Pre-Opera Talks
presented by Joy and Ronald Mankoff
Want to learn more about the opera you are seeing? Want to beat the traffic and enjoy a beverage while you learn? Join TDO for the Joy and Ronald Mankoff Pre-Opera Talks one hour before each TDO performance.
Pre-Opera Talks are informative and interactive 30-minute lectures featuring opera experts from all over DFW. Pre-Opera Talks are FREE with a ticket to a TDO performance and are guaranteed to increase your knowledge and enjoyment of opera.
Things to know about Pre-Opera Talks before you go:
- Joy and Ronald Mankoff Pre-Opera Talks are held in Hamon Hall (located in eastern corner of the lobby) beginning one hour before each TDO performance in the Winspear Opera House (6:30 PM for evening performances; 1:00 PM on Sunday Matinees).
- Seating is first-come, first-served and Hamon Hall can accommodate approximately 200 attendees.
- Attendees are free to bring in food or drink purchased at the Winspear Opera House.
NOTE: TDO will not host a Pre-Opera talk on opening night of the TDO Season (the performance of LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR on Friday, October 21, 2011) or for any performances of THE LIGHTHOUSE (March 16–18, 2011).
2011-2012 Season Speakers
Lucia di Lammermoor
October 23, 26, 29; November 6, 2011 (Concluded)
Stephen Dubberly
Opera Music Director, University of North Texas
Stephen Dubberly, Associate Professor in the Division of Conducting and Ensembles, serves as music director of UNT Opera and teaches courses in opera repertoire. He is also associate conductor and chorus master for Fort Worth Opera. He has conducted for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Des Moines Metro Opera, the Knoxville Opera Company, San Antonio Opera, Abilene Opera, Cartersville Opera, American Bel Canto Opera, Teatro Goldoni in Venice, Italy, Teatro Accademico in Castelfranco Veneto, Opera Athens (Georgia), the University of Tennessee, and Webster University. He has also conducted frequently for Amarillo Opera, including productions of Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, The Barber of Seville, Don Pasquale, Rigoletto, Pirates of Penzance, Falstaff, I pagliacci, La bohème, Gianni Schicchi, The Italian Straw Hat, the regionally-broadcast production of Gene Murray’s The Wage of Sin, and Carmen.
At UNT, he has conducted productions of Alcina, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, The Magic Flute, La clemenza di Tito, L’elisir d’amore, Lucia di Lammermoor, La traviata, Roméo et Juliette, Die Fledermaus, The Bartered Bride, Falstaff, I pagliacci, La bohème, Cendrillon, Werther, Madama Butterfly, The Merry Widow, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, the world premiere of Hans Schaeuble’s Dorian Gray, Albert Herring, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Turn of the Screw, Dialogues of the Carmelites, Regina, The Crucible, A Little Night Music, Into the Woods, and Ned Rorem’s Our Town.
Stephen began his musical training in Montevideo, Uruguay, and received the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Yale University. He lectures frequently for the Dallas Opera. He is also director of music at Christ Presbyterian Church in Flower Mound, Texas.
Tristan & Isolde
February 16, 19, 22, 25, 2012
Christopher Anderson
Associate Professor of Sacred Music at the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University
Dr. Anderson’s researches in late Romanticism, particularly the music of Max Reger, have yielded frequent essays in journals of the UK, Germany, Sweden, and the United States. His book Max Reger and Karl Straube: Perspectives on an Organ Performing Tradition appears with Ashgate. The study is the first such extensive survey of any aspect of Reger in English, and it is the winner of the prestigious Max Miller Book Award for 2006, given by The Organ Library of the American Guild of Organists via the Boston University School of Theology. A new book, Selected Writings of Max Reger appears with Routledge, and a translation of the second part of Jon Laukvik’s Orgelschule zur historischen Aufführungspraxis with Carus-Verlag/Stuttgart is forthcoming.
Dr. Anderson has been a regular contributor to the biennial International Organ Academy at Göteborg University (Sweden), and in 2005 he was a featured lecturer at the Internationale Max-Reger-Tage of the Bruckner University in Linz (Austria). His archival researches have involved the central musical institutions of the cities of Leipzig and Meiningen, Germany. Christopher Anderson appears regularly as an organ recitalist with a repertory that extends from the 16th century to the newest music for the organ. Dr. Anderson holds the Ph.D. in Performance Practices from Duke University; there his mentors were Peter Williams, Robert Parkins and Zvi Meniker. Prior to Duke, he studied under Ludger Lohmann at the Staatliche Musikhochschule, Stuttgart, and Robert Anderson at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, where he earned degrees in organ performance and sacred music.
La traviata
April 13, 15, 18, 21, 27, 29, 2012
Hank Hammett
Director of Opera at the Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University
American lyric baritone Hank Hammett is an active performer, teacher, director, and coach who has sung and trained singing actors in the organic fields of music, voice, theater arts, acting technique, opera, and strategic performance skills for over two decades.
Mr. Hammett is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including First Prize in the Liederkranz Competition in New York and the Grand Prix in the Concours International d’Oratorio et de Lied in France. He made his professional operatic debut in 1985 as Mercutio in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with the San Antonio Festival and his professional recital debut in 1987 at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, with pianist Dale Dietert. He has since received critical acclaim on opera and concert stages throughout North America, Mexico, and Europe.
While living in New York City for twelve years, in addition to maintaining a highly successful private studio, Mr. Hammett served as Artistic Director/Stage Director for the series Supper & Song and Summer Sunday Sundown Concerts, as well as for Voices of Spring and Beautiful Music in a Sacred Place. He served as Music Director/Vocal Coach for the acclaimed theatrical dance troupe Jane Comfort & Company and he was the Vocal Diction Coach for Off-Broadway productions of Our Town, The Heidi Chronicles, and Dancing at Lughnasa. Mr. Hammett also worked with The American Theatre Wing to produce and direct outreach concerts bringing theatrical music into schools, hospitals, and retirement homes throughout the boroughs of New York.
In 2006 Mr. Hammett was commissioned by The Dallas Opera to write and direct Opera in a Box: Follow Your Dreams for The Dallas Opera – SMU Emerging Artist Program, which premiered in the spring of 2007. The success of the production has led to further commissions and projects.
As an acting coach for singers, Mr. Hammett has worked on Broadway and Off-Broadway, in television and film, and at The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Opéra National de Paris, Connecticut Opera, The Dallas Opera, Portland Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Bilbao Opera, L’Opéra de Montréal, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona) and De Nederlandse Opera (Amsterdam).
Mr. Hammett received his Bachelors and Masters of Music degrees from The University of Texas at Austin and did further study at The University of California, Santa Barbara, The Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies in Aldeburgh, England, and The Music Academy of the West. He studied acting technique at T. Schreiber Studio and MTB Studio in New York.
In addition to his work at SMU as Director of Opera, Mr. Hammett frequently gives master classes at universities and opera training programs, including The Dallas Opera and The Houston Grand Opera Studio.
The Magic Flute
April 20, 22, 25, 28; May 4, 6, 2012
Michael Heaston
Michael Heaston is a collaborative pianist, vocal coach, and artistic administrator who principally divides his time between New York and Dallas. Maintaining active associations with The Dallas Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, and The Metropolitan Opera, he has quickly established himself as one of the most versatile artists of his generation.
Mr. Heaston returns to The Dallas Opera for the 2011-12 season as Head of Music Staff and Assistant Conductor for productions of Lucia di Lammermoor, Tristan & Isolde, The Lighthouse, La traviata, and The Magic Flute. In this, his fifth season with the company, he also celebrates the completion of twenty productions, some of which have included Salome, Porgy & Bess, Così fan tutte, Madama Butterfly, and the critically-acclaimed world premiere of Moby-Dick.
He is the Director of the Young Artists Program and Head of Music Staff at The Glimmerglass Festival. Now in his fifth year of appointment, Mr. Heaston remains one of the youngest people to assume the directorship of any major training program to date. This season welcomes the arrival of Francesca Zambello as the new Artistic & General Director of the company, as well as Deborah Voigt, who is the inaugural Artist in Residence with the Young Artists Program.
Mr. Heaston also continues his work as Score Consultant for the Metropolitan Opera’s Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Live in HD movie theater transmission series, including this season’s Faust and The Enchanted Island. Past Live in HD credits include Die Walküre, Il trovatore, Capriccio, La fanciulla del West, Der Rosenkavalier, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Tristan und Isolde, La Cenerentola, Hansel and Gretel, Dr. Atomic, and La rondine, to name a few.
On the concert stage, Mr. Heaston will appear with soprano Carol Vaness and baritone Rod Gilfry this season. He has partnered Stephen Costello and Ailyn Pérez. He also enjoys a long-term collaboration with Katharine Goeldner, mezzo soprano, and Amy Morris, flute as a founding member of The Prairie Song Project. The trio has performed to great acclaim in Scotland, England, Austria, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota.
Mr. Heaston is a judge for The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and The Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition. A sought-after clinician, he has served as Artist in Residence, and presented master classes, at Southern Methodist University, Drake University, The University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, Abilene Christian University, and Dordt College. He was invited by Opera America to serve as pianist for the master classes of Harolyn Blackwell and William Burden. Additionally, he has played for the master classes of baritone Håkan Hagegård and tenor Stanford Olson. Mr. Heaston has served as collaborative pianist for the studio of operatic luminary Diana Soviero in New York. He has also played in the studios of Ruth Falcon and Ruth Golden.
Mr. Heaston’s principal teachers have included Margo Garrett, Brian Zeger, Timothy Lovelace, and Chiu-Ling Lin. He has coached with Karl Paulnack. He holds the Master of Music in Accompanying & Coaching from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and completed undergraduate studies in Piano Pedagogy and Arts Administration at Drake University in his hometown of Des Moines, IA.
