Wagner Opera at SBU
Friends of Good Music, in association with the Regina A. Quick Center for The Arts, will present a concert performance of Act I of Richard Wagner’s opera “Die Walkűre” at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 17, in The Quick Center’s Rigas Family Theater.
The performance features soprano Meaghan Joynt, tenor Erik Nelson Werner and bass Erik Kroncke, winners of The Quick Center for the Arts Performance Prize of the 2008 Liederkranz Competition in New York City. They will be accompanied by pianist Elizabeth M. Hastings.
In a Quick Center performance first, supertitles will be projected above the stage so the audience can follow the plot with an English translation.
Joynt, in the role of Sieglinde, Werner as Siegmund, and Kroncke, who plays the evil Hunding, are the top prize winners of the 2008 Liederkranz Competition’s Wagner Division. They are among today’s most exciting Wagnerian singers, said Joseph A. LoSchiavo, associate vice president and executive director of The Quick Center and a longtime judge of the finals of the Liederkranz Competition.
“Upon realizing that the top three prize winners this year are a soprano, a tenor and a bass, and all excellent Wagnerian singers, it immediately came to my mind to present them in Act I of ‘Die Walkűre,” said LoSchiavo. “Act I includes some of Richard Wagner’s best known arias such as ‘Winterstűrme’ (‘Winter Storms’) and ‘Du bist der Lenz’ (‘You Are The Springtime’) and stands alone as a self-contained drama. To our knowledge, this will be the first performance of some of Wagner’s vocal music in Olean.”
Ludwig Brunner, The Quick Center’s director of programming and a longtime judge of preliminaries of the Liederkranz Competition, added, “Providing an English translation by projecting supertitles above the stage has proven to be a tremendous help for audiences to follow the plot of the opera, which will be sung in its original German. Most opera companies in the United States have employed this technique and it has increased attendance. Audiences can better enjoy the often very intricate stories of the works being presented in foreign languages.”
Pianist Hastings returns to The Quick Center where she conducted the very successful February 2008 performances of the opera double bill “The Three Hermits” and “Hester Prynne at Death” by Stephen Paulus. Hastings is the music director of the Liederkranz Foundation and Opera Theatre and has guest conducted at many opera companies. She is also a sought-after coach and accompanist in New York City.
This performance is supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts. For tickets and information, call The Quick Center at (716) 375-2494.
The Quick Center opens its galleries one hour before each Friends of Good Music performance and they remain open throughout intermission. Regular gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Museum admission is free and open to the public, year round. For more information, visit www.sbu.edu/quickcenter.
Pictured from top to bottom are Soprano Meaghan Joynt, tenor Erik Nelson Werner and bass Erik Kroncke.
The performance features soprano Meaghan Joynt, tenor Erik Nelson Werner and bass Erik Kroncke, winners of The Quick Center for the Arts Performance Prize of the 2008 Liederkranz Competition in New York City. They will be accompanied by pianist Elizabeth M. Hastings.
In a Quick Center performance first, supertitles will be projected above the stage so the audience can follow the plot with an English translation.
Joynt, in the role of Sieglinde, Werner as Siegmund, and Kroncke, who plays the evil Hunding, are the top prize winners of the 2008 Liederkranz Competition’s Wagner Division. They are among today’s most exciting Wagnerian singers, said Joseph A. LoSchiavo, associate vice president and executive director of The Quick Center and a longtime judge of the finals of the Liederkranz Competition.
“Upon realizing that the top three prize winners this year are a soprano, a tenor and a bass, and all excellent Wagnerian singers, it immediately came to my mind to present them in Act I of ‘Die Walkűre,” said LoSchiavo. “Act I includes some of Richard Wagner’s best known arias such as ‘Winterstűrme’ (‘Winter Storms’) and ‘Du bist der Lenz’ (‘You Are The Springtime’) and stands alone as a self-contained drama. To our knowledge, this will be the first performance of some of Wagner’s vocal music in Olean.”
Ludwig Brunner, The Quick Center’s director of programming and a longtime judge of preliminaries of the Liederkranz Competition, added, “Providing an English translation by projecting supertitles above the stage has proven to be a tremendous help for audiences to follow the plot of the opera, which will be sung in its original German. Most opera companies in the United States have employed this technique and it has increased attendance. Audiences can better enjoy the often very intricate stories of the works being presented in foreign languages.”Pianist Hastings returns to The Quick Center where she conducted the very successful February 2008 performances of the opera double bill “The Three Hermits” and “Hester Prynne at Death” by Stephen Paulus. Hastings is the music director of the Liederkranz Foundation and Opera Theatre and has guest conducted at many opera companies. She is also a sought-after coach and accompanist in New York City.
This performance is supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts. For tickets and information, call The Quick Center at (716) 375-2494.
The Quick Center opens its galleries one hour before each Friends of Good Music performance and they remain open throughout intermission. Regular gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Museum admission is free and open to the public, year round. For more information, visit www.sbu.edu/quickcenter.
Pictured from top to bottom are Soprano Meaghan Joynt, tenor Erik Nelson Werner and bass Erik Kroncke.
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