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Graeme
Jenkins Previews the Upcoming 49th International Season
The Music Director
of The Dallas Opera, Graeme Jenkins, is already deep in thought about
the 49th International Season, "Beyond Your Wildest Dreams," which
commences the evening of November 11th, 2005, with an entirely new
production of Cavalleria
rusticana and Pagliacci,
two short operas that redefined the Italian art form in the late
nineteenth century. Graeme is especially excited by the
return of
his friend and director, Stephen Lawless, "who gave us such a wonderful
La clemenza
di Tito a few seasons ago."
"With
Donato Renzetti in
the pit and a cast led by Carol Vaness," Mr. Jenkins adds, "this will
be a fabulous opening to the season.
"I
was lucky enough to
make my Dallas Opera debut in 1992 with Carol (Vaness) singing the role
of Fiordiligi...she was perhaps the reigning Mozart soprano of the
day. We are extremely lucky to have her back with us."
Graeme,
who will be making his Vienna State Opera debut conducting Britten's Billy
Budd early next autumn, will
return to Dallas to wield the baton for Offenbach's The
Tales of Hoffmann (December
2-10), starring Marcus Haddock, Dean Peterson and - in her Dallas Opera
debut - Mary Dunleavy.
"What a challenge for
our soprano, Mary
Dunleavy, to sing all our heroines from Stella in the prologue to the
stratospheric Olympia to the elegant Giulietta to the ailing Antonia,"
Graeme marvels. "It's an onstage marathon."
It has already been
something of a
marathon for our music director, as well: "I sat in the library at
Covent Garden and looked at old notes and made choices," Graeme
explains. "I've discarded a lot of the accompanied dialogue
in
order to create a fast-moving piece with swift, witty
numbers. We
want to evoke a whirlwind European tour, destined to leave the audience
enraptured."
One of the season
highlights for Maestro Jenkins is The Dallas Opera's first Ariadne
auf Naxos (January 6-14,
2006). "I adore Richard Strauss," says Graeme, "and it's
wonderful to be presenting Ariadne.
It's all modeled on what happened to Mozart back in 1786 when he was
presenting Idomeneo
in Munich; so this isn't bombastic Strauss - it's Strauss writing for
an intimate chamber orchestra in his most Mozartean work."
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