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LA Opera Presents Company Premiere of Richard Wagner's (Los Angeles, CA) September 2, 2009 - LA Opera's new production of Richard Wagner's four-part Der Ring des Nibelungen continues with the Company premiere of Siegfried, the third opera in the Ring cycle, opening on Saturday, September 26 at 1:00pm. "Our presentation of the Ring cycle has been making headlines around the world, and the anticipation will only continue to grow," said Plácido Domingo, LA Opera's Eli and Edythe Broad General Director. "This Ring is truly shaping up to be the most important landmark in the history of LA Opera." James Conlon, the Company's Richard Seaver Music Director, will conduct. The new production is directed and designed by the celebrated theater artist Achim Freyer, with costumes designed by Achim Freyer and Amanda Freyer, and lighting designed by Achim Freyer and Brian Gale. Siegfried will run for a total of five performances from September 26 through October 17, 2009. All performances will take place at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 North Grand Avenue, Los Angeles CA, 90012. Tickets to Siegfried range from $20 to $260, and are on sale at the LA Opera Box Office, by phone at (213) 972-8001 or online at www.laopera.com. LA Opera's new production of Siegfried is headed by British tenor John Treleaven in the title role, returning to the Company after his 2008 debut as Tristan in Tristan und Isolde. Siegfried will also feature the return of several artists who reprise roles that they performed last season in LA Opera's Das Rheingold and Die Walküre. These include Ukrainian bass Vitalij Kowaljow as the Wanderer (Wotan), British tenor Graham Clark as Mime, soprano Linda Watson as Brünnhilde, mezzo-soprano Jill Grove as Erda and bass Eric Halfvarson as Fafner. Soprano Stacey Tappan, who performed the role of Woglinde in Das Rheingold, returns in Siegfried as the Woodbird. Kazakh bass-baritone Oleg Bryjak, who made his Company debut in 2007 as Don Fernando in Fidelio, will sing the role of Alberich for these performances. (Gordon Hawkins, who performed Alberich in LA Opera's 2008 production of Das Rheingold, will return to that role in the Company's 2010 performances of Götterdämmerung and in the June 2010 complete Ring cycles.) Nothing can stop the heroic young Siegfried. With his magic sword, he slays the dragon Fafner, claims the coveted golden ring, defeats the great god Wotan in battle and, risking everything, walks through fire to awaken the sleeping Brünnhilde with a kiss. This bold fairy tale contains some of the Ring's most exhilarating music, including Siegfried's joyous forging song, an evocative orchestral depiction of forest murmurs, and an ecstatic love duet that brings the opera to a euphoric finale. Director and designer Achim Freyer has long been regarded as one of the most important figures in European theater, opera and the visual arts, celebrated for his provocative and often boldly abstract stage images. His work has been hailed as vividly theatrical, exhilaratingly irreverent and meticulously prepared. He made his U.S. debut at LA Opera in 2002 with his production of Bach's Mass in B-minor, and he returned in 2003 to stage the Company's widely acclaimed new production of La Damnation de Faust. In 1992, he founded the Freyer Ensemble. Working together, he and the group have developed a unique theater language and created more than twenty different pieces for the theater. His work in opera has taken him to cities throughout Europe, including Munich, Basel, Amsterdam, Vienna, Paris and Salzburg. In 1982 he directed Die Zauberflöte in Hamburg, a production that has successfully gone down in theater history and still plays to sold-out houses. Richard Wagner's epic Der Ring des Nibelungen, one of the most ambitious theatrical works ever created, tells a unified story drawn from Norse mythology over the course of four complete operas: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. The plot concerns an epic struggle to win control of a magic ring that gives its bearer the power to rule the world. Created by the evil dwarf Alberich, the ring is successively possessed by Wotan, the king of the gods, then by the dragon Fafner, and eventually by Wotan's grandson, Siegfried. Ultimately, the ring comes into the possession of Brünnhilde, who returns the ring to its source, thus ending the reign of the gods. Conceived as a festival event, it is the biggest work in the history of Western music, developed over the course of 28 years, from its conception in 1848 to the first performances of the completed cycle in 1876. LA Opera has joined forces with more than 100 cultural and educational institutions throughout Los Angeles County to stage Ring Festival LA, presenting a number of special exhibitions, performances, symposia and special events all centered on LA Opera's upcoming presentation of Wagner's Ring cycle. Events will take place in a wide variety of venues throughout Southern California, with each organization providing its own unique point of view on the influences of Wagner's art and philosophy from the 19th century to the present day. Ring Festival LA will officially take place from April 15 through June 30, 2010, but several Ring-related events are already underway. On September 10, the California Art Club sponsors a "Ring Paint-Out" in Pasadena, the first of several plein air painting events to be held in various locations around Los Angeles County of scenes and mythic themes of the Ring cycle. LA Opera's Speakers Bureau will present library talks on Siegfried at Crowell Public Library in San Marino (Sept. 13), Santa Monica Public Library (Sept. 17), Claremont Library and Oxnard Library (both on Sept. 19), Porter Ranch Branch Library (Oct. 6), Pasadena Central Library (Oct. 8) and Platt Branch Library in Woodland Hills (Oct. 14). Other related events for the fall include "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Ring" featuring Ring cycle conductor James Conlon at Santa Monica's Eli and Edythe Broad Stage (Sept. 24) and a talk on Siegfried featuring director/designer Achim Freyer and journalist Matthew Gurewitsch at the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles (Sept. 29). On October 8, the Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German-Swiss Studies at USC sponsors a screening of the 1991 Tannhäuser-themed film Meeting Venus, introduced by Cornelius Schnauber. On October 29, the Goethe Institut Los Angeles and Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German-Swiss Studies at USC will sponsor "Richard Wagner's Love and Death," featuring a performance of Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder along with recitations of Wagner-themed poetry and play excerpts. For information on these and many other events, please visit www.RingFestivalLA.com. Siegfried opens on Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 1:00pm with subsequent evening performances at 5:30pm on October 7 and 17, and additional matinees at 2:00pm on October 4 and 11. Performances will be held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 North Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Tickets to Siegfried range from $20 to $260, and are on sale at the LA Opera Box Office, by phone at (213) 972-8001 or online at www.laopera.com. For disability access, call (213) 972-0777 or e-mail wehelpyou@laopera.com.
LA Opera's new production of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle made possible by ### |
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