Friendship. Love. Anguish. This opera’s story begins and ends in a garret in Paris, as a group of friends and lovers find love and joy amid the hardship and struggle of a life in pursuit of art. It's Giacomo Puccini's La Boh؈me, with libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, and it was performed by the Minnesota Opera last season at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. Listen now!
The Story
On a bitterly cold winter’s night in the heart of Paris, a young woman’s search for a candle light fatefully sparks one of the most enduring love stories of all time. But can a love so great be sustained? Join Mimì, Rodolfo, and their bohemian friends as they find levity and joy amidst the hardship and struggle of a life in pursuit of art. Featuring some of the most captivating music ever written, Puccini’s La Bohème weaves moments of warmth and ecstasy together with anguish and heartbreak in this enduring story of love, loss, and life.
ACT I
In their garret in Paris’ Latin Quarter, near-destitute artist Marcello and poet Rodolfo try to keep warm by feeding the stove with pages from Rodolfo’s latest drama. They are soon joined by their roommates — Colline, a philosopher, and Schaunard, a musician, who brings food, fuel, and funds he has collected from an eccentric nobleman. While they celebrate their unexpected fortune, the landlord, Benoit, comes to collect the rent. After getting Benoit drunk, the friends urge him to tell of his flirtations, then throw him out in mock indignation at his infidelity to his wife. As the others depart to revel at the Café Momus, Rodolfo remains behind to finish an article, promising to join them later. There is a power cut. Mimì, a neighbor, knocks on the door and asks for a light. As she enters the room, she suddenly feels faint. Rodolfo gives her a sip of wine, then helps her to the door. Mimì realizes that she dropped her key when she fainted, and the two search for it. Rodolfo finds the key and slips it into his pocket. In the moonlight, the two get to know each other. Rodolfo tells Mimì about his dreams, and she talks to him about her lonely life. Rodolfo’s friends call from outside, urging him to join them. He responds that he is not alone and will be along shortly. Happy to have found each other, Mimì and Rodolfo leave together for the café.
ACT II
Amid the shouts of street hawkers near the Café Momus, Rodolfo introduces Mimì to his friends. They all sit down and order supper. The toy vendor Parpignol passes by, besieged by children. Marcello’s former sweetheart, Musetta, makes a noisy entrance on the arm of the elderly, but wealthy, Alcindoro. The ensuing tumult reaches its peak when, trying to gain Marcello’s attention, Musetta loudly sings the praises of her own popularity. Sending Alcindoro away to buy her a new pair of shoes, Musetta finally falls into Marcello’s arms. A “gilets jaunes,” or yellow vests, protest walks by the café, and as the bohemians fall in behind, the returning Alcindoro is presented with the check.
ACT III
At dawn, in a cabaret in the fringes of the city, Musetta, as the mistress of ceremony, and guests are heard drinking and singing. Mimì arrives, searching for Rodolfo. Marcello comes out of the bar, and she tells him of her distress over Rodolfo’s incessant jealousy. She can’t handle him anymore and believes they should part. As Rodolfo emerges from the bar, Mimì hides nearby. Rodolfo tells Marcello that he wants to separate from Mimì, blaming her flirtatiousness. Pressed for the real reason, he breaks down, saying that her illness can only grow worse in the poverty they share. Overcome with emotion, Mimì comes forward to say goodbye to her lover. Marcello runs back into the cabaret upon hearing Musetta’s laughter. While Mimì and Rodolfo recall past happiness, Marcello returns with Musetta, quarreling about her flirting with a customer. They hurl insults at each other and part, but Mimì and Rodolfo decide to remain together until springtime.
ACT IV
Months later, Rodolfo and Marcello are now moving out from the garret. They have both separated from their girlfriends and they reflect on their loneliness. Colline and Schaunard bring a meager meal. To lighten their spirits, the four stage a dance, which turns into a mock duel. At the height of the hilarity, Musetta bursts in with news that Mimì is outside, looking very weak. As Rodolfo runs to her aid, Musetta relates how Mimì begged to be taken to Rodolfo to die. She is made as comfortable as possible. While the friends decide to collect money to buy her medicine, Colline goes off to pawn his overcoat. Left alone, Mimì and Rodolfo recall their first meeting and the early happy days of their relationship. The others return and as Musetta prays, Mimì slowly drifts into unconsciousness. The friends realize that she is dead, and Rodolfo collapses in despair.
Pre-Concert Interview
Soprano Melinda Whittington, who sings the role of Mimì in her Minnesota Opera and role debut, and baritone Joo Wan Kang, who sings Marcello, joined host Bonnie North in MPR’s Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser studio to talk about why La Bohème is so popular more than 100 years after its premiere. Listen to their conversation about this exciting production now!
Find out more on the MN Opera’s official site and watch the trailer for the production below.
]]>Join YourClassical MPR as we present an encore broadcast of Minnesota Opera’s Glam Jam, a concert featuring a star-studded lineup of the most captivating performers from the Minnesota Opera stage. With the full forces of the Minnesota Opera Orchestra behind them, some audience-favorite voices come together to showcase the breadth and power of their artistry in a performance you won’t want to miss. Listen to the concert now!
Find out more about the Minnesota Opera on its official website.
]]>Featuring music by Joel Thompson and lyrics by Andrea Davis Pinkney, Minnesota Opera’s upcoming production of The Snowy Day tells the story of a young boy who wakes to find that the first snow of winter has fallen overnight. He delights in making footprints in the snow and meeting new friends, before returning home to the cozy embrace of his parents. Based on the Caldecott Medal-winning book by Ezra Jack Keats, The Snowy Day brings centerstage the fleeting but indelible magic of childhood. Make sure to catch the show at the Ordway Center in St. Paul from Feb. 8-16. Listen below as host Tynia Major speaks to members of the cast and watch how the crew makes snowball props in advance of Saturday’s premiere.
Interviews
Listen as Leah Hawkins discusses performing the role of Peter’s mother.
Listen as Raven McMillon discusses performing as Peter.
Video
YourClassical's Tynia Major interviews Rachel Krieger, who creates props for Minnesota Opera, about the beautiful “snowballs” crafted for The Snowy Day.
]]>Join YourClassical MPR as we present an encore broadcast of Minnesota Opera’s production of The Elixir of Love, which was originally staged Jan. 27-Feb. 4, 2024. As a bonus, host Bonnie North speaks to members of the cast and crew about Gaetano Donizetti’s much-loved opera.
The story: When young villager Nemorino’s dream of winning the beautiful Adina’s heart is on the rocks, he turns to a traveling purveyor of patent medicines and California citrus in search of a love potion. After drinking every last drop of an unusually zesty elixir, Nemorino feels his luck might just turn around.
Listen: Enjoy Part 1 using the player above. Find Part 2 and the interviews below.
Part 2
Interviews
Stage director Daniel Ellis and principal conductor Christopher Franklin
Cast members Vanessa Becerra and Andrew Stenson
Find out more through the digital program from Minnesota Opera.
]]>Friendship. Love. Anguish. This opera’s story begins and ends in a garret in Paris, as a group of friends and lovers find love and joy amid the hardship and struggle of a life in pursuit of art. It's Giacomo Puccini's La Boh؈me, and it's coming to the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts May 4 to 19. The production is the final offering of the Minnesota Opera's season.
Soprano Melinda Whittington, who sings the role of Mimì in her Minnesota Opera and role debut, and baritone Joo Wan Kang, who sings Marcello, joined host Bonnie North in MPR’s Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser studio to talk about why La Bohème is so popular more than 100 years after its premiere. Listen to their conversation about this exciting production now!
]]>So hot, he’ll burn. The Minnesota Opera presents Don Giovanni, the story of an egotistical and infamous womanizer who is brazen in his shameless seductions. But his betrayals soon catch up to him when divine retribution exacts the ultimate price. Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, this opera seamlessly blends dark comedy with biting social commentary in a smart and otherworldly story of a man who dares to defy hell itself. Listen now as Andrea Blain hosts the live broadcast from April 25 on YourClassical MPR.
Find out more through the Minnesota Opera’s official website.
]]>The Minnesota Opera presents a laugh-out-loud hit, Gaetano Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment.
In the opera, Marie is no ordinary canteen girl. Adopted and raised by a squadron of French soldiers and unaware of her aristocratic lineage, the spunky, young woman falls for a handsome villager. But when her past comes to whisk her away, will she fall in line or follow her heart?
The Daughter of the Regiment has romance, humor and one of the most well-loved roles in the repertoire, the Duchess of Krakenthorp. This cameo part has a storied history of portrayal by celebrities and public figures, including Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg and actress Bea Arthur. In Minnesota Opera’s production, the role of the duchess is performed by RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Monét X Change.
Listen to the performance now!
Program
The Daughter of the Regiment
Music by Gaetano Donizetti.
Libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy De Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard.
For more information, visit the Minnesota Opera’s official site.
Enjoy a chat between host Andrea Blain and principal singers Vanessa Becerra and David Portillo.
Watch this sneak peek look into the opera with two performances. The first is "Ah, mes amis" featuring David Portillo, vocals, and Mario Antonio Marra, piano. The second is "Chacun le sait" featuring Vanessa Becerra, vocals, and Mario Antonio Marra, piano.
]]>Minnesota Opera’s new production, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, explores the intertwined lives of a Mexican American family on both sides of the border. Countries, choices and consequences all come into play in a rich, intergenerational story that explores the meaning of "home" and "family." Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, which means “to cross the face of the moon," draws on the rich mariachi tradition of music and features a new orchestration that mixes traditional and classical instruments for an inspiring and accessible tapestry of sound. Listen as host Andrea Blain speaks to members of the cast about this exciting new production.
Find out more and buy tickets from Minnesota Opera.
]]>Editor’s note: As the Minnesota State Fair has another 12-day run for 2023, enjoy this popular video from our 2019 archives.
Watch as Minnesota Opera baritone Andrew Wilkowske takes us for a ride on the Great Big Wheel at the Minnesota State Fair! Opera's in the air, with "Deh, Vieni Alla Finestra" from Mozart's Don Giovanni.
Check it out:
]]>Sultry, bold, daring — when affection turns to obsession, romance becomes dangerous. Carmen, an iconic and beautiful woman, is bound to live life on her terms. But shortly after a corporal falls for her, what begins as a passionate story of desire quickly turns into a struggle for liberation. Featuring some of the most popular music ever to grace the opera stage, Minnesota Opera’s Carmen brings every aspect of Bizet’s thrilling tale to life, from its tantalizing beginning to its devastating climax. Listen to audio from YourClassical MPR’s recent broadcast now.
Program
Carmen
Music by Georges Bizet.
Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.
For more information, visit the Minnesota Opera’s official site.
]]>Gioachino Rossini’s beloved and irresistible rom-com Barber of Seville is a cut above. Figaro, Seville’s quick-witted barber, helps a young woman flee an unsuitable suitor and find true love. Enjoy Minnesota Opera’s performance of Rossini’s opera from its 2000-01 season, featuring the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Listen to the concert now on YourClassical MPR, with host Gabi Glass.
Program
The Barber of Seville
Music by Gioachino Rossini.
Libretto by Cesare Sterbini.
For more information, visit the Minnesota Opera’s official site.
]]>Gioachino Rossini’s operatic version of the Cinderella story may not have any enchanted mice or pumpkins, but there’s plenty of magic in the music. Cinderella (or La Cenerentola, in Italian) has silently suffered the abuse of her stepfather and stepsisters, but in true fairy tale fashion, her fate changes for the better and all is made right by the triumph of goodness over evil. Listen to Minnesota Opera’s 2010 performance from YourClassical MPR’s live broadcast with host Andrea Blaine now.
Program
La Cenerentola
Music by Gioachino Rossini.
Libretto by Jacopo Ferretti.
For more information, visit the Minnesota Opera’s official site.
]]>Editor’s note: After a year of no performances, tenor David Portillo returned to the stage in the spring for Minnesota Opera’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring. Listen now to YourClassical MPR’s encore broadcast of this remarkable production, and read our original story about its spring premiere below.
On March 10, 2020, Twin Cities-based tenor David Portillo stepped offstage at the prestigious Metropolitan Opera in New York, where he’d just been singing in a new production of Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman.
He didn’t know it then, but it would be more than a year before he would tread an operatic stage again.
“COVID canceled all my bookings,” he says. “That was the last time I put on a costume.”
Until now, that is, because thanks to a bold, lockdown-defying initiative by Minnesota Opera, Portillo’s professional career is about to be reignited.
He stars in the title role of Benjamin Britten’s comic opera Albert Herring, in a production filmed at the Ordway Theatre in St. Paul, Minn.
Portillo has sung the part of Albert before, in his final year of graduate school at the University of North Texas. This new production, though, is different.
“Minnesota Opera took very good care of us,” he says. “I got a 12-page document of all the coronavirus protocols we had to be aware of. We had tests before we arrived and wore our singer masks on every single day of rehearsal before we started recording with the orchestra.”
COVID safety measures were also meticulously factored into the way director Doug Scholz-Carlson moved the characters of Britten’s opera around on stage.
“We had to have 4 feet distance to the side of us any time somebody was singing, and 12 feet to the front of us, and singers couldn’t actually be facing the orchestra within 25 feet,” Portillo says.
In normal times, such mathematical restrictions might be an extra irritation to singers but not on this occasion.
“It was a very inventive staging,” Portillo says. “And there was an overwhelming elation of simply being able to make music again.”
Clever use of cameras also helped to neutralize the distancing required onstage by COVID, making the interactions of Britten’s characters seem up close and personal.
“We had one guy actually onstage with us, an amazing videographer called Benjamin Boucvalt. He wore a double mask, with protective goggles in lieu of a face shield, and a lot of the film is the roving, close-up footage he took. It’s really as if the audience is right up there with you.”
Albert Herring, a comedy about a social misfit set in a small market town in England, might not seem to be a particularly appropriate choice of repertoire for the politically tempestuous, pandemic-ridden times we’re living in.
Portillo, though, sees telling resonances in the opera’s story.
“Albert is a simple grocer seeking his own sense of identity, and in today’s terms I really do think that it’s talking a lot about the feeling of being ‘othered,’” he says.
“Because I am gay and have a husband, I can see there’s a lot about coming out that is very similar to Albert’s situation. Britten himself was gay, and when he wrote the opera in 1947, he could not be open about his relationship with the tenor Peter Pears, because homosexual activity was illegal in England.”
Jane Glover, who conducts the new production in her Minnesota Opera debut, agrees that the opera has strong contemporary relevance. She met Benjamin Britten when she was a teenager and has experience in performing his music on international platforms.
“On the surface, it’s of course a comedy,” she says, “but one with unbelievably profound observations about how people treat each other, a little like Mozart’s Così fan Tutte.”
At certain moments in the rehearsal period, she adds, the messages of Herring became even sharper.
“At the time we were rehearsing in Minneapolis, the pandemic and the Derek Chauvin trial were happening, and there were some incredible resonances,” she says.
“At the end of the opera the entire cast sing a threnody, ‘In the midst of life is death; death awaits us one and all.’ The communal grief of that, in the middle of a pandemic, was pretty tough.
“And there’s a line from one of the characters, ‘He died; he died too soon.’ It was hard not to think of George Floyd at that moment.”
While the rehearsal period for the production was undoubtedly intensive — seven weeks from first meet-up to final camera shot — Glover also recalls moments of levity.
“The singers were masked at all times until they finally got on stage,” she says. “So when they were finally allowed to take them off, I was going ‘Oh, that’s what you look like!’”
The Herring cast has a hometown feeling to it, with most of the singers locally based or linked to Minnesota Opera’s Resident Artist program.
Glover is full of praise for their efforts, especially principals Clara Osowski, a mezzo-soprano making her operatic debut — “a natural,” Glover says — and Anoka-born soprano Ellie Dehn, who has sung at many of the world’s top opera houses.
Glover also praises the vision of Minnesota Opera in mounting such a logistically difficult production in a full-blown pandemic period.
“Nobody else has been doing anything like it,” she says. “It’s an astonishing achievement.”
“From Day 1, the atmosphere in the rehearsal room was fantastic — energetic, willing and joyful. Of course, it was a real challenge, and there were some big problems that we had to surmount. But I loved every minute of it.”
Eight complete strangers find they have more in common than they think. Stranded overnight at an airport, they meet a refugee forced to call the terminal his home and soon realize they need each other to get to their destinations. Inspired by a true story, Jonathan Dove’s Flight is a touching and deeply human comedy all about what it means to make a real connection.
Use the audio player above to enjoy a broadcast of the Minnesota Opera’s production of Flight from 2020.
Program
Editor’s note: Former Vice President Walter Mondale, who died Monday at 93, once reviewed Minnesota Opera’s production of John Adams’ Nixon in China for Minnesota Public Radio. Here’s host Tom Crann’s report on that special occasion in St. Paul from May 20, 2005.
The Minnesota Opera is taking the term "political theater" literally these days. Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and Mao Zedong are all main characters in the Opera's current production, Nixon in China, playing at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul. At a recent performance, MPR's Tom Crann got the perspective of a man who's no stranger to the political stage himself — former Vice President Walter Mondale.
He was one of Minnesota's U.S. senators in 1972, when President Nixon shocked the world by flying to communist China in the middle of the Vietnam War.
"It was a tremendous and awesome event in modern world history," Mondale says.
Mr. Mondale vividly remembers watching, with the rest of the world, as Richard and Pat Nixon arrived in China — exiting Air Force One to greet Chinese Foreign Minister Chou En-Lai on the tarmac.
"There were a bunch of senators in the Senate cloak room watching this unbelievable event," Mondale recalls. "And it was unbelievable for old Democrats like me, because Nixon had spent his life running against the Chinese communists. To think that this was the person who would make this big about-face and open up relations with China was doubly astounding."
As for the opera itself, Mondale says it has made him look at, and remember the events in a new way.
"Here's a poet and an artist looking at the same story. I look at it politically. He looks at it personally and poetically," Mondale says.
The opera set includes several television sets running video of scenes of the actual events of 1972.
"For people like us who lived through it, to be able to see those very moments again as the opera moves forward — I've never seen it done like this before," Mondale says.
To hear Mondale's complete interview and review, listen to the audio above.
]]>We have a variety of classical specials for the holiday season, from Christmas to New Year's Day. Listen to them any time that's convenient using this master listing.
Holiday specials are posted throughout the season, so bookmark this page and keep checking back to see if your favorite is listed. Looking for the holiday programming schedule? Click below.
New Year's
LISTEN New Year's with Cantus
Christmas
LISTEN Classical Kids Storytime: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas
LISTEN Classical Kids Storytime: The Nutcracker
LISTEN All is Bright
LISTEN Minnesota Opera: Silent Night Pt. 1
LISTEN Minnesota Opera: Silent Night Pt. 2
LISTEN Welcome Christmas
LISTEN Hollywood Holiday
LISTEN Christmas at Concordia
LISTEN A Soulful Christmas
LISTEN Christmas with the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square
LISTEN Christmas at Luther
LISTEN A Chanticleer Christmas
LISTEN St. Olaf Christmas Festival
LISTEN Cantus presents 'Lessons for Our Time'
YouTube: Holiday Favorites Playlist
YouTube: Choral Holiday Playlist
Hanukkah
LISTEN Candles Burning Brightly
Thanksgiving
LISTEN Giving Thanks
LISTEN Every Good Thing
YouTube: Thanksgiving Playlist
]]>As Christmas 1914 approached, opposing armies famously put their differences aside and shared common celebrations.
Minnesota Opera's international sensation makes its homecoming just in time for the holidays. Listen to its 2018 production of the story of a miraculous moment of holiday peace on the frontlines of World War I. Silent Night, by composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell, masterfully juxtaposes the bombastic sounds of war with serene songs from home, and stands as a heartfelt hymn to our common humanity.
Use the audio player above to listen to the Pulitzer Prize-winning production.
View the full program:
Celebrate with the Minnesota Opera as we present their special holiday concert, livestreamed from the Ordway Concert Hall.
Enjoy an evening featuring selections by Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin, Joni Mitchell, Jeremy Messersmith, Miguel Bernal Jiménez, and more, starring past participants of Minnesota Opera's Resident Artist and Project Opera training programs.
Program
Liv Redpath, soprano
Zoie Reams, mezzo-soprano
Daniel Montenegro, tenor
Tommy Glass, baritone
Joseph Li, music director and pianist
Emily Bishai, stage director
• Vince Guaraldi — Linus and Lucy
• Vince Guaraldi — Christmas time is here
• Irving Berlin — White Christmas
• Rogers and Hart — Little Girl Blue
• Jeremy Messersmith — Snow Day
• Traditional — 12 days of Christmas... Football
• Miguel Bernal Jimenez — Por el valle de rosas
• Schlesinger and Javerbaum — Text me Merry Christmas
• Norah Jones — Man of the Hour
• Horace Silver — Peace
• Pearl Bailey — A five pound box of money
• Irving Berlin — Snow
INTERMISSION
• Javits/Springer — Santa baby
• Clint Borzoni — Wintry Sun
• Teddy Pendergrass — Happy Kwanzaa
• Tom Lehrer — A Christmas Carol
• Peter, Paul, & Mary — Light One Candle
• Joni Mitchell — River
• Franz Xaver Gruber — Stille nacht
• Kent, Ram, & Gannon — I'll be home for Christmas
• Frederick Silver — The Twelve Days After Christmas
• Blomquist & Hooks — Christmas in Minneapolis
Oct. 27 marked what would have been the 93rd birthday of renowned Minnesota composer Dominick Argento, who died last year.
Join us as we honor his life and legacy with an encore broadcast from the Minnesota Opera of 2009's Casanova's Homecoming, a delightful farce based on the memoirs of the legendary adventurer Giacomo Casanova.
The Minnesota Opera is made possible in part
by a grant in memory of Sarah-Maud W. Sivertsen
Cast
Casanova — John Fanning
Lorenzo — John Michael Moore
Marquis de Lisle — Dan Dressen
Gabrielle — Brad Benoit
Businello — Matt Boehler
Bellino/Teresa — Lauren McNeese
Madame d'Urfé — Jean Stilwell
Giulietta — Jennifer Casey Cabot
Barbara — Naomi Isabel Ruiz
Marcantonio — Isabella Dawis/Caleb Sikorra
Read full digital program here
Naturally, a program called Opera in the Outfield being staged at a ballpark will have an ingrained baseball theme.
But the Minnesota Opera's season-opening presentation will be so much more than a jaunt around the base paths. It will serve as a reflection of resilience, a deliberation of current affairs and above all an application of imaginative ingenuity.
With COVID-19 still preventing live performances, Opera in the Outfield is a video — to be screened twice on the giant scoreboard at CHS Field in St. Paul and then available on demand — melding performances by Minnesota Opera's orchestra and artists with excerpts from past productions and more than a few creative detours.
Among them: "Take Me Out to the Opera," a revamped rendition of a beloved baseball song, and a comic-book treatment of "Cheti Cheti Immantinente" from Gaetano Donizetti's Don Pasquale, with different panels and even speech bubbles.
"Some people will say 'we've already seen Don Pasquale, but now we can say, 'You haven't seen it like this,'" video designer David Murakami said. "To use a baseball metaphor, doing something really out of left field was really inspiring."
While the repertoire will include selections from La Traviata, Carmen, Romeo and Juliet and The Marriage of Figaro, much of the focus will be around more recent — and topical — works. On the docket are excerpts from Blue, a contemporary opera highlighting racial injustice that Minnesota Opera postponed from its 2020-21 season; several pieces from The Fix, a saga of a baseball scandal that Minnesota Opera premiered in 2019, and Scott Joplin's 1911 opera Treemonisha, which celebrates Black music and culture.
Working in compositions that limn the current racial unrest was relatively easy compared with dealing with another thoroughly 2020 issue: a pandemic preventing any proximity of performers.
"I have never been in the same room as my duet partner, Adam Michael Jones," said baritone Aaron Keeney, whose selections included "Toreador" from Carmen, an aria from The Fix and a duet from Don Pasquale.
So the process worked like this: "We put down a couple of tracks to sort of get an idea of how fast we want to do it," Keeney said, "and the orchestra came in and did a recording track, and then we came in and laid down [the final] vocal tracks."
And then Murakami and stage director David Radamés Toro went to work, along the way finding inspiration in a Walt Disney production.
"We came up with the idea of almost a Fantasia-esque approach to it," Toro said. "We would go outside the box to present the feeling of an aria or a duet since [the performers] were not able to actually present it.
"We were taking our director brains and wrapping around a virtual arena, using our imaginations in a different way," he added with a laugh, "kind of like a film director."
In some ways, the physical limitations were more of an opportunity than an obstacle for Murakami.
"I work primarily as a projection designer, bringing new media to traditional formats, and there's nothing more traditional than an opera stage," he said.
"Finding ways to re-explore previous ground the Minnesota Opera had tread but making it novel was really the concept for the piece as a whole.
"To some degree, the lack of ability to do staging allowed us to look into archives, so for Minnesota Opera it was, 'Here's what we have. Let's not worry about what we can't do. What is something new and interesting and inspiring with the material that we've got?'"
For pieces that did not have archival clips, Toro said he and Murakami delved into some impromptu mining.
"We talked about, 'What is the feeling of this piece? What can we look for in the history of Armida?'"
All along, Murakami said, "Framing the narrative of the whole thing is baseball. The Fix was very successful and really celebrated, and that opera sort of provides our framing narrative. At a time when we need community, we felt that 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' is a metaphor that spits in the face of COVID."
That fits with the setting for the two "live" performances: the St. Paul Saints' home ballpark, where audiences will sit, socially distanced — Toro has worked with CHS Field staffers on safety measures — and actually be part of the proceedings.
Not only will there be preshow music and video, Toro said, but also "a couple of singalongs," with a tutorial of sorts for "Toreador."
The onscreen show — which also will feature special guest artists the Steeles — will include interludes in which Minnesota Opera board members discuss such matters as the age-old "casserole or hot dish" quandary.
But one dilemma has been solved, emphatically: whether and how an opera company can operate during a pandemic. (This will be Minnesota Opera's first in-person event since early February.)
"With COVID and various challenges, the entertainment industry has taken a monumental hit in a way few industries can understand," Murakami said. "It has been truly crippling to the entertainment industry, so this is really welcome."
And even with the current limitations, artists such as Kenney have savored the opportunity to pursue their vocal vocation.
"It was really neat," he said. "It's something entirely new, but these days to have an opportunity is really rewarding. I think everybody has learned a whole bunch with this process, so I think that in the future we will be able to do this kind of thing."
In baseball parlance, after being shut out, Minnesota Opera no longer has to worry about being the victim of a no-hitter.
Event details
]]>Pianist Denis Evstuhin was born in Russia, and he has a special feeling in his heart for Peter Tchaikovsky, whom he calls "the most iconic of all Russian composers."
So when he saw the 180th anniversary of Tchaikovsky's birth approaching a year ago, Evstuhin wanted to mark it.
Exciting plans were hatched for a special recital at the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis, where Evstuhin curates the music program.
Joining him on stage would be Minnesota Orchestra concertmaster Erin Keefe and her husband, Osmo Vänskä — the orchestra's music director, but also an outstanding clarinetist.
It should have been a grand, celebratory occasion in the beautiful main gallery of the museum, but the coronavirus abruptly stopped it.
"We had to cancel all events at the museum," Evstuhin says.
"A few months later, when it became clear that we would not be able to host the Tchaikovsky recital this year, I started thinking about an alternative open-air event."
Eventually Evstuhin hit upon the Bandshell at Town Green Park in Maple Grove as an ideal venue — a wonderful space, he calls it.
There, on Saturday, Aug. 22, Evstuhin finally gets to host the birthday tribute that he wanted — a program mixing music from Tchaikovsky's beloved ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker with a selection of songs, opera arias, piano works and chamber music.
Putting the event together has been considerably more time-consuming than it would have been a year ago, before the coronavirus started.
"Protocols require more volunteers to help our guests with registration, pre-concert screening, entering and exiting the amphitheater safely," Evstuhin explains.
"We also have to provide extra cleaning at common areas and high-touch points, and hand sanitizer and face masks if needed. And our program will not have the usual intermission."
All these additional measures are needed to comply with public health guidance on the coronavirus, which limits the total number of people attending the concert to 250, including the performers.
But the extra work is worth it, Evstuhin insists.
"I know that many of my friends and colleagues really miss classical musical concerts. Our goal was to minimize the risk of being exposed to COVID, and in my opinion a well-organized outdoor classical music event seems much safer than any other public event."
But do Evstuhin's musical associates think the same? Was it difficult to sign up the performers for his "Tchaikovsky 180" evening?
"Not at all," Evstuhin says. "We have several hundred talented musicians from the Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Opera and other organizations who currently have no performance opportunities, and most of them miss their job."
Among the soloists showcased on the evening are Minnesota Orchestra cellist Silver Ainomäe, and his violist wife, Anne. Russian soprano Mlada Khudoley and Evstuhin's fellow pianist Anton Melnichenko also feature, as do dancers from the Minnesota Ballet Theatre and School.
"None of us suffer because of lack of food," Evstuhin adds. "But we all starve for opportunities to share our talents and inspiration with others."
With ticket sales so limited, Evstuhin is frank about the difficulties of making this special concert work financially.
"The Rubinstein Music Academy covered rental costs and provided a Yamaha concert grand piano for the evening," he says. "I would also like to thank all of the musicians for their willingness to perform for a reduced honorarium fee."
To cut costs further, a prerecorded soundtrack will be used for the ballet and concerto excerpts. A live orchestra would be logistically difficult and prohibitively expensive.
But the distinguished roster of soloists for "Tchaikovsky 180" will mean a high quality of musicmaking on the evening, Evstuhin promises.
And their involvement in the choice of music for the concert has led to an unusually varied and interesting program.
"I've asked all of our musicians to perform only their favorite compositions, based on their musical backgrounds and tastes," Evstuhin says.
So alongside well-known music from Tchaikovsky's ballets, there will be less familiar items, too — movements from his piano works The Seasons and Children's Album, for example, and from the passionate but underappreciated Piano Trio.
"Tchaikovsky's most popular and familiar music does not always correspond with his best quality," Evstuhin says.
As evidence, he cites the hyper-popular 1812 Overture, whose deafening cannonades even Tchaikovsky found "very loud and noisy, but without artistic merit."
But the best of Tchaikovsky, "goes directly into people's hearts," Evstuhin adds, "and I can guarantee that every composition in our program is a true masterpiece."
Evstuhin's career as a pianist has been put on hold by the coronavirus, with all his scheduled concerts postponed for the foreseeable future.
But he is taking heart from the enthusiastic response he has already had to his "Tchaikovsky 180" initiative and the hunger that is still there among Twin Cities audiences for live performance.
"Following Governor Walz's recommendations, we offered only 200 tickets for the concert, and almost half of them sold in just a few days," he says.
"This event celebrates the art of one of the greatest composers in music history, and gives people hope that our cultural life goes on despite all the challenges of our time."
Event details
When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22
Where: Maple Grove Bandshell (Town Green Park, 7991 Main St.)
Tickets: $10-$20
At 7 p.m. central Thursday, June 11, join host Melissa Ousley for an encore broadcast of Minnesota Opera's production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.
As Minnesota Opera describes it: "All is fair in love and war in this new staging of Mozart's timeless comedy of errors, widely considered the perfect opera. Mozart's infectious score brings humor, drama, and humanity to this story of class conflict. It should be the happiest day of their lives, but the wily servant Figaro and his charming fiancée Susanna must fend off the philandering, arrogant Count Almaviva before he ruins everything. On a day filled with chaos and confusion in which disguised identities are revealed and shenanigans ensue, will the young lovers finally make it to the altar?"
Synopsis, provided by Minnesota Opera
Act I
An unfinished room
Figaro, valet to Count Almaviva, is measuring the floor, while Susanna, the Countess' maid, puts the finishing touches on her bridal attire. They are to be married that very day, and as a wedding gift, the Count is giving them a bed and a new room to share. Figaro observes the room's strategic location to both the Count and Countess's apartments, but when Susanna realizes this now will be their lodgings, she is apprehensive. It is a little too convenient for the Count, who has made it clear through Don Basilio his romantic intentions toward her. Figaro counters that the master has relinquished the antiquated droit du seigneur, but Susanna discloses his offering of a handsome dowry if she submits. Susanna leaves to answer the Countess' page, and Figaro angrily plans to teach the Count a lesson.
Elsewhere, Marcellina enlists the help of her former employer, Dr. Bartolo. She intends to frustrate the wedding day by executing a contract made between her and Figaro - he has failed to repay a debt, and therefore must marry her (in spite of the great difference in their ages). She hopes to frighten Susanna into rejecting the Count's advances, thereby using his irritation to her benefit. Bartolo heartily agrees to the plan, for he has his own score to settle - three years ago his marriage plans to Rosina (now the Countess) were upset by Figaro, that meddling barber of Seville.
Marcellina encounters Susanna, and they exchange courteously veiled sniping remarks. Marcellina exits in a fury, and in comes the page boy, Cherubino. He is distraught - the Count caught him in Barbarina's room and now he is to be dismissed. No more will he behold his true love, the Countess. About to leave the room he eyes the Count approaching and hides behind an armchair. The Count immediately begins to press his advances on Susanna. Basilio is seen nearby, and the Count, not wanting to be compromised, takes cover behind the armchair. Cherubino slips into the chair, and Susanna cleverly conceals him. Entering the room, Basilio begins to make slanderous innuendoes about Cherubino's love escapades, implicating Susanna and even the Countess. This draws the Count out of hiding. He angrily orders the page be found at once but soon discovers Cherubino is already in the room and has heard every word, including his romantic overtures to Susanna.
Figaro enters with staff and peasants. They offer a chorus of thanks to the Count for renouncing the abhorrent droit du seigneur with a clever reminder that Figaro and Susanna are the first wedded couple to benefit from the repeal. Susanna and Figaro make a further entreaty - Cherubino must be pardoned for his amorous indiscretions so he may join the wedding festivities. But the Count does more than that, offering the young man an honorable position in his regiment. His departure will be immediate. Figaro bids a comic farewell, detailing the great glories Cherubino is about to face.
Act II
A bedroom
In her boudoir, the Countess laments the loss of her husband's affection. Susanna attends to her lady and confesses the Count's illicit proposition. Figaro enters and tells them the Count is taking up Marcellina's cause in the disputed contract. He hopes to confuse the situation by inflaming the Count's jealousy - he has sent an anonymous letter, via Basilio, informing his master of a future assignation between the Countess and an unnamed lover. At the same time, Susanna is to let the Count know she is willing to submit to his wishes in the garden. But when the Count arrives, he will find in her place Cherubino disguised as a woman.
Figaro departs, and Cherubino arrives moments later. As a parting gesture, Susanna instructs him to sing a song he wrote in honor of the Countess. While sizing him up for the charade to be performed that evening, the Countess notices his commission, hastily unsealed. As they prepare Cherubino's disguise, Susanna leaves for a moment and a knock is heard. It is the Count, and the mortified Cherubino scurries into the Countess's wardrobe. Once allowed entry, the Count is immediately suspicious - the door was locked (it almost never is), and he heard voices. He shows his wife the letter, but the confrontation is interrupted by a loud noise coming from the closet. The Countess says it's Susanna in a state of undress and orders her to be silent - the Countess' integrity is in question, and she refuses to dignify these accusations by opening the closet. The Count leaves to get some tools and takes the Countess with him, locking all the doors so no one can escape.
Having quietly slipped into the room, Susanna has secretly observed the entire situation. She takes Cherubino's place, and left with no other option of escape, Cherubino jumps out the window. The Count and Countess return - she now prepares her husband for what he might find inside and begs for his understanding, but when Susanna emerges instead of Cherubino, both are dumfounded. Figaro arrives presently, and once the issue of the letter is settled (merely a joke to tease the Count), he announces the hour has arrived for the wedding ceremony. The Count tarries - Marcellina is due to arrive any minute to present her claim. Instead, Antonio the gardener comes in, fussing over flowers damaged by a falling man. Again suspicions are raised, but the three conspirators allude to the old man's habitual drunkenness, and Figaro admits it was he who jumped to escape the Count's wrath - he had been in the adjoining room waiting for Susanna. Antonio produces a document dropped by the escapee; the Count grabs it and demands Figaro to tell him what it is. The Countess whispers to Susanna - it is the page's military commission - and Susanna in turn whispers to Figaro. Figaro suddenly remembers and adds that he was bringing it to the Count because it lacked the official seal. Marcellina, Bartolo and Basilio belatedly arrive and make their case - Figaro is obligated to marry Marcellina if he can't pay off the debt.
Act III
A state room prepared for a wedding feast
The Count reviews the complex events of the day and eyes Susanna and the Countess discussing details of their covert plan. Confronting Susanna alone, he insists Marcellina shall marry Figaro. Susanna retorts that the debt will be repaid by the dowry promised by her employer. The Count denies making any such promise, but Susanna coyly reveals that her protests have been feigned - she is willing to meet the Count in the garden as he desires (the Countess having persuaded her to do so). She encounters Figaro as she leaves the room and whispers that there is no longer need for a lawyer. The Count overhears this remark and is enraged.
Barbarina masks Cherubino in woman's clothes to conceal his supposed departure. Alone, the Countess rues the humiliation she suffers as the result of her unfaithful husband and recalls happier days.
Don Curzio's judgment enforces the terms of the contract - Figaro will have to marry Marcellina. Figaro argues he cannot marry without the consent of his noble parents, whose birthright was indicated by the jewels and linens thieves found nearby when he was kidnapped as a small child. Marcellina and Bartolo recognize a distinguishing mark on his arm and realize that Figaro is their long-lost son.
Susanna enters, and seeing Figaro embrace Marcellina, momentarily becomes jealous. When all is explained, Bartolo decides to do the right thing and announces there will be a double wedding ceremony. Marcellina discharges the debt as a wedding present to the young couple.
Antonio informs the Count of Cherubino's sighting on the premises dressed as a young girl. The Countess dictates a letter to Susanna confirming the clandestine meeting with the Count and seals the note with a pin. It is agreed they will exchange cloaks so the Countess, disguised as Susanna, can catch her husband red-handed.
Peasant girls (Cherubino among them) present flowers to the Countess. Antonio arrives and exposes the page's deception to the Count. Barbarina intercedes as the Count is about to release his wrath - he once promised to do anything she asked in exchange for her kisses. She begs for permission to marry Cherubino. Figaro invites all to dance as the wedding ceremony begins. As the couples prepare for the fandango, Susanna slips the letter into the Count's hand.
Act IV
The garden
Barbarina searches for the lost pin she was entrusted to return to Susanna as confirmation of the rendezvous. Figaro happens upon the scene and pretends to play along; privately he discloses to Marcellina his despair over what he believes to be Susanna's infidelity. His mother advises him not to be rash, and after he leaves, she goes to warn Susanna, whom she believes to be innocent.
Susanna and the Countess wait in the darkness. Marcellina has clued them in, and knowing Figaro can hear her voice, Susanna sings of her happy anticipation of a lovers' tryst. Looking for Barbarina, Cherubino happens upon the Countess, and thinking it is Susanna, makes his approach. The Count arrives, and the game of mistaken identities ensues. Figaro and Susanna are eventually reconciled, and the Count, who has had a chance to woo "Susanna" (the Countess), is caught when he threatens to expose the unknown man (Figaro) he believes is seducing "the Countess" (Susanna). All is forgiven as the day of folly draws to a close.
These are times that try musicians' souls. They also foster creativity.
Many, if not most, Minnesota musicians are turning lockdown obstacles into opportunities, pursuing projects that an unanticipated plethora of free time has afforded them.
The most obvious and conspicuous activities have been doing what comes naturally: performing in front of an online audience rather than a live one. But others have charted entirely new courses, boldly exploring new enterprises to enrich the lives of themselves and others.
Bill Schrickel, assistant principal bass with the Minnesota Orchestra, speaks for his peers with a common goal of "trying to get something positive out of this … to use this forced isolation time to get a little bit closer to wrapping my mind around this creative energy."
While these endeavors most often have a musical component, Anna Lee Roberts and Mia Athey are the proverbial exceptions that prove the rule.
Roberts has two vocations in which she is sidelined: as a cellist who performs with Wellespring, Christopher Lynch and the Dust of Suns Ensemble and Natalie Lovejoy and the Ex-Lovers, and as a hospice music therapist with Allina Health. She has turned to a sidelight of the latter, starting work on a thesis for St. Catherine University titled "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Hospice Industry in Minnesota."
Athey, a mezzo-soprano with Minnesota Opera, also is at work on the written word: editing a psychological thriller she has been writing for the past couple of years. This task is arguably more challenging than the actual writing.
"It's not as easy as I thought," she said. "As you read your own work, some of it is impressive and sometimes it's very hard to read; you go, 'it would sound better if I did this.' I know there are some things I want to take out, some sections that are extraneous."
It has been quite a contrast to her stage work.
"Sometimes we perform roles written hundreds of years ago," she said. "I might have opinions, but I keep them to myself. As a writer, I have more autonomy. I can portray characters the way I want."
That's true, at least, until the ongoing editing process, although the results have proved as rewarding as the work has proven laborious.
"Now," she said, "I'm thinking a lot about a sequel."
Mostly Mahler
Other musicians have been immersed within their fields.
Schrickel, who lost a chance to conduct Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony with the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra when a late-March concert was postponed, took a deep dive into that composer's life and works.
Along the way, he has uncovered quite a few misperceptions about his favorite composer.
"In his later symphonies, the Ninth and the unfinished 10th, he has been depicted as saying farewell to the world," Schrickel said, "that he was weary and exhausted and ready to wave goodbye to the world.
"But the fact is he was very excited. He was not going gently into that good night. He was not frail and sickly; he was vibrant really almost to the very end. That makes me hear those later symphonies differently."
By contrast, "his most tragic piece, the Sixth Symphony, was written one summer when he was as happy as he ever was. And some of his most positive and assertive music was written when he was sad."
As he studied more, Schrickel also discovered fallacies in the conventional wisdom about Mahler's youth.
"The picture writers would paint of his childhood was that he grew up extremely poor, living on a military base in Bohemia. It ended up he was in a little Bohemian town, but his father had a store and bakery and the house was not in military barracks but in the town center."
The musical influences of that upbringing stuck, though.
"You hear the military notes, the trumpet calls, and klezmer notes in his music."
While it has been personally enlightening and enriching to learn so much about Mahler, there will be professional benefits, as well, whenever the concert is rescheduled.
"Hopefully," he said, "I can bring some of this newly acquired knowledge to my players and also hopefully translate it to audiences, the gods willing."
Mining Goldberg
Jay Ferree has taken on a different type of task, but one that should have a similar result: engaging and inspiring his fellow musicians in the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
The SPCO's principal horn has immersed himself in Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, a work written for harpsichord and even today usually performed on solo piano (most famously by Glenn Gould). Ferree credits an orchestra mate, violinist Daria Adams, who he said "saw the potential for it to feature every musician."
In concocting arrangements that the SPCO can perform, Ferree was "thinking of instruments but also about people, putting faces on what I'm doing," he said. "There are so many … I'm given the black-and-white frames, and I'm coloring them in."
The process has been organic.
"I want to be true to Bach's intent but also make it sound appropriate to the orchestra. I do love doing this now, because of the time it does take, knowing that I can work on a variation and maybe when I get stuck conceptually, I can leave and let it ferment for a while, maybe even start over."
This wouldn't have been possible in normal times.
"The horn is a great way to bring home a paycheck, but there's always been that repressed part of me," Ferree said with a laugh, "that says, 'When am I going to get to compose?' I've always imagined it being part of my life in certain proportions, and now it's getting a healthy proportion."
Beyond classical
These explorations aren't limited to the classical world. Josh Misner, leader of the classical-pop crossover ensemble Laurels String Quartet, decided to steep himself in a different kind of composing.
"For years, I've wanted to sequester myself in the studio and take a mad-scientist approach," the violinist said. "A composer writes something down on paper and hands it off to a conductor, and then it goes to the musicians. I decided to take the opposite approach. It's probably closer to what popular musicians do, which is push 'record' and just play whatever comes out."
The process, Misner said, has been "exploratory and improvisational, and that's been freeing."
He added, "I've also taken more of a textural approach, inserting weird sounds and scratches. I wanted to go with the initial expression and follow it, trying really hard not to polish it. With digital recording you can do as many passes as you want, hundreds. I really wanted to avoid that."
At a certain point, he said, "if I tinkered with it any longer it might suck the life and excitement out of it." So he ended up with a 5- to 6-minute song that he likened to Philip Glass "in terms of the rhythmic aspect, with a lot of repetition, kind of harmonic and melodic at the same time."
Misner is pleased with the result, and so is a housemate — at least to an extent: "My 9-year-old's reaction was she liked it, but part of it made her brain crazy."
Trying to more directly appeal to the younger set are rocker Chris Osgood and saxophonist Christopher Rochester. They are teaming with MacPhail Center for Music (where Rochester is an instructor) and Walker West Academy to offer free jazz lessons to families affected by COVID-19.
The lessons, Osgood said, are for kids in families affected "either by coming down with the virus or losing their jobs or being furloughed." It's an offshoot of the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, another sponsor, because the June event, which includes a Youth Stage, has been canceled.
Other music students have new undertakings as a result of the stay-at-home scenario. Local music teacher Rachel Bearinger, also an associate digital producer for Performance Today, has seen a strong trend, as many of her students have decided to learn a certain stringed instrument.
The whys and wherefores, in Bearinger's words: "The ukulele is a very accessible instrument that's been surging in popularity in the past 10 years or so. Artists like Ingrid Michaelson, Grace VanderWaal, Dodie Clark and Never Shout Never have released original songs that are fun to listen to and to play and sing.
"Ukuleles are inexpensive, and their strings are softer and more manageable than those of a steel-string guitar or bass."
For these and musicians of every other stripe, this "down time" can be spent in rich and rewarding ways.
"It probably goes without saying," Misner said, "that due to the tragic nature of this pandemic, I'm not looking at this time as an opportunity so much as an obligation to do something positive and meaningful with the situation."
Mission accomplished.
]]>Editor's note: Listen at 7 p.m. Thursday as Classical MPR presents an encore broadcast of the Minnesota Opera production of Richard Wagner's timeless Das Rheingold. But first, learn more about the performance in John Birge's 2016 interview with singers Greer Grimsley, Katharine Goeldner and conductor Michael Christie, using the player above.
Minnesota Opera: Das Rheingold on-demand audio
"Only those of wider consciousness can follow it breathlessly, seeing in it the whole tragedy of human history and the whole horror of the dilemmas from which the world is shrinking today.
George Bernard Shaw wrote that in 1898 about Wagner's opera Das Rheingold, airing at 7 p.m. Thursday in an encore broadcast from Minnesota Opera, and as timely as today's headlines.
It's tempting to conceive of this first opera of Wagner's epic Ring of the Nibelung cycle as a fairy-tale story of gods and goddesses, warriors and wizards. But they're not simple heroes and villains. They're something much more interesting, precisely because they are not godlike. Wagner's gods may be larger than life, but they share our oh-so-human flaws, foibles and frailty.
Small wonder, then, that Wagner's opera of love, jealousy, class warfare, greed, exploitation, power and corruption feels so immediate today. Wagner remains, as he was in life, a political revolutionary. With singers Greer Grimsley, Katharine Goeldner, and conductor Michael Christie, we dive into this timeless opera.
Not even a global pandemic can stop the music. That's especially true in St. Paul's Ramsey Hill neighborhood where a Minnesota Opera violinist has been putting on tiny balcony concerts from her home.
Like other musicians, Emilia Mettenbrink has been out of work during the COVID-19 pandemic. In mid-March many arts organizations canceled or rescheduled events in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Mettenbrink missed connecting with audiences so she decided to put on mini performances for her neighbors and anyone walking by the intersection of Portland Avenue and Kent Street. She's been playing every evening at 6 p.m. over the last month (barring rain or snow). She's performed pieces by composers like Bach and William Grant Still and dedicated a song to her Minnesota Opera colleagues, who she misses.
"I love playing for people," said Mettenbrink, who also plays with the chamber ensemble Sphinx Virtuosi. "And I wanted to share something -- some emotion, some piece of myself -- with others in this time when we can't really share [with] each other as much as we might want to."
She's heard from strangers who stumbled upon a performance who said they were having a bad day and hearing the music made them feel better. One neighbor said they cried the first night when they saw a couple across the street who were holding each other as they listened.
Sharing music during this time is uplifting and spreads hope, Mettenbrink said. It feels like a way to not give up when things are uncertain.
]]>Listen now to an encore presentation of Minnesota Opera's production of Verdi's La Traviata, with host Melissa Ousley — plus a 2019 interview with the cast.
Cast
Violetta Valéry — Nicole Cabell
Alfredo Germont — Jesus León
Giorgio Germont — Joo Won Kang
Gastone — Christian Sanders
Baron Douphol — Nicholas Davis
Marchese D'Obigny — Christian Thurston
Doctor Grenville — Wm. Clay Thompson
Flora Bervoix — Bergen Baker
Annina — Danielle Beckvermit
Giuseppe — Darrius Morton
Messenger — Tony Potts
Flora's Servant — Joel Mathias
The Minnesota Opera is made possible in part
by a grant in memory of Sarah-Maud W. Sivertsen
Instrument: Voice
Hometown: Prescott, Wisc.
Piece: Gabriel Fauré — Les Berceaux
Why do you love to perform?
For as long as I can remember, I have been enamored with the concept of magic. I was so convinced magic was real that I would engage in arguments when other kids told me it was all imaginary. Though my childhood passion for magic faded due to the harsh reality of the world, there still remained one joyful, whimsical interest that endured my transition into middle school - SINGING. My teacher introduced me to the program Project Opera, run by the Minnesota Opera. This program gave musically-inclined kids the opportunity to participate in main stage operas as a part of the childrens' chorus. The first opera I performed in was "Hansel and Gretel."
On opening night, I waited backstage for my cue while pacing around like a nervous wreck. Finally, the stage managers announced it was time for our entrance. We walked on stage and stepped into our places. The curtains rose. At this moment, the potential idea that I could turn my voice into a career crystallized. I looked out into the lights that resembled stars. With a purposeful wave of the hand, the conductor controlled the uniform, ethereal sound we produced. We traveled to another time in another land. We possessed the power to silence thousands of people as we transported them into a captivating story. The realization dawned upon me that perhaps magic is real, just not in the form I expected. Even as I mature, magic can always be a part of my life.
]]>Minnesota Varsity 2020: Send in your submissions now!
Where Are They Now? spotlights Minnesota Varsity Featured and Showcase Artists and Composers from 2011 to 2019.
Karen Baumgartner, originally from Roseville, was a Minnesota Varsity 2011 and 2012 Featured Artist. She recently got in touch with Classical MPR to share her latest news.
Karen Baumgartner, 2011 & 2012 Featured Artist, flute
Age: 26
Hometown: Roseville, Minn.
Attended: Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind. and University of Texas at Austin, Tex.
I am from Roseville, Minnesota and love showing off and spouting random facts about this lovely state. I am happy to have graduated twice with degrees in Flute Performance from Indiana University and The University of Texas at Austin and am even happier to be out in the real world using those skills to make a living. I am currently a professional freelance flutist who has performed in a number of things including Minnesota Opera productions and Minnesota State Dance Theater's annual Nutcracker production which have both taught me how to cope with the fact that I'll never get to see the stage while performing in a pit. In addition to performing I also get to teach flute as adjunct faculty at the University of Northwestern St Paul and the University of Minnesota Morris.
I can't believe Minnesota Varsity is already in its 10th season!! I remember when I initially heard about it and was excited to apply. Soon after I sent my application in I received an email saying I was the very first applicant. While filling out my application there was a box which we had to type in what our music goals were. In that box I typed "My goal is to be the best musician I can be and to someday be in a professional orchestra". A few simple innocent words that came laced with just about every emotion possible.
When I started playing flute I loved everything about it. As a homeschooler, playing was one of the opportunities I had to meet and interact with new people in band or orchestra and to connect with my flute teacher every week. During the day if I didn't feel like spending time doing homework I could at that moment go and practice for whatever length of time I felt like doing so. Through practicing and performing I could communicate in ways I never could with words and in a way that felt more natural than words. As someone who has always been goal oriented and competitive I thrived in the competition circuit and enjoyed the additional opportunities that came from those competitions.
In 8th grade I began playing in orchestra and while we were rehearsing I decided before we even got to the performance that I wanted to be a professional orchestral flutist. I even remember thinking "pursuing this is going to be a lot harder than you understand but this is what you are going to do". As I embarked on my six year journey off to college I began to seriously question my career choice over and over (and over and over..). Recitals and concerts became places where instead of listening and enjoying great artistry I would get anxiety while analyzing every phrase, dynamic, and any other element possible to compare whether or not I could do it as well. Even though those years were packed with incredible experiences and successes they weren't enough to keep my mind from focusing on the fact that every competition or placement that didn't go how I hoped was solid proof that there were other people out there who could do the flute thing better than I could. After six years of countless struggles, disappointments, and questions, pursuing a music career lost the luster it used to have and by the time I graduated, I had no idea what I should do.
At this point I knew that if the music thing was going to work out for me I would have to rediscover the joy I had in playing flute before I went off to college. I'm not gonna lie though, I couldn't comprehend that actually happening but merely decided I would choose to believe it was a possibility. I also was wrestling with why it mattered if I was a professional musician. Was it really important for me to beat out another amazing musician just so I could be the one sitting in whatever flute chair we were competing for? There are so many incredible flutists out there, what did I have to offer that someone else couldn't? Why was it important for me to prove that I could play better than someone else? How was being a professional flutist more important than going to a third world country and opening up an orphanage or helping the homeless? (Quite the dramatic contrast I know, but that is where my mind went). In the meantime, life went on. I was out of college and chose not to pursue competitions or auditions. During that time I was incredibly fortunate to have performing opportunities to keep me playing. At this point since I wasn't competing or comparing myself to others, I stopped trying to prove to the world that I was a worthy talented musician and instead started putting my heart into what I performed in order to create the best music I was capable of. Every performance became a place where I could communicate and make an impact instead of caring about whether or not people found me impressive. I started focusing on the power music has to create impact and change. It didn't matter if someone else could play a passage better than me but it mattered whether or not I chose to utilize my biggest area of gifting to bring healing and change to a hurting world. Maybe this wouldn't be as directly visible an impact as running an orphanage (which by the way, I have no idea how to do) but it was the way I personally could have the biggest impact on the world.
I realized that throughout my college years I stopped seeing value in the music I had to offer. Music had stopped being a way to express myself and connect with others but became a scale to see if I had value. If I did well I had value, if I did poorly I didn't have value. Of course I got burnt out with this mindset! I wasn't focused on if I had something meaningful to share with the world but was focused on whether or not I could be seen as a better player than someone else. Once I changed this mind set it became possible for the joy I had when I was younger to be present once again. Since rediscovering that joy, I have been able to gladly jump back into the audition circuit. Odds are I won't win my 1st, 2nd, or 10th audition after jumping back in (although that is what I'm working hard to do) but not winning an audition isn't a death sentence any more. It says nothing about whether or not my playing is important and worth pursuing. All it means is I have to pursue at least one more audition before I get to use the job I've dreamed of to impact the world.
I guess now it's been 10 years since I wrote about my goal of being a professional orchestral flutist on my Minnesota Varsity application. It would have been incredibly daunting to know at that point what pursuing that career would look like with all the ups and downs along the way but looking back I wouldn't change a thing. All those experiences have shaped me into the person I am today and because of them I can now see and appreciate the incredible depth in what I and other musicians have to offer. The journey still continues today but instead of trudging along until I get to my coveted destination I will focus on one step at a time and make the most out of whatever is around the next corner.
Performances
]]>Join host Andrea Blain for Classical MPR's live broadcast of Minnesota Opera's production of Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14.
Rossini's beloved and irresistible rom-com is a cut above. Figaro, Seville's quick-witted barber, helps a young woman flee an unsuitable suitor and find true love. Naturally, nothing goes according to plan, and Figaro must think on his feet to save the day. The instantly recognizable music sparkles in this razor-sharp, comedic masterpiece.
Listen to our performance chat with some of the major players to prepare for the live broadcast, enjoy photos from the production in the gallery below, and find tickets and more information on the Minnesota Opera's website.
Join host Melissa Ousley for Classical MPR's encore presentation of Minnesota Opera's production of Nino Rota's The Italian Straw Hat at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7.
Rota is known for his magical movie scores (think: The Godfather) and for his decades long relationship with film director Federico Fellini. However, Rota was writing gorgeous music for the concert hall — and for the opera stage — by the time he was a teenager.
Last season, for the first time ever, Minnesota Opera brought Rota's hilarious comedy, The Italian Straw Hat, to the stage in downtown St. Paul. Groom-to-be Fadinard gallops around Paris on his wedding day, searching desperately for the perfect straw hat to wear to his wedding. (And why is he waiting till the last minute? Because his horse ate his first straw hat, of course!) Set in the 1950s, The Italian Straw Hat defines the meaning of the word "farce."
Watch a trailer for the opera below.
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