Opera meets contemporary art
18 - 20 March 2004
Eos Orchestra
Staging of Wagner’s The Valkyrie in a contemporary manner inspired by work of such artists as Gregory Crewdson, Ron Mueck, Cindy Sherman, John Currin. This European approach to Wagner and to grand opera is quite common in Europe but rarely seen in New York.
Eos Orchestra presents THE VALKYRIE
U.S. Premiere of Staged, Modern Adaptation of Wagner’s Ring Cycle
Reduction for Chamber Orchestra by Jonathan Dove
Directed by Christopher Alden
Conducted by Jonathan Sheffer
Featuring Sanford Sylvan as Wotan
Thursday, March 18 & Saturday, March 20, 2004, 8:00PM
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at NYU
566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square South
New York City
Tel. 212.691.6415
Eos Orchestra, with Conductor Jonathan Sheffer, presents the second part of its contemporary rendering of Wagner’s Ring Cycle: The Valkyrie. Played in a cut version for chamber orchestra, the performances will take place at the newly opened Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at NYU-New York City’s newest and largest performance space south of 42nd Street.
This U.S. premiere is a continuation of our traversal of Jonathan Dove’s version of The Ring that was created for the Birmingham Touring Opera in 1990, which began in 2001 with The Rhinegold. The Valkyrie is again fully staged by Christopher Alden, and places Wagner’s characters in a setting that mirrors our own time, affording new psychological insights into his Utopian sound world. The cast includes: Sanford Sylvan as Wotan, Michal Shamir (Israel) as Sieglinde, Charles Hens (Holland) as Siegmund and Meryl Richardson (U.K.) as Brunnhilde, and Linda Pavelka as Fricka.
“Our aim here is to focus on the core of the drama-not its grandiloquence, but its essence,” said Jonathan Sheffer. “The adapters of this reduced Ring removed some passages and even entire scenes and characters, since it was meant to be played by a small group of singers covering multiple roles throughout the cycle. These cuts and the orchestral reduction may disturb Wagner traditionalists, yet the music emerges here with a startling clarity, and that may be something of a net gain. Finally, we look to the text to guide us and the music to move us and leave the rhetoric to others. If opera is going to have a future-if concert music is going to have a future-it has to be engaging, and it has to be powerful. It has to reach people, and that’s what the Eos Orchestra is dedicated to doing.”
The Eos Orchestra is setting new standards for imaginative musical programming. In its non-traditional concerts, Eos focuses on the rediscovery of important neglected works and composers combining a range of visual and theatrical elements on the concert stage.
