2017-2018 77th Florida Grand Opera Season Stages Four Operas

Summary: The 2017-2018 77th Florida Grand Opera season stages four operas: Catán’s Florencia, Donizetti’s Lucia, Gluck’s Orfeo and Strauss’s Salome.

Ziff Ballet Opera House (center) in Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts is the main venue for resident Florida Grand Opera’s productions; FGO’s second venue is Au-Rene Theater in Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center for the Performing Arts: Marc Averette (Averette at English Wikipedia), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The 2017-2018 77th Florida Grand Opera season stages four operas between November 2017 and May 2018: Mexican composer Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas, Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, German composer Christoph Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and German composer Richard Strauss’s Salome.

The 77th Florida Grand Opera season’s four productions represent three centuries of opera, with their premieres spanning the 18th to 20th centuries. Orfeo ed Euridice’s premiered Oct. 5, 1762, at Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. Lucia di Lammermoor’s premiere happened Sept. 26, 1835, at Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Italy. Salome’s premiere took place Dec. 9, 1905, at Semperoper in Dresden, Germany. Florencia en el Amazonas premiered Oct. 25, 1996, at Wortham Theater Center in Houston, Texas.

Lucia di Lammermoor opens the 2017-2018 season for America’s seventh-oldest company. Opening night is Saturday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. EST (Eastern Standard Time) at Ziff Ballet Opera House in Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. Closing night is Saturday, Dec. 2, at 7:30 p.m. at Au-Rene Theater in Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

Alexander Polianichko conducts all seven performances of the tragic opera by Italian bel canto composer Gaetano Donizetti (Nov. 29, 1797-April 8, 1848).

Anna Christy makes her Florida Grand Opera debut as Lucia, whose star-crossed love drives her to madness.

Mexican-American tenor Joshua Guerrero and Mexican tenor Jesus Léon share the role of Edgardo, Lucia’s Romeo-style lover from the Lammermoor’s rival family of Ravenswood. Both tenors make their Florida Grand Opera debuts in the shared role.

American baritones Trevor Scheunemann and Troy Cook share the role of Enrico, Lucia’s brother whose forging of a letter from Edgardo leads to Lucia’s madness. The scheming role marks Trevor Scheunemann’s Florida Grand Opera debut.

American bass-baritone Kristopher Irmiter appears as Raimondo, Lucia’s chaplain and tutor.

The 77th Florida Grand Opera season’s second opera is Salome by German German late Romantic-early modern composer Richard Strauss (June 11, 1864-Sept. 8, 1949). Opening night is Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018, at 7 p.m. in Miami. Closing night is Saturday, Feb. 10, at 7:30 p.m. in Fort Lauderdale.

American conductor Timothy Myers conducts all seven performances. His role as Salome’s conductor marks his Florida Grand Opera debut.

American sopranos Melody Moore and Kirsten Chambers share the title role. Both make their Florida Grand Opera debuts as the dancer with a deadly mission.

Mark Delavan appears as Jochanan (John the Baptist), whose denunciation of Salome’s mother, Herodias, motivates the dancing daughter’s revenge.

Elizabeth Bishop performs as Herodias, whose hasty marriage to her first husband’s half-brother disturbs Jochanan. The American mezzo-soprano’s role this season marks her Florida Grand Opera debut.

John Easterlin appears as Herod, Salome’s stepfather whose desire to see his stepdaughter dance has a fatal consequence for Jochanan. The American operatic tenor’s role this season marks his Florida Grand Opera debut.

The 77th Florida Grand Opera season’s third opera is Orfeo ed Euridice by German opera composer Christoph Gluck (July 2, 1714-Nov. 15, 1787). Opening night is Saturday, March 17, at 7 p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) at FGO’s Miami venue. FGO’s Fort Lauderdale venue hosts closing night, Saturday, March 31, at 7:30 p.m.

American conductor Anthony Barrese conducts all seven performances.

American operatic countertenors Anthony Roth Costanzo and John Holiday share the role of Orfeo. Both make their Florida Grand Opera debut in Gluck’s Greek myth-themed opera about love’s triumph over death.

The fourth and final opera of the 77th Florida Grand Opera season is the Florida premiere of Florencia en el Amazonas by Mexican composer Daniel Catán (April 3, 1949-April 9, 2011). Ziff Ballet Opera House hosts all five performances of the magical realism-themed opera that takes place during steamboat El Dorado’s journey to the Amazon rainforest city of Manaus.

Opening night is Saturday, April 28, at 7 p.m. Closing night is Saturday, May 5, at 8 p.m.

Spanish conductor Ramón Tebar conducts all five performances.

Puerto Rican-American soprano Ana María Martínez appears as Florencia, an opera singer hoping that her performance at Manaus’s famed Belle Époque opera house will reunite her with her lost lover, Cristóbal the butterfly hunter.

Steven LaBrie performs as ship’s mate Ríolobo, who puts into play the plot’s elements of magical realism. The American baritone’s magical role marks his Florida Grand Opera debut.

Cecilia Violetta López appears as Rosalba, a journalist who is slow to recognize Florencia as the subject of her two years of notes and to accept her own feelings for Arcadio, the steamboat captain’s nephew. The Mexican-American soprano’s role as Rosalba marks her Florida Grand Opera debut.

American tenor Andrew Bidlack performs as Arcadio, Rosalba’s love interest.

The takeaways for the 2017-2018 77th Florida Grand Opera season are that the season’s four productions span three centuries with premieres dating from 1762 to 1996 and that the season closes with the Florida premiere of Mexican composer Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas.

The 2017-2018 77th Florida Grand Opera season includes the Florida premiere of Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas; undated photo of Daniel Catán by Andrea Puente Catán: PaulWie1, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Ziff Ballet Opera House (center) in Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts is the main venue for resident Florida Grand Opera’s productions; FGO’s second venue is Au-Rene Theater in Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center for the Performing Arts: Marc Averette (Averette at English Wikipedia), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ziffballetoperahouse.jpg

The 2017-2018 77th Florida Grand Opera season includes the Florida premiere of Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas; undated photo of Daniel Catán by Andrea Puente Catán: PaulWie1, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daniel_Catan_Profile_Picture.png

For further information:

“77th Season Subscriptions.” Florida Grand Opera > 2017-18 77th Season.
Available @ http://tickets.fgo.org/subscriptions/

“About FGO: Company History.” Florida Grand Opera > About FGO.
Available @ http://fgo.org/about-fgo/