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Highlights of the 2007/08 season
After celebrating its 60th anniversary last season, Thea Dispeker Inc. enjoys another hectic and successful season representing well-known conductors, singers, and instrumentalists.
One of the leading conductors of Baroque and Classical repertoire, Bernard Labadie debuts this season with the Houston Symphony and returns to the St. Louis Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and, for the fourth time, the San Francisco Symphony. Overseas, he debuts with the ABC Melbourne Symphony and other Australian orchestras as well as the North German Radio Orchestra and the English Consort.
This past summer, Carlos Miguel Prieto, music director of the Louisiana Philharmonic, Huntsville Symphony, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Mineria, has become music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico, the country’s most renowned orchestra. His current season includes a re-invitation to the Milwaukee Symphony, several concerts with the Houston Symphony, and appearances with the Pacific, Colorado, and Honolulu Symphonies, as well as the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Portugal.
Austrian conductor Christoph Campestrini makes numerous debuts with important orchestras this season, including the Philadelphia and Florida Orchestras and the Houston, Vancouver, Milwaukee, San Antonio, and Huntsville Symphonies, as well as the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Portugal.
After his 2007 Glimmerglass Opera debut, Jean-Marie Zeitouni debuts with the Edmonton Opera in a production of Carmen, and the following summer he conducts Donizetti’s Lucie de Lammermoor at Cincinnati Opera. On the symphonic stage he guest-conducts the Honolulu and Huntsville Symphonies, while in Canada, he returns to the Festival Lanaudie`re with the Montreal Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, and Les Violons du Roy.
Resident conductor of the Oregon Symphony since 2006, Gregory Vajda is scheduled to appear again with the Montreal Opera in performances of Un ballo in maschera as well as with Atlanta Opera in La Cenerentola. He conducts two subscription concerts with the Oregon Symphony in addition to concerts with the Charlotte Symphony and Santa Rosa Symphony. Overseas, he conducts the Budapest Concert Orchestra in a program of American music.
This past March, John Keenan conducted Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Met with great success. This season he leads Verdi’s Otello with L’Opéra de Québec, Rigoletto with New Jersey Opera, Lucia di Lammermoor at Madison Opera, and this summer La forza del destino at the Cesky Krumlov International Festival.
James Paul conducted the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico on two separate occasions and joined the Oregon Festival of American Music last summer.
The Vocal Division reports the following highlights for this season (in alphabetical order according to fach):
Sopranos: Tracy Dahl joins Arizona Opera, Calgary Opera, and Opera Colorado; Karina Gauvin goes on tour with Les Violons du Roy before performing with the Toronto Symphony, Quebec Symphony, and at the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor; Elizabeth Keusch sings under Helmuth Rilling at the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart and later with the National Arts Centre Orchestra; Kathleen Kim makes her Metropolitan Opera debut as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro and Oscar in Un ballo in Maschera; Joanna Mongiardo returns stateside after a successful two-year festcontract at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, Germany, to perform with the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Colorado Symphony; Sharla Nafziger debuts with the Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Monterey Symphonies.
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Mezzo-soprano Annamaria Popescu portrays Frugola in Puccini’s Il tabarro at La Scala under Riccardo Chailly. She also sings Suzuki in Madama Butterfly at the Montreal Opera and participates in the yearly gala concert with the Johnstown Symphony.
Tenors: Allan Glassman is Herod in Strauss’s Salome at the Dallas Opera; Frank Kelley sings in the world premiere of Elmer Gantry at the Nashville Opera; Christopher Pfund brings his signature role of Roasting Swan in Carmina Burana to the Colorado Symphony; Richard Roberts joins Opera Australia as Matteo in Arabella;
Thomas Studebaker performs on two separate occasions with the Knoxville Opera; Stephen Tharp joins the cast of Reisopera in the Netherlands in several productions after having performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra this past summer; Daniel Weeks sings at the Cincinnati Opera, Kentucky Opera, and with the Pittsburgh Symphony.
Baritones: Anton Belov goes to Opera Boston and Anchorage Opera; Zeffin Quinn Hollis sings Scarpia at the Dallas Opera; Timothy Lefebvre is Sharpless at Opera Delaware and performs with the Jacksonville and Chattanooga symphonies; Timothy Nolen returns to Fort Worth Opera; in addition to his Metropolitan Opera assignments, Richard Zeller can be heard in the title role of Rigoletto at the New Jersey Opera as well as at the Scottish Opera as Germont in La Traviata and with the symphonies of Virginia and Memphis.
Basses: Stephen Bryant sings with the Pensacola Symphony; Terry Cook joins Cincinnati Opera; Michael Dean returns to the Pittsburgh Symphony; Kevin Deas appears with the Grand Rapids Symphony, Boston Baroque, Rochester Philharmonic, and Cedar Rapids Symphony; and Eric Jordan debuts at the San Francisco and Palm Beach Operas before returning to New York City Opera.
In other news, 10 out of 11 roles were cast with Dispeker artists for Xalapa Symphony’s first-ever opera production of The Magic Flute. Similarly, the Cesky Krumlov International Music Festival in the Czech Republic exclusively booked singers from Dispeker for their opening and closing gala concerts.
In regards to the instrumentalists, numerous highlights are worth mentioning:
Pianists: Dubravka Tomsic returns to the U.S. for her annual tour, this time with appearances at the Celebrity Series in Boston, San Francisco Performances, the Master Pianists Series in Kansas City, the Gilmore Festival, concerts in Middlebury and Schenectady, as well as her debut with the Honolulu Symphony. She also performs at the Festival International Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse, France.
Benedetto Lupo reunites with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig under Vladimir Jurowski, and later performs with the London Philharmonic at Royal Festival Hall. He is also heard with the Bilbao Symphony, Aarhus Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic in Milan, and the RAI Orchestra in Turino. In the U.S., he appears with the symphonies of Sarasota, Honolulu, Austin, and Alabama.
Alexander Korsantia’s season 2007/08 brings him to the Pacific Symphony, Omaha and Elgin symphonies following a summer stint with the Israel Philharmonic under Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. In Europe he is heard on tour with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, performing Chopin’s 2nd Piano Concerto in France and Germany. He is also scheduled to give recitals at the Festival Piano Jacobins in Toulouse, and in Calgary, Lodz, and his hometown, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Andrew Armstrong’s busy season brings him to the Florida Orchestra, the Louisianna and Boise Philharmonics, and the symphonies of Tallahassee, Stamford, Harrisburg, Bellevue, and Ridgefield, among others.
Frederic Chiu is slated to perform an impressive recital tour, comprising over 20 concerts across the U.S.
Violinist Tim Fain debuts with the Baltimore Symphony under Marin Alsop in a performance of Aaron Jay Kernis’s Lament and Prayer, and appears with the Maryland Symphony, the Boise Philharmonic, and the Champaign-Urbana Symphony at the Krannert Center. He also plays the solo violin part of Einstein on the Beach in a concert version of Philip Glass’s opera at Carnegie Hall.
Famed gypsy violinist Roby Lakatos and his blazing ensemble made their U.S. debut at UCLA, sold out Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, and performed at the Grant Park Festival in Chicago for over 10,000 people this past summer. They will tour the U.S. again in January 2009.
Highlights of last season
©2007 Ehrsam Productions
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