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    • Ralph Stalter
      • Jun 22, 2017
      • 4 min read

    EMAV Review: Opera Las Vegas delivers a delicious 'Rigoletto'



    ★★★★☆ - Delicious

    At its best opera is inspiring, provoking, moving, and even life-changing. All because of its voluptuous complexity -- its rich layers of music, drama and spectacle. All of those layers were certainly evident in the offering of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Rigoletto”, presented by Opera Las Vegas at Judy Bayley Theater, June 9-11. (For the uninitiated, the performers sing in Italian, with English supertitles providing a real-time translation.) The company of 13 primary characters, 7 chorus members, 4 supporting cast members and an orchestra – numbering 23 players - along with a conductor delivered a delicious four star production.

    Chances are you’ve even heard Verdi’s jaunty, insanely catchy “La donna e mobile.” But it’s far from “Rigoletto’s” only memorable melody. “People will say, ‘I’ve heard that music before,’ ” Ms. DeVol says of the opera’s “absolutely unforgettable melodies,” which people “were singing in the streets the day after the (1851) premiere.”

    Tragic forces shape this world-famous tale of a father’s love, a Duke’s debauchery, an Italian court’s collective deception and a deeply personal thirst for brutal revenge. The fates of the hunch-backed jester and a libidinous royal philanderer collide in composer Giuseppe Verdi’s stunning masterpiece of passion and vengeance. Featuring some of opera’s most famous melodies, Rigoletto is the story of a daughter abducted, a father outraged, and a potent curse fulfilled.

    Michael Chioldi, internationally-renowned for his portrayal of the title character, heads an all-star cast, with full orchestra (under the musical direction of the Metropolitan Opera’s Gregory Buchalter), and stage direction by Cynthia Stokes. Las Vegas Philharmonic concertmaster, De Ann Letourneau, is concertmaster, and set design is by Lily Bartenstein.

    “Las Vegas has a lot of live music — but everything’s amplified,” Chioldi observes. “To experience the power of voice, there’s something that touches you.”

    And despite “the sort of elitism that follows opera” and “sort of scares people away,” Chioldi maintains that audiences will experience “a really joyous night” discovering “an all-encompassing art form.”

    Composed between 1850 and 1851, Verdi's opera, Rigoletto, is a twisted tale of lust, desire, love, and deceit. It was adored by audiences when it first premiered at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851, and even now, over 160 years later, it is one of the world's most performed operas. According to Operabase, which gathers statistical information from opera houses around the world, Verdi's Rigoletto was the 8th most performed opera in the world during the 2014/15 season.

    Rigoletto is the first of Verdi’s middle period operas and marks a shift towards coherent musical tapestries as opposed to the typical Italian aria format (though Verdi by no means leaves the form behind). There are fewer applause breaks than in his earlier works, the drama seemingly rushing headlong towards its conclusion.

    The Duke of Mantua sings the recognizable aria “La Donne e Mobile" ("Woman is fickle") in the third act as he flirts with Maddalena, the sister of the assassin, Sparafucile. The legend goes that, Verdi was acutely aware that he had written something of a humdinger in this aria, so to avoid the tune becoming common property to all of Venice, he swore his singers to secrecy and wouldn’t provide the music for the song until mere days before the first performance!

    The Opera Las Vegas cast included:

    Michael Chioldi, Rigoletto: The baritone was recently the cover photo story of the national magazine Classical Singer. He has quickly gained the reputation as one of the most sought-after dramatic baritones of his generation.

    So Young Park, Gilda: A native of Pusan, South Korea, the soprano is a graduate of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist program with the Los Angeles Opera, where she recently performed Blondchen (The Abduction from the Seraglio) and Olympia (The Tales of Hoffmann).

    Kirk Dougherty, Duke of Mantua: The tenor just completed the season as a Resident Artist with Opera San Jose, where he performed Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Rodolfo (La Bohème), Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia), and Sprink in the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera by Kevin Puts, Silent Night.

    Rubin Casas, Sparafucile: The bass-baritone from Pasadena, Texas makes his company and role debut as Sparafucile. His Banco in Macbeth (Opera Company of Middlebury) was acclaimed as “solid and beautifully sung.”

    Danielle Marcelle Bond, Maddalena: Brava! for her performance in Long Beach Opera’s The Death of Klinghoffer. She played the title role in the US premiere of Marilyn Forever, prompting Opera News to declare, ”She sang sumptuously, expressively.”

    Opera Las Vegas was established in 1999 by Gloria Allen, a world renowned opera singer, and several other like-minded individuals who wanted to bring this art form to Southern Nevada. Opera Las Vegas is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation with a staff comprised solely of volunteers skilled in management, planning and marketing, as well as the musical and theatrical arts. Las Vegas is lucky to have Luana DeVol (General Director), James Sohre (Artistic Director) and their dedicated Board of Directors remain fully committed to spread the gospel of opera.

    #Stalter #JudyBaley #operalasvegas #Review #Music #Theatre

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    • Eat More Art Vegas
      • Oct 19, 2016
      • 3 min read

    Tsvet & James are a Bad Moon Booking



    James Howard Adams stands in front of my T.V. in his boxer shorts, barefoot with a bottle of champagne swilling through his system, a tipsy Teddy Roosevelt with a short mustache as stout and sincere as his small frame. His other half, Tsvetelina Stefanova, sits on the couch like a sphinx, cradling her Spanish Lager. We’re providing audience for James as he tells us about this twenty-two-year-old kid he met that listens to Blink 182 religiously, “Like for real,” he says, “This kid was like, did you guys hear the new Blink 182 album yet, and he was serious.”

    These two cats, Tsvet & James, are no Blink 182, they’re Same Sex Mary, the band and brain child of these two Boulder City bad asses. They’re also the wizards, along with Jack Evan Johnson, behind an alternative to ‘Life Is Beautiful’, the art/food/music festival that commandeers Downtown with triple-digit-priced ticket holders, providing the Silver State instead with a ‘shitty music fest for shitty people’…the Life is Shit festival that hosted fifteen bands at The Dive Bar this past September for the fourth year straight.

    If “Life is Shit” isn’t enough reason to throw yourself in front of bullet for these two, they also run “Bad Moon Booking”, which has brought bands from all over the country to play venues like The Bunkhouse, Velveteen Rabbit, Fremont Country Club, and most recently, their latest gift to Las Vegas, the Concert Series at the Plaza Hotel and Casino. It’s final weekend is this Saturday, October 22nd, featuring a Burger Record’s band from L.A. called Adult Books, and local bands No Tides, Kurumpaw, and DJ Cromm Astaire.

    On my coffee table, besides the empty bottle of champagne that James downed on doctor’s orders (“Said I needed to cut down on carbohydrates”), there’s a mustard colored lit mag with an Andy Warholesque banana, the potassium fueled fruit being peeled back, a piece of human shit is revealed. “This was harder to put together than the actual (Life is Shit) festival,” Tsvet says, “It’s mostly work from friends of ours.” The zine was sold for $10 at the festival and contains poems like “I hate White People” by Jack Evan Johnson, along with the art of ERIDAN, geometric odysseys that journey like M.C. Escher without the icing. A piece written by the blissfully misanthropic Josh Ellis that would make even the most self-loathing Las Vegan’s heart melt, “My Penis Is a Killing Word: A Memoir of the Crimean War” that describes the Vegas community as ‘a terrible place with some of the most amazing people’.

    I wouldn’t say Vegas is terrible, I’d say it’s full of shit. It’s a pathological liar with the capriciousness of an over-caffeinated teenager, it’s Vegas. There’s still a little bit of that desert hospitality, that small town lifestyle that led this city before the mafia clamped down like a deer tick and nearly killed it. There’s still a couple cowboy’s here, a few ranches off of Russel road, an entire Boulder City. There’s a truth that costs nothing. It’s the desert and the desert doesn’t try to hide from you, it’s as bare as James Howard Adams in his boxer shorts. He and Tsvetelina Stefanova are the sap inside the sagebrush, they’re a Bad Moon Booking. They’re bringing local bands to the Plaza Hotel and Casino this weekend, bands that’ve been around for a while, that stay beautiful in their corners of concrete and refuse, those pretty little flowers in the cracks that us fans find nirvana in.

    #Curcio #Review

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    • Eat More Art Vegas
      • Oct 16, 2016
      • 3 min read

    The Las Vegas Philharmonic delivers a spectacular evening ★★★★★



    ★★★★★ - Irresistible

    The Smith Center audience was treated to a delightful performance called "Symphonic Spectacular" last Saturday night by the Las Vegas Philharmonic, under the guidance of conductor Donato Cabrera.

    In our daily lives, we often are surrounded by the music of Rossini, Bizet, Borodin and Strauss, we don`t even think…these are some of the most popular classical composers. Their music is very widely exploited even today. We hear a variety of fragments or whole symphony, skillfully interpreted as music layouts everywhere in the entertainment industry. Who has not heard “On the Beautiful Blue Danube” - one of Strauss's most popular waltzes, traditionally broadcast worldwide by public television and radio stations around the world for the winter holidays and New Year`s Eve? Certainly, the audience would have had a well-established taste on the music which were planned for the evening.

    Live concerts have always been unique and unrepeatable events. For musicians it is a great challenge to reinvent and recreate music which has had public attention for hundreds of years.

    Mr. Cabrera made very good impression with his skillful approach to the classic music, especially Rossini. "Overture to William Tell" was masterfully executed. Especially the first part of it: in slow tempo and small dynamics their performance was expressive and emotional, with great attention to details. The conductor and his orchestra had strong connection which resulted into a great tempo and dynamic build in the culmination of the piece.

    And then there is "Carmen" adding to the experience tragedy, stirring passion, sweet love, and opera (even though there wasn't any singing). As Donato Cabreara commented, “Opera is everywhere and it should be in every form of art," and I agree with him. Euphonious and playful motifs with the spice taste of the orient from the woodwinds and brass section, were so well delivered that they slipped into the blood. The strong, dramatic strings section kept the mind alert in anticipation of denouement.

    The orchestra’s performances of the "Bacchanale' from "Samson and Delilah" and Borodin`s "Polovetsian Dance" from "Prince Igor" were impressive. Again, lovely work from the woodwinds and brass, mystery and danger enriched by soft and cozy fragments from the strings. Here, in pieces like these, the conductor`s proficiency and talent were expressed most clearly. Figuratively speaking, there was intensive invisible power coming from his baton, organizing all the instrumental sections, leading one by one of them to peace and nuanced places. Everything was presented in perfect tempo, where the lyrical moments were skillfully developed without interrupting the steady rhythm.

    The overall performance was characterized by precise and detailed work, but many times my attention was drawn by the percussion section. Their job is hard, because it takes great attention to be active, while physically doing not so much. In such situations a musician can often make an unprepared entrance. Not the case in this concert. Their entrances were so well timed. The sound of the percussion could be heard just as much as it should, in complete unison with all other instruments. Fine work is often unnoticed because of its delicacy.

    Wonderful emotions continued to swirl throughout the concert, and to my surprise, I found myself holding my breath with my heart beating when the musicians began to play the most popular waltz in the world.

    The evening also enjoyed a touch of Mr. Cabrera’s sense of humor as he engaged the listeners by sharing fun and exciting facts from the composer`s life- thus making for a spontaneous and unique live, personal experience. Congratulations to Las Vegas Philharmonic on their successful Symphonic Spectacular!

    Photo Credit: Jerry Metellus

    #LVPhilharmonic #SmithCenter #Music #Review

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