Stephen Costello as the ill-fated Robert Devereux (Photo Credits: Karen Almond)

CATCHING UP WITH STEPHEN COSTELLO
By Suzanne Calvin

Months before the curtain rose on the 2008-2009 Season, we seized our chance to sit down with tenor Stephen Costello, whose meteoric career has been the talk of the opera world. Here’s what he had to say.

Suzanne Calvin: How surreal has this past year been for you? You’ve been on stage at the Metropolitan Opera, one of the youngest principals ever to debut at the Met. You stood onstage at The Dallas Opera’s 50th Anniversary Gala with Renée Fleming. Is there a surreal quality to everything that’s been going on?

Stephen Costello: Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun. It’s been exciting. And it’s, you know, one great thing after another! It’s been a lot of fun—and the best thing about it is that here in Dallas and at the Met I worked with people I really respected and admired.

Calvin: What do you now look for in a role? Because everybody’s falling all over themselves to try get you to sing with their company and you can pick-and-choose. What are you looking for?

Costello: I’m looking mostly for bel canto roles; things that are going to help my voice progress, to fill out and grow. I don’t want to do anything that is too big, too soon. I’m really looking for artistic productions with strong cast members and a great musical staff. Dallas has been wonderful about that. I’ve done Maria Stuarda here, which is great. I didn’t expect to do it, so, it was even more of a treat to work with the singers and meet Maestro (Graeme) Jenkins.

Afterwards, there was (the role of) Camille and The Merry Widow and that was the first time I had ever done that—my first operetta ever. So, that was a lot of fun. I’ll be back here to do Roberto Devereux, which is the second part of the Tudor trilogy. It’s really exciting—a role that isn’t often done anymore. I mean, how many singers have portrayed Leicester in Maria Stuarda—how many people get the chance to sing the part of Roberto Devereux?

Calvin: How will your experience in Maria Stuarda affect the way you approach Roberto Devereux?

Queen Elizabeth I

AN ITALIAN COMPOSER AT THE COURT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH
By: Stephen Lawless, Stage Director

How would the Italian, Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) have viewed Queen Elizabeth the First of England (1533-1603)?

We have, in the 21st Century, become acclimatised to a specific view of “Good Queen Bess” through film (Bette Davis, Flora Robson and Cate Blanchett) and television (Glenda Jackson and Helen Mirren), not to mention countless biographies. The consensus is of a remarkable woman who advocated religious tolerance, yet, was able to guarantee the success of her Protestant faith as the official church in England. Queen Elizabeth I was a woman who bravely survived the vagaries (including the execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn) and dangers of her early life to become a major player on the world stage.

Her career saw English Arts—in particular theatre with Shakespeare and Marlowe, et al—blossom as never before. She was renowned and loved for putting her country before her personal and emotional happiness and she died, still a virgin, having presided over a Golden Age. Elizabeth the First was deeply mourned by her subjects and retains her fascination for us today.

This Anglo-centric view would have been utterly incomprehensible to an Italian of Gaetano Donizetti’s time and background, seen as an attempt to whitewash a tarnished reputation. Elizabeth would have been perceived, at best, as an equivocal character. She had irrevocably routed Catholicism (the one “true” faith) from England and was, therefore, a heretic. In the eyes of Catholics, she was illegitimate, as her father Henry VIII had never obtained an annulment from the Pope to end his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon, in order to marry his second wife (Elizabeth’s mother), Anne Boleyn.

TDO Music Director Graeme Jenkins

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS PERFORMANCE OF HANDEL'S SAUL FEATURING MAESTRO GRAEME JENKINS

Led by Dallas Opera Music Director Graeme Jenkins, University of North Texas College of Music student ensembles and internationally renowned faculty members will present George Frideric Handel's oratorio Saul as part of the 10th anniversary celebration of UNT’s Murchison Performing Arts Center.

The event marks the fourth in a collaboration between the UNT early music program and Jenkins to present Handel’s works — starting with a performance of Israel in Egypt in 2001, followed by Jephtha in 2004 and Samson in 2006.

The Murchison’s 10th anniversary celebration opens with Saul – featuring the UNT Baroque Orchestra, Collegium Singers and A Cappella Choir — at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 5 (Thursday) in Winspear Performance Hall in the Murchison Performing Arts Center, located along the north side of Interstate 35E at North Texas Boulevard. A repeat performance will be held at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 6 (Friday) at Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church, 9800 Preston Road in Dallas. Tickets are $20 for the general public, $15 for faculty, staff and seniors; and $10 for students. The Denton performance is free to UNT students with ID. For tickets, contact (940) 369-7802 or visit www.thempac.com.

Angela Meade stars as Queen Elizabeth in the School Performances of Roberto Devereux

DALLAS OPERA SCHOOL PERFORMANCES

Each year approximately 8,500 - 9,500 students and their teachers attend the School Performances. This year, 140 school groups will see Roberto Devereux. The assignment to greet and escort each group to their seats on performance days has been untaken for many years by a dedicated group of Guild volunteers who serve as monitors. Without their help, getting so many students seated in a timely manner would be impossible.

Consuelo Chavez has coordinated this volunteer effort since 1996. She begins to contact potential monitors 2 months prior to the date they will be needed. This means communicating with 120 or more individuals.

A brief orientation takes place at 9:15 a.m. on the day of each performance to cover monitor duties, the physical layout of the Music Hall, and the allocation of schools. After a school has been escorted to their seats, their monitor may leave or stay to see the performance.

Many of the monitors have participated for numerous years. Some long-time monitors include Anne Bell, Eunice Bonar, Francine Burrows, Judy Fuller, Joanna Jones and Sandra Sanderson just to name a few.

If you have questions or would like to become a monitor for The Dallas Opera's School Performances, please e-mail guild@dallasopera.org.

Carol Glendenning

A CLOSER LOOK AT OUR PARTNERS

When OPERAtion HQ was in need of a strong corporate partner, Strasburger & Price played a pivotal role. The law firm made a lead gift to create the challenge campaign to build the Opera’s administrative offices in the Winspear Opera House. Strasburger’s Policy Committee Chair and Partner Carol Glendenning was instrumental in securing Strasburger’s gift. “OPERAtion HQ is the perfect opportunity for Strasburger to support the arts district expansion and to contribute to the Opera in a meaningful way.” Beyond the firm’s financial support, the Opera now also benefits from Carol’s expertise through her service on the Board of Directors and Audit Committee. Carol also serves on the board of the YWCA of Metropolitan Dallas, The Chiapas Project and the Dallas Regional Chamber.

About Strasburger and Price, LLP
Strasburger & Price, LLP is a full-service law firm with offices in Austin, Collin County, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, Texas, New York City and Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.strasburger.com.

Maria Kanyova from the 2005 production of "Cav/Pag"

"OVERTURES WITH THE DALLAS OPERA" - Sunday, Feb. 1 at the Nasher Sculpture Center LA BOHÈME

“The Bohemians” will take center stage at the Nasher Sculpture Center Theater, Sunday, February 1st at 2:00 PM in a romantic program entitled “The Changing Seasons of Love.” Internationally renowned soprano Maria Kanyova, who will star as Mimì in our upcoming production of La bohème, will perform an intimate recital accompanied by Dallas Opera principal pianist Mark Armstrong. Program highlights include art songs by Rachmaninoff and Liszt (including songs composed to poems by that 19th century French literary titan, Victor Hugo, the author of numerous works including the novel "Les Misérables"). This lovely and phenomenally talented artist also will perform arias from Bohème and Verdi’s La traviata. And that’s just the preamble to a lively panel discussion that will feature Ms. Kanyova, La bohème stage director Mark Streshinsky, and The Dallas Opera’s own Suzanne Calvin, host of WRR’s “Inside The Dallas Opera.”

The program is FREE with regular museum admission ($5-$10). Come shake off the winter blahs with this heart-warming musical event!

THE DALLAS OPERA ROSE INTRODUCED AT THE GARDEN GATE

Mark Streshinsky made his Dallas Opera debut directing Cinderella during the 2004 – 2005 Season and we were delighted to have him back to direct La bohème this season. Last season, he had great critical success directing the world premier of David Carlson and Colin Graham’s Anna Karenina which celebrated the opening of the Ziff Opera House in Miami. Mark is never far from his iPod. Here is what’s on it.

I spend a lot of time with my iPod, it is possibly the most important tool I use for my work. I keep costume photos and production videos on it, and since it has such a huge memory, I have most of my opera collection on it so I can reference operas when I am on the road if a possible project comes up. Of course whatever opera I am working on is there, often with several different recordings. But, that's the boring stuff. I have a sick love of the video blog "Happy Tree Friends". It looks like a sweet Hello Kitty type cartoon until outrageously violent, horrible, sick things happen to the characters. I have several of these on my iPod and I often get in trouble for exposing my nine year old son to these. Of course he thinks they are hilarious.