Studio Artist Brian Landry as Radames.  We also welcome back dancers of the Tulsa Ballet II, choreographer Ma Cong, and singers from the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus.

Tulsa Opera, at 65, is more vivacious, vibrant and vital than ever.  I hope you join us for all three productions, and that our performances not only delight your eyes and ears, but touch your heart, take you by surprise and reveal something new.

Tulsa Opera is very lucky to have mezzo-soprano Dorothy Byrne join the cast of The Daughter of the Regiment as The Marquise de Berkenfield. As it turns out, her debut in Tulsa will be her final career performance.

A Hershey, PA native, Dorothy is widely respected for both her artistry and industry expertise. She has had an extensive, brilliant career with roles that include an international debut with the Wexford Festival in Ireland, the cover role of Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro with the Metropolitan Opera, the Marquise de Berkenfield  in The Daughter of the Regiment with Opera Theater of St. Louis and Florida Grand Opera, just to name a few. Dorothy has been praised for her full rich tone with great agility and power as well as her character portrayals. St. Louis Today noted, “As Marie’s, ah, aunt, the Marquise of Berkenfield, mezzo-soprano Dorothy Byrne made excellent use of her assured comic sense both vocally and dramatically.”

Dorothy was recently honored with a Grammy nomination for her talented artistry in the role of Leda/Mrs. Traxell in The Mines of Sulphur with the Glimmerglass Opera. Tulsa Opera is honored to have Dorothy take the stage in her final role of her career as The Marquise de Berkenfield, a performance you do not want to miss!

Hey Oklahoma City Opera fans! Would you love to come to Tulsa Opera’s performances but are having trouble finding a way to get here? Central Oklahoma Opera League (COOL) has a solution for you! COOL is sponsoring a chartered bus to Tulsa Opera on October 21, 2012, March 3, 2013 and April 28, 2013.  A season subscription (transportation only) for three round trips to Tulsa is $85.  A single round trip is $40.  The bus leaves Oklahoma City on scheduled Sundays at 10:30 a.m. from the northwest parking lot of Penn Square Mall.  Lunch in Tulsa (optional) is at Daily Grill in the Hyatt Regency Hotel, adjacent to the Performing Arts Center.  For bus reservations and information, contact Dody Turk, (405) 755-4669 or djturk@sbcglobal.net.

If you still need to purchase your tickets, click here.

Bass-baritone, Peter Strummer, played Bartolo in Tulsa Opera’s production The Barber of Seville last fall. This fall he will return to Tulsa Opera in the role of Sergent Sulpice in The Daughter of the Regiment. As we have gotten to know Peter better, we have found that he is quite an interesting man! Here are five interesting facts we bet you didn’t know about him.

• He knows six different languages! They include German, French, Czech, Russian, Italian, and English.
• He has lived in three different countries before moving to the United States. He was born in Vienna, Austria. When he was a child, he and his family emigrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba, then later to Vancouver, British Columbia.
• He had a 12 year career with German and Austrian opera companies. Strummer was a full-time member of the opera ensembles at both Heidelberg and Linz. Check out some of his work.
• He was in the documentary film The Making of an Opera. The documentary was filmed by CBC Television and is available on video in both North America and Europe.
• He lives right here in Tulsa!

Have you spotted him around town? If not, come see him in The Daughter of the Regiment!

Tulsa has had a long love affiar with the opera dating all the way back to the beginning of the town in the late 1890s. Tulsa’s founding father, L. J. Martin, famously quoted, “Of course, we did not have any sewers or street paving, but these were luxuries that could wait, whereas an opera house loomed as an immediate necessity.” Just six years after the city was incorporated, Tulsa had its first opera performance, Faust. Less than 50 years later, Tulsa had established a thriving cultural heritage with Tulsa Opera as an important cornerstone. Now as we are celebrating our 65th anniversary season, Tulsa Opera is still proud to provide magnificent art and entertainment to the Tulsa community.  For our full history, click here.

Did you love last year’s production of The Barber of Seville? If so, then you will love this year’s production of The Daughter of the Regiment! With similar plot and story lines, this raucuous comdey from Donizetti will leave you laughing out loud. Marie, a rambunctious tomboy who is raised by a regiment of soldiers, falls for the local peasant, Tonio. When the regiment has a run in with the Marquise de Berkenfield, it is decided that Marie must go with her to assume the airs of nobility so that she can be married to the Duke of Krakenthrop. With comical surprises along the way, Marie must ultimately decide if she is to marry the Duke or her peasant sweetheart. Known for its nine high C’s, this good spirited comedy paired with its spectacular singing is a great show for new and experienced opera goers alike!

To purchase tickets, click here.

Here at the Tulsa Opera offices, things are getting very busy very quickly as we gear up for the Oklahoma premiere of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, an opera we have spent several years planning. We have partnered with a number of local organizations to help connect you to the opera in different ways. We have planned an art show (at Living Arts of Tulsa), a screening of the Academy Award winning film (at Circle Cinema), a lecture by Sister Helen Prejean, and a special Inside the Composer’s Studio live interview with Jake Heggie. All of the details for each event is available at www.tulsaopera.com/events

A few months ago, we published some information about Sister Helen Prejean as we were getting ready for this show. Just today, the staging rehearsals have begun and it struck us that as a piece of theatre, this opera is quite masterful. Jake Heggie is quite a talented composer, but you may not have heard of him, so let’s get to know him just a little bit.

Jake Heggie, Composer & Pianist

Jake Heggie is the American composer of the operas Moby-Dick (libretto: Gene Scheer), Dead Man Walking (libretto: Terrence McNally), Three Decembers (libretto: Scheer), The End of the Affair (libretto: Heather McDonald), To Hell and Back (libretto: Scheer), and the stage works For a Look or a Touch (libretto: Scheer) and At the Statue of Venus (libretto: McNally). He has also composed more than 200 art songs, as well as orchestral, choral and chamber music. His recent recording of songs and duets, PASSING BY: Songs by Jake Heggie, (AVIE), features performances by Isabel Bayrakdarian, Zheng Cao, Joyce DiDonato, Susan Graham, Paul Groves, Keith Phares, and Frederica von Stade.

Heggie is the 2010-11 guest artist-in-residence at the University of North Texas at Denton, where he will compose his first symphony, based on several Ahab monologues from the novel Moby-Dick. The “Ahab” Symphony will receive its premiere in 2012 with tenor Richard Croft as soloist. Other current projects include song commissions from Carnegie Hall (for Joyce DiDonato), San Francisco Performances (for DiDonato and the Alexander String Quartet), The Dallas Opera (for baritone Nathan Gunn), and Houston Grand Opera (to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks); as well as a one-act opera for chorus for the John Alexander Singers and the Pacific Chorale, and a new version of For a Look or a Touch that features the 200-voice Seattle Men’s Chorus.

Heggie’s operas have been performed to tremendous acclaim internationally in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Austria, South Africa and by more than a dozen American opera companies, including: San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, The Dallas Opera, Seattle Opera, Ft. Worth Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Austin Lyric Opera and Madison Opera. Dead Man Walking has been performed nearly 150 times since its San Francisco premiere in 2000, making it one of the most performed new American operas. Moby-Dick received its 2010 world premiere at The Dallas Opera and was co-commissioned by Dallas with four other companies: San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, Calgary Opera and the State Opera of South Australia.

The composer’s numerous songs and cycles, including The Deepest Desire, Statuesque, Here & Gone, Rise & Fall, Songs & Sonnets to Ophelia, Facing Forward/Looking Back, Friendly Persuasions, and Songs to the Moon, are featured in recitals around the world by some of the world’s most beloved and celebrated singers. Among those who regularly champion Heggie’s works are sopranos Emily Albrink, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Kristin Clayton, Nicolle Foland, Audra McDonald, Emily Pulley, Talise Trevigne, Kiri Te Kanawa; mezzos Zheng Cao, Joyce Castle, Catherine Cook, Joyce DiDonato, Susan Graham, Kristine Jepson, Frederica von Stade; Broadway soprano Patti LuPone; tenors Stephen Costello, Paul Groves, Ben Heppner, Nicholas Phan; and baritones Philip Cutlip, Daniel Okulitch, Keith Phares, Morgan Smith and Bryn Terfel.

Heggie is an ardent champion of writers. Most of his operas and stage works feature libretti written by either Terrence McNally or Gene Scheer; while sources for song texts and poetry have also included Maya Angelou, Charlene Baldridge, Raymond Carver, Emily Dickinson, John Hall, A.E. Housman, Vachel Lindsay, Philip Littell, Armistead Maupin, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Sister Helen Prejean, Gini Savage, Vincent Van Gogh, Frederica von Stade, and Eugenia Zukerman, to name a few. The composer has a close association with the conductor Patrick Summers, who has led the world premieres of all the composer’s major operas; and the director Leonard Foglia, who has directed the premieres of Moby-Dick, Three Decembers, and The End of the Affair, as well as the United States national tour of Dead Man Walking.

Recordings of Heggie’s compositions include PASSING BY: Songs by Jake Heggie (Avie), Dead Man Walking (Erato), Three Decembers (Albany), Flesh and Stone (Americus), To Hell and Back (Magnatune), The Faces of Love (RCA Red Seal), The Deepest Desire (Eloquentia), and For a Look or a Touch (Naxos). Heggie was the recipient of a 2005/2006 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and has been composer-in-residence for the San Francisco Opera, Eos Orchestra, and Vail Valley Music Festival. As a coach and teacher, he has given classes at universities throughout the United States and at summer festivals such as SongFest in Malibu and the Steans Institute at Ravinia. Jake Heggie lives in San Francisco. www.jakeheggie.com.

Courtesy of The Official Website of Jake Heggie
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