Since then, while appearing in films from Madagascar to Hugo (the increasingly in demand talent is even in the upcoming film version of Les Miserables), Cohen’s solo movies continue his assault of daring gags that push buttons and blow-out boundaries, but some of the bits feel increasingly contrived. To a certain extent, Cohen’s guerilla comedy style has been beaten back by a counter insurgency of fame and notoriety. He can’t catch us off guard as easily anymore, and while his popularity leads to movie deals, Cohen feels funniest in sketch form, in short, blunt situational bursts.

What is most disappointing, then, about Cohen’s latest film, The Dictator, is that it is a straight-forward fictional project. There’s no staged documentary footage that catches unwitting subjects with their proverbial pants down. That is surprising considering how much Cohen-style antics have been roped into the marketing of the film, including fake press conferences with Cohen in character and Cohen’s dictator showing up on the red carpet at the 2012 Oscars to spill the fake ashes of Kim Jong-il on Ryan Seacreast.

In The Dictator, Cohen plays General Aladeen, a maniacal, if dimwitted dictator from the fictional Arabian country of Wadiya. He brutally suppresses his people and is trying to develop nuclear weapons to use against Israel (naturally). When a hair-thin plot point forces him to appear against his will at the United Nations, Aladeen travels toNew York and is then kidnapped by a henchman (John C. Reily) acting on behalf of Aladeen’s friend and turncoat rival to the throne, Tamir (Ben Kingsley). Aladeen avoids death, but ends up homeless inNew York, where he meets the cute manager of a green grocer, Zoey (Anna Faris).

There are three kinds of jokes in The Dictator. The first are cultural jabs — at Arabs, green living, dictatorship societies, and lampooning of Middle Eastern current affairs. Then there are the stunt-based gags that involve the usual sex and feces jokes. Finally, Cohen uses Zoey as way of hurling heaps of offensive gender jokes that are justified by the overarching conceit that as a Middle Eastern dictator, Aladeen is hyperbolically derogatory towards women. In all three cases there is an implication of the laughing viewer that heightens the film’s comedic tension. Yes, when Aladeen berates Zoey or poops in the street or plays his stupid body double, a goat herder who milks the breasts of the prostitutes Tamir hires for him, we laugh. And how hard or unconsciously we laugh says something about our inner childishness or insensitivity (full disclosure: I laughed more than a little).

The best laughs in The Dictator come from Cohen’s nonchalant instinct for poking at cultural insecurities about cultural insecurities. One memorable scene takes place in a helicopter, when Cohen and co-star Jason Mantzoukas jabber in fake Arabic about Osama Bin Laden and 9-11 while two mid-American-looking tourists become increasingly anxious about their Middle Eastern co-passengers. It’s is funny, and it looks like a characteristic Cohen stunt, but it is also scripted one, which robs the situation of some of the satiric bite of Cohen’s previous real life interventions.

In between the gags, the film is bound to the conventions of its narrative situation. A meeting must be foiled by a couple of hapless almost-heroes. Cohen’s Aladeen has to grow to recognize his own inner sensitivity. He needs to learn to respect Zoey. He discovers that his skill with draconian authoritative action can actually be put to good use, helping the green food store get their act together. It’s sweet and a little out of character, and the effect is to muzzle Cohen’s bark.

The new work will be based on the 1996 Everest disaster in which a number of climbers were trapped in a blizzard near the summit of the world’s highest peak, including Dallas resident Beck Weathers. Talbot, who is coming off the success of his ballet, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (2011) (commissioned by the Royal Ballet), is no stranger to music exposed to the elements. He has composed music inspired by the months of the year, wrote the soundtrack to the movie Arctic Tale, and collaborated on a dance with Carolyn Carlson and the Orchestra National de Lille entitled Tide Harmonic. Talbot says he has wanted to write an opera for years.

UPDATE: Last night at the Dallas Opera’s Composing Conversations lecture, Scheer and Talbot discussed the commission of Everest with me on stage at the Winspear’s Hamon Hall.

Talbot described himself as an iconoclast, as someone who thrives creatively when he is working on material that rubs the status quo. Speaking about recent work with a progressive dance company in the Netherlands, he lamented that his usual experimentation and boundary-pushing would feel too conventional (“Maybe I’ll just compose a waltz,” he said). This is the composer, after all, who manipulated an orchestra to imitate the feedback and distortion of a White Stripes album in a setting of the Detroit band’s Aluminum. That’s why Talbot composing an opera is such an intriguing proposition. “Maybe this isn’t the right place to say this,” he said last night, “But I have a problem with most opera.” Working on the Dallas Opera commission, Talbot will have plenty of conventions to work against — an entire operatic canon of them. When asked what operas he does like, he jabbed, half jokingly, “The short ones.”

Earlier in the conversation, when speaking about his work on Alice in Wonderland, Talbot said he found it challenging to develop the narrative of the piece without using any words or dialogue, which is one reason why he exited about the relative narrative freedom of working with the operatic form. The words for Everest will be written by librettist Gene Scheer. Scheer brought up the topic of the 1996 Everest disaster when the composer and librettist first met about the commission in Toronto. Scheer said what intrigues him about the story is the stark confrontation with the elements, the ever-presence of the reality of death, and the arena for heroics. He has since been interviewing survivors about their experience on Everest, and while he said he doesn’t yet know what structure or approach the final work will take with the material, he said some of the anecdotes coming out of those interviews, such as one climber having met the first Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary, expand the possibilities of scope.

Talbot, who has often composed pieces that are influenced by thematic elements derived from the natural world (Sneaker Wave, Tide Harmonic, Arctic Tale), said he is likewise intrigued by the music possibilities created by the setting in the wind-blown desolation at the top of the earth. After the discussion I joked with the composer and librettist about the challenge of an opera in which the characters wear oxygen masks at high altitudes. They laughed and admitted there are many details still to work out.

Here’s the full release:

The Dallas Opera Is Proud to Announce

A Major New Commission:

CELEBRATED BRITISH COMPOSER JOBY TALBOT AND ACCLAIMED LIBRETTIST GENE SCHEER TEAM FOR

THE FIRST TIME TO CREATE A MOVING ONE-ACT, TDO WORLD PREMIERE—BASED ON A TRUE STORY!

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EVEREST

TAKING DALLAS BY STORM IN FEBRUARY 2015

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New Commission Announced This Evening at the Dallas Opera’s Latest “Composing Conversation,” Focused on the Work of Joby Talbot

            DALLAS, MAY 15, 2012 – The Dallas Opera is tremendously proud to announce the commissioning of a new original one-act opera by renowned British composer Joby Talbot (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and the critically acclaimed American librettist Gene Scheer (Moby-Dick, Cold Mountain) in their first joint project.

EVEREST is expected to command center stage in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in February of 2015 (cast and specific dates to be announced at a later time).

This new commission, the first since the company announced that composer Jake Heggie and librettist Terrence McNally are at work on Great Scott, a rapid-fire new comedy slated to open the Dallas Opera’s 2015-2016 Season, will become the fifth world premiere work commissioned by the Dallas Opera for the new millenium: Thérèse Raquin, Moby-Dick, A Question of Light (song cycle in partnership with the Dallas Museum of Art) Great Scott, and now, Everest.

Based on a harrowing 1996 expedition (the subject of two films and at least five books thus far) to summit the world’s tallest mountain peak.  Everest will blend documented facts and contemporary recollections of the transformative journey experienced by Everest survivors, with flights of the imagination designed to keep audience members transfixed in this harshly beautiful place at the top of the world.

This project will mark composer Joby Talbot’s first foray into opera, after establishing himself as a significant composer of original works for the recording studio, stage and screen.  Among his best-known composition are the rapturously received ballet Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (2011) commissioned by the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden and the National Ballet of Canada, and original film and British television scores including The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, based on the iconic science fiction of the late Douglas Adams, who also contributed the screenplay for the 2005 release.

“We thought it was vitally important to the success of this project to encourage Mr. Talbot to find a librettist with vast operatic experience and a collegial temperament,” explains Dallas Opera Artistic Director Jonathan Pell, who announced the new commission earlier this evening.  “Gene Scheer, who has worked with us on several important commissions in recent years, immediately sprang to mind.  We arranged for them to meet in Toronto and then again in New York,” Pell added, “and the composer and librettist evidently hit it off at once.”

“I’ve been intrigued by the idea of Joby Talbot composing for the opera stage since experiencing his brilliant work on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” says Dallas Opera General Director and CEO Keith Cerny.  “I was fortunate enough to attend the premiere, which made a strong impression on me.  It was clear that Joby’s score supported the ballet magnificently as it progressed through a wide range of scenes, characters, and stage effects.  I found myself taking a serious interest in his body of work and quickly realized that this was a composer ‘without borders’; who had proven successes in film, ballet, choral writing, chamber music, orchestral writing, and many other genres—so, why not opera?

“And it goes without saying,” Mr. Cerny added, “that I’ve been in awe of Gene Scheer’s tremendous abilities as both a lyricist and librettist—whether capturing the essence of an American classic like Melville’s Moby-Dick for a 21^st century audience, or creating the beautiful poetic language that flowed throughout our world premiere song cycle, A Question of Light—from the moment I arrived here in Dallas.

“We wouldn’t be enlisting Gene’s services for the fourth time if he didn’t have something very special to bring to the table.”

Composer Joby Talbot and Librettist Gene Scheer were on-hand for the announcement this evening in Nancy B. Hamon Hall.  Work on the project will commence later this summer.  Mr. Scheer is currently crafting the libretto for the 2015 Santa Fe Opera world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s opera, Cold Mountain, based on the best-selling 1997 Civil War novel by Charles Frazier, which won the National Book Award for Fiction and became an Academy Award winning film.

“I am thrilled to be working with Joby Talbot on this exciting new project for the Dallas opera,” says librettist Gene Scheer.  “About a year ago, Jonathan Pell, the artistic director of the Dallas Opera, arranged for me to see Joby’s stunning ballet based on ‘Alice in Wonderland’ in Toronto.  In addition to being so impressed with the brilliance of the score, Joby and I got to spend quite a bit of time together.  With each conversation it became more and more clear that Joby is someone who, in addition to his great musical gifts, has keen theatrical instincts and that an opportunity to collaborate with him would be a privilege indeed.

“As we discussed a number of subjects, the idea of doing a piece about the people who experienced the tragedy on Mount Everest in 1996 sparked both of our imaginations. The story, which captured the world’s attention when it happened, offers a wonderful chance for music to explore aspects of the human spirit.  There is clearly one common theme that emerges from the stories of those who endured that storm over Everest.  They all felt that their lives were profoundly changed by the tragedy and by the acts of heartbreaking heroism and love that they all experienced on the top of the world.”

Adds Mr. Scheer: “I look forward to working with Joby to find ways to illuminate those transformations and to bring this thrilling story to the Dallas opera.”

A similar sentiment was echoed by the composer, Joby Talbot, who writes: “I am enormously excited at the prospect of working with Gene Scheer and the Dallas Opera on Everest.  I have been keen to write an opera for some years now.  Many of my recent projects have been narrative pieces and I’ve found that I very much enjoy the challenge of communicating a story through music.  In its breadth of scale and emotional drama, Everest seems to have all the ingredients for a wonderful collaboration.”

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            Full season subscriptions are now on sale (three performances) for the 2012-2013 “Pursuits of Passion” Season range from $75 to $1,020 through the Dallas Opera Ticket Services Office at 214.443.1000 or online at www.dallasopera.org.  Student Rush best-available tickets are available for $25 (one per valid Student I.D.) at the Winspear box office, ninety minutes prior to each performance.  Inner Circle seating may be higher.

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KEY BIOS:

JOBY TALBOT (Composer)

Joby Talbot’s compositional aesthetic threads through his classical and concert works; scores for film and television; and collaborations with major contemporary choreographers.

Talbot studied composition privately with Brian Dennis and Brian Elias, prior to receiving tuition from Simon Bainbridge at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. A 1997 commission from the BBC Philharmonic resulted in Luminescence for string orchestra, quickly followed by the percussion and chamber ensemble piece Incandescence, initially written for the Brunel Ensemble and toured in 1999 by Evelyn Glennie and the London Sinfonietta, for whom Talbot went on to write Minus 1500 in 2001. Talbot’s first work for the BBC Proms was 2002’s à cappella The Wishing Tree for The Kings’ Singers; subsequently, the Proms commissioned Sneaker Wave (2004) for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and an arrangement of Purcell’s Chacony in G Minor (2011) for the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

In 2004, Talbot was named Classic FM’s first Composer In Residence, a project that culminated in the 2005 release of the album Once Around the Sun. Also in 2005, Nigel Short’s exceptional choral ensemble Tenebrae premiered Path Of Miracles, another à cappella work of four movements, which describes the ancient Christian pilgrimage across northern Spain from Roncesvalles to Santiago de Compostela. In 2006, Talbot completed the trumpet concerto Desolation Wilderness for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Turku Philharmonic orchestras, conducted by JoAnn Falletta and performed by acclaimed soloist Alison Balsom. The piece received its North American premiere, by former Chicago Symphony principal Craig Morris, in August 2009 at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.

Works for smaller ensembles have included Blue Cell for the Apollo Sax Quartet; Mandala for six harps; Motion Detector for cellist Maya Beiser; and Manual Override for the T’ang Quartet.

The latter two pieces, along with a further two of Talbot’s, were chosen by The Royal Ballet resident choreographer Wayne McGregor for his 2008 work Entity with Random Dance, of which there have been over 85 performances worldwide. Talbot and McGregor had collaborated previously on Chroma for The Royal Ballet, which garnered the South Bank Show Award for Dance and an Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production, and has since been staged by several companies internationally; and, in the same year, on Genus for the Paris Opera Ballet, for which Talbot produced an electro-acoustic score in collaboration with LA electronic music producer Deru.

For a third 2008 dance collaboration, with Carolyn Carlson and the Orchestra National de Lille, Talbot wrote the full-length Tide Harmonic, now available on Signum Classics. In 2007 and 2008, Talbot’s The Dying Swan was choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon for Fool’s Paradise and performed by Wheeldon’s company Morphoses at Sadler’s Wells and NY City Center in successive seasons. In February 2011, Wheeldon and Talbot premiered their full-length ballet of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland for The Royal Ballet and The National Ballet of Canada, the score for which was the first of its kind to be commissioned by the former company in 20 years.

Talbot’s work for film and television began in 1998 with his theme and score for British comedy series The League of Gentlemen, for which he was awarded the Royal Television Society Award for Best Title Music. In 2005 he scored the feature-length The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse, as well as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy directed by Garth Jennings, with whom he subsequently worked on the 2008 film Son of Rambow. Other recent film scores include Penelope, Franklyn and Is Anybody There?, and during 2010-11, Talbot both scored and developed song arrangements with the young musicians in the recently released British independent film Hunky Dory.

Commissions from the British Film Institute, for silent films The Lodger (1999), premiered at the Edinburgh Festival, and The Dying Swan (2001) have been widely performed and adapted to other purposes.

As an arranger, Talbot has worked with numerous contemporary pop musicians, including Paul McCartney, Tom Jones, Air, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Neil Hannon and The Divine Comedy, Travis, and Ute Lemper, and with record producer Nigel Godrich. Talbot himself acted as producer as well as arranger on the XL Recordings album Aluminium, a limited-edition collection of songs by The White Stripes, arranged by Talbot for chamber orchestra.

http://www.jobytalbot.com

GENE SCHEER (Librettist)

Gene Scheer’s work is noted for its scope and versatility, and his music and lyrics have gained enthusiastic admirers among a broad audience.  Mr. Scheer has collaborated with the composer Jake Heggie on a number of different projects, including the critically acclaimed 2010 Dallas Opera world premiere, Moby-Dick, starring Ben Heppner as Captain Ahab; Three Decembers (Houston Grand Opera), which starred Frederica von Stade; and the lyric drama To Hell and Back (Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra), which featured Patti Lupone.  Other works by Scheer and Heggie include a number of song cycles as well as For a Look or a Touch, a 45-minute lyric drama written for baritone, actor, and chamber ensemble.

Mr. Scheer worked as librettist with Tobias Picker on An American Tragedy, which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 2005.  Their first opera, Thérèse Raquin, written for the Dallas Opera in 2001, was subsequently performed in Montreal (in a French translation), in San Diego, and at the Linbury Theater in Covent Garden in London.  The recording was cited by Opera News as one of the ten best recordings of 2002.

Other recent collaborations include the lyrics for Wynton Marsalis’s It Never Goes Away, featured in Mr. Marsalis’s work Congo Square.  With the composer Steven Stucky, Mr. Scheer wrote the oratorio August 4, 1964.  The work was premiered by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 2008 and was recently performed again by the orchestra, with Jaap van Zweden conducting, at Carnegie Hall during the inaugural “Spring for Music” festival.

Also a composer in his own right, Mr. Scheer has written a number of songs for singers such as Renée Fleming, Sylvia McNair, Stephanie Blythe, Jennifer Larmore, Denyce Graves, and Nathan Gunn.  The distinguished documentary filmmaker, Ken Burns, prominently featured Mr. Scheer’s song “American Anthem” (as sung by Norah Jones) in his Emmy Award-winning World War II documentary for PBS, “The War”.

In recent seasons, a number of new chamber works with music by Jake Heggie and lyrics by Mr. Scheer have taken centerstage.  These works include a piece, commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera, to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11, and a lyric drama for Seattle’s “Music of Remembrance” about Krystyna Zywulska, an Auschwitz survivor, and the song cycle, A Question of Light, commissioned by the Dallas Opera in partnership with the Dallas Museum of Art.  In February 2012, the Alexander Quartet and Joyce DiDonato premiered Camille Claudel: Into the Fire.  This new work by Heggie and Scheer, is based on the passionate life of French sculptor Camille Claudel.

Scheer is currently at work with composer Jennifer Higdon on an operatic adaptation of the National Book Award winning novel Cold Mountain for the Santa Fe Opera.

Photo: Composer Joby Talbot

Stanley Webber (Gregory Lush, gangly, bespectacled, bewildered, and also fairly brilliant in the role) is a long-term boarder at a third-rate boarding house on the coast of England. He might be a professional pianist, but even as the young man states the fact he doubles back, undercutting his career from playing all over the the world, to all over the country, to simply, “I gave a concert.” No one quite has a grasp on his or her own identity, giving Pinter an exceptional outlet for his wry humor and room for all the actors to shine (in the long, telling pauses, especially, and the smallest expressions).

Stan alternately flirts with and menaces the house’s matron, Meg Boles (Mary Lang), who acts in equal measure an overbearing mother and a potential lover. It also may or may not be Stanley’s birthday, but Meg’s innocent plan for a surprise party begins to go awry when two mysterious strangers, McCann (Marcus D. Simac, in his Undermain debut) and Goldberg (Bruce Dubose), arrive looking for him.

From the moment the lights go down, sucked out like a silent implosion of a particularly bright star (Steve Woods is responsible for the design) to begin Act I, there is tension and laughter in spades. Director Patrick Kelly has elicited fine performances from a clearly able cast, teasing out proportional elements of darkness and light. The silliness (Meg’s endlessly-repeated, “Is it nice?,” for example) is tempered by a weird, subtle sexiness. Dubose’s dandily-dressed, overconfident Goldburg might have something to do with that. During the second act, the actual birthday party of the title, he is so sly and sleazy that it might have been uncomfortable if it wasn’t so enjoyable to watch and listen to, his voice a low, thick growl.

It was around this point that I realized I was seeing something wonderful, rather than just simply well-done. I felt my shoulders come down from somewhere up around my ears, my heart stuttered a bit and gave in. Here was a rare, serendipitous melding of cast, crew, director, play, and theater. Two hours and two intermissions passed in what seemed like seconds.

The boarding house (scenic design is by John Arnone) is appropriately tacky and endlessly functional. Stan starts off a snob, complaining about spoiled milk in his cereal and insulting Meg’s tea-making ability, but we can smell the fear coming off him in waves when Meg tells him about the imminent arrival of Goldberg and McCann.

Why have they come for him? It’s unclear, though a nonsensical, shouty interrogation reveals something about a dead wife, and there are strong political and religious connotations. But does any of it matter? Hardly. The not knowing is part of Pinter’s disturbing appeal, an endlessly pleasurable puzzle. Almost a better mystery, however, is perhaps how easily he makes his world feel like an escape of the one we’ve already got, despite a nagging fear that the two are one and the same.

As usual, we have three pairs of tickets to giveaway for tonight’s screening, which will start at 7:30 p.m. To get your hands on them, you just have to answer this question in the form below: What are the names of the two rival gangs that face off in the movie? We’ll pick the winners after 3 p.m.

Image via

In the wake of the triumphant premiere of his Moby Dick in Dallas in 2010, Jake Heggie has moved securely to the forefront of living American opera composers. Area opera fans had previously become acquainted with his work when Fort Worth Opera presented his Dead Man Walking in 2009, and he may certainly be regarded as a favorite in these parts. Now, after the monumental literary vision presented in Moby Dick, and the gripping personalization of the politics of capital punishment in Dead Man Walking, locals can view a touchingly intimate exploration of family dynamics in Three Decembers.

The short play by Terrence McNally, on which Three Decembers is based, was performed in its original form only once—at an AIDS benefit at Carnegie Hall in 1999. Reminiscent of Thornton Wilder’s play The Long Christmas Dinner (which was set as a chamber opera by Paul Hindemith), Three Decembers was shaped into a workable operatic libretto by Gene Scheer. In its operatic form, Three Decembers hangs a family saga on Christmas—in this case, three Christmases, ten years apart—and delves into the holiday’s potential for bringing out old grudges, bitter unacknowledged truths, and, yes, love among people who sometimes love each other only because they happen to be closely related. And that, it turns out, is sometimes enough.

Typical of Heggie’s music, the score (for an orchestra of eleven musicians, stationed behind the sets in this production) is immediately engaging and constantly energetic; Heggie fears neither dissonance nor lyricism, and the frequent pungency in his writing gives way to a sheer beauty. Christopher Larkin, one of the leading interpreters of American opera in our time, held the complex score together neatly and expressively. Bob Lavallee’s held the sometimes disjunctive plot together nicely, although in just one instance a noisy scene change jarred the ears and the plotline.

Soprano Janice Hall clearly savors the role of Madeline, the Broadway star mother (part Mama Rose, part Margo Channing) who constantly and unconsciously emotionally gouges her two grown children Charlie (baritone Matthew Worth) and Beatrice (soprano Emily Pulley). Scheer’s script, Heggie’s music, Candace Evans’ directing, and Hall’s superb stage presence help the audience understand and love Madeline even when her children don’t. Heggie is clearly a master of writing naturally for the voice, and of integrating text into a complex musical structure. While the opera is made up of distinctive set pieces (at times it resembles a song cycle structurally), the flow of words and plot is so skillfully crafted that only on leaving the theater is the audience member likely to remember that virtually every word was sung—and always sung beautifully.

It’s fair to note that there’s a lot of Broadway in Three Decembers, particularly in the loveable melodies—and a touch of Cheever in the depiction of the hidden suffering of the affluent. Lots of families experience one or more of the issues this family faces—AIDS, alcoholism, infidelity, single parenting, sexual identity—and even those who don’t are likely to see themselves up on the stage at the moment when the question arises, “Why is it so hard to be human?”

In short, be sure and take a hankie to this one.

This particular production offers everything a lover of traditional opera could want. Mammoth, realistic, and beautifully detailed new sets by Andrew Horn provided a backdrop that enhanced and never overwhelmed the drama; the final act, notoriously difficult to hit just right in terms of scenery, was impressively believable and appropriate.  Ray Diffen’s costumes gave us the iconic purple-gowned Tosca in Act II. Director Daniel Pelzig’s staging was generally effective—though having soprano Carter Scott as Tosca flat on her back for “Visse d’arte,” her big number, was one highly questionable moment, from an aesthetic as well as physiological angle.

Musically, the principal singers were appropriately hall-filling in terms of vocal and dramatic presence. Both Scott as Tosca and tenor Roger Honeywell as Cavaradossi tended to opt for volume over subtlety at key moments, but baritone Michael Chioldi as Scarpia delivered that role as close to perfection as possible—you almost hated to see him die at the end of Act II.

Among the other singers, newly minted TCU graduate mezzo-soprano Katharine Steffen’s offstage rendition of the brief Shepherd Boy’s song at the beginning of Act III displayed a vocal quality of extraordinary natural depth and beauty.

Tosca is, in some ways, the most musically aggressive of Puccini’s scores; only Turandot, written two decades later, comes close to the constant barrage of orchestral colors and harmonic motion. The Fort Worth Symphony and conductor Joe Illick provided an appropriately assertive accompaniment.

The shadows of Verdi—in the dark, nineteenth-century outlook—and Wagner—in  the harmonic language and relentless use of leitmotif—loom large in this opera, but Puccini’s unique mastery shines through every measure. The catastrophic clash of three huge egos (Cavaradossi, Tosca, and Scarpia) feeds the music and the drama. The sanctimonious sycophants and proto-Fascists who hide behind religion and rail against “Voltaireans” in Tosca resonate uncannily in America in 2012. But it’s in the sense of warm, intensely human characters driven by their own urges yet overwhelmed by the forces of history (one of Puccini’s most often overlooked but greatest strengths) that make this opera work so beautifully, and come to life so well in this opulent production.

Photo courtesy: Ellen Appel

It is all intended to “contemplate the social implications of expressing emotions,” which, if you chew on that one for a few minutes, are pretty wide-reaching. And it’s all going down at the green space adjacent to 502 North Clinton Road, Dallas, TX 75208. Good luck to Ms. Felicella. Hopefully it doesn’t end up like this (h/t to Jason Heid for the quick movie reference).

Image: visual shell promo © Erica Felicella (via)

But if you look for next year’s season around this time, you’ll be at of luck. The Fort Worth Opera announced today that the 2013 season will move to April and continue through May, offering another Puccini, a Donizetti, a Strauss, and a regional premiere of a new work by Tom Cipullo.

Here’s the full release:

FORT WORTH OPERA ANNOUNCES 2013 SEASON,
MOVES 67^th SEASON TO APRIL-MAY

7^th Festival Includes La Bohème, The Daughter of the Regiment, Ariadne auf Naxos,

Regional Premiere of Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied in Newly-Named Alternative Venue Series, 
Plus Inaugural Performances of Company’s New Works Showcase, Frontiers

FORT WORTH, Texas – Fort Worth Opera (FWOpera) will open its 2013 Festival (the company’s 67^th season and seventh Festival) with Puccini’s tragic drama, La Bohème; Donizetti’s spirited switched-at-birth romantic comedy, The Daughter of the Regiment; and the company’s first-ever production of Strauss’ entertaining and comedic opera-within-an-opera, Ariadne auf Naxos, all performed in the company’s artistic home, Bass Hall.  The company’s popular alternative venue series receives a name and a new location for the 2013 season—previously unnamed, the newly-titled Opera Unbound series will feature the regional premiere of American composer Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied, to be held in the McDavid Studio across from Bass Hall in downtown Fort Worth.  An emotion-packed, landmark work based on the bestselling book by journalist Tom Philpott, Glory Denied tells the tragic, true story of America’s longest-held Vietnam prisoner-of-war, Colonel Jim Thompson. The 2013 Festival will also move earlier into spring, running April 20–May 12, 2013, one month earlier than previous Festival seasons.  Historically a strong supporter of young artists, FWOpera’s 2013 season also includes company debuts by nine singers in lead roles.

“The 2013 Festival features an incredibly talented ensemble of singers,” said General Director Darren K. Woods.  “I couldn’t be more pleased with our three traditional productions, and I’m absolutely thrilled to stage the regional premiere of the visceral, contemporary tragedy Glory Denied.  This piece is a great example of the kind of work we at Fort Worth Opera are passionate about: it’s a piece written in our time, about a pivotal era in our history, portraying very human, very fragile characters whose journeys will cause everyone in the audience to think and question and search their hearts about their loyalties to self, family, and country.”

Music Director Joe Illick added, “What a privilege and a pleasure to lead FWOpera’s very first Ariadne auf Naxos.  It’s a quintessential Strauss opera that our audience is sure to enjoy, along with the perennial favorite La Bohème and the comedic treat, The Daughter of the Regiment.”

The 2013 Festival also includes the inaugural season of FWOpera’s new works showcase, Frontiers. Offering the public free access to the performances and post-performance discussions with composers, the program will be held during the last week of the 2013 Festival. The new works showcase will feature short excerpts from six to eight unpublished contemporary operatic works by composers from across the Americas, whose pieces were submitted according to rigorous standards and will be selected by a blind jury panel this summer.  In fall 2012, the company will release the names of the composers who have been selected to participate in Frontiers 2013.

Of the Frontiers initiative, Woods added, “Fort Worth Opera is dedicated to promoting compelling works by contemporary composers and helping them to earn a place in the operatic canon.  With our new initiative Frontiers, we are expanding our focus to include developing and nurturing new works, not only giving composers a professional performance with singers and piano, but also by providing them with a recording of the performance to help them promote their work after the showcase, and by giving them exposure to industry leaders from other opera companies and publishing houses.”

Read below for more details on the 2013 Festival productions.

La Bohème
Music by Giacomo Puccini; libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

* denotes Fort Worth Opera debut season

• April 20, 28m, May 3, 11, 2013 (m=matinee)
• Bass Performance Hall, downtown Fort Worth
• In Italian with projected English and Spanish surtitles

Fort Worth Opera’s 2013 Festival opens with a beautiful period production of one of the most enchanting works in the repertoire, Puccini’s beloved drama, La Bohème.  Renowned soprano Mary Dunleavy* (“uncommon clarity, flexibility and sweetness of tone that compel rapt attention” –Opera News) and the up-and-coming Sri Lankan tenor Sean Panikkar* (“ringing tenor, clear enunciation and handsome presence” –Opera News) make their company debuts as the ill-fated Mimì and her smitten poet Rodolfo, who fall in love when she knocks on the door of his humble garret in Paris’ Latin Quarter on Christmas Eve.  After triumphing in Hydrogen Jukebox (2011), Puerto Rican soprano Rosa Betancourt, a FWOpera Studio alumna, (“a force to be reckoned” –NPR) returns to sing the saucy Musetta, and her jealous beau, the struggling painter Marcello, is sung by baritone Wes Mason (“gifted and fiercely committed” –Opera News), who starred in FWOpera’s world premiere of Before Night Falls (2010).  FWOpera Music Director Joe Illick conducts, with direction by David Lefkowich, who made his company debut with FWOpera’s critically acclaimed Il Trovatore in 2011.

Glory Denied
Music and libretto by Tom Cipullo
Regional Premiere

* denotes Fort Worth Opera debut season

“Intriguing and unconventional..”

“Tonal, melting into aching lushness…with a bite to its harmonies where different versions of the same truth converge.”
–The New York Times

• April 21m, 23, 24, 27m, 30; May 1, 4m, 7, 8, and 11m, 2013 (m=matinee)
• McDavid Studio at Bass Hall, downtown Fort Worth
• In English

Receiving its regional premiere in the newly-named Opera Unbound alternative venue series is composer Tom Cipullo’s opera, Glory Denied, after the bestselling book by journalist Tom Philpott.  Based on the true story of Colonel Jim Thompson, America’s longest-held prisoner-of-war from the Vietnam War, Glory Denied is the heart-rending story of a modern-day warrior whose sacrifices for his country result in the loss of all that is important to him.  A revealing look into an American family irreparably damaged by the Vietnam War, Glory Denied spans Colonel Thompson’s life before the war, his internment period, and his release nine years later, via his intertwined memories and those of his wife, Alyce.  Texas baritone Michael Mayes (“arresting stage presence” –Opera News), currently singing Kinesias in Lysistrata (2012), makes his role debut as Older Thompson.  Caroline Worra* (“a new soprano powerhouse” –The New Yorker) makes her company debut reprising the role of Older Alyce, which she performed to acclaim with UrbanArias in 2011.  Tenor David Blalock*, graduate of the young artist programs at Central City Opera, Ash Lawn Opera, and the Seagle Colony, makes his company debut as the Young Thompson, opposite the Young Alyce of soprano Sydney Mancasola*, a resident artist with Philadelphia’s renowned Academy of Vocal Arts and a graduate of the Opera Theatre of St. Louis’ young artist program.  Both Blalock and Mancasola will apprentice at Santa Fe Opera this summer.

Tyson Deaton*, a longtime FWOpera pianist and in-demand collaborative recitalist, makes his company conducting debut.  At the helm of a new production is Dean Anthony*, a former character tenor who now serves on the Shreveport Opera and the Brevard Music Center directing staffs and whose productions of contemporary works have been hailed for their “all-important sense of theatricality” and “truly imaginative staging” (Augusta Chronicle).  The design team boasts Richard Kagey (Lysistrata, 2012), a favorite designer and director at FWOpera, Emmy Award-winning costume designer Stephen Chudej*, and lighting designer Sean Jeffries*.

The Daughter of the Regiment
Music by Gaetano Donizetti; libretto by J.H. Vernoy de Saint-Georges and F. Bayard
English translation by Ruth and Thomas Martin; spoken dialogue by Dorothy Danner

* denotes Fort Worth Opera debut season

• April 27, May 5m, and 10, 2013 (m=matinee)
• Bass Performance Hall, downtown Fort Worth
• In English with projected English and Spanish surtitles

In The Daughter of the Regiment, Donizetti’s comedic opera of superb melodies and surprise twists, Texas soprano Ava Pine (“glamorous, seductive, vocally ravishing” –Dallas Morning News), currently singing the title role in Lysistrata (2012), returns for her fourth star turn with FWOpera, this time in the title role (Marie).  Marie’s love interest, Tonio, is sung by tenor David Portillo (“a gorgeous voice” –St. Louis Post-Dispatch), last seen on the FWOpera stage in Don Giovanni (2010).  Bass-baritone Rod Nelman (“…a bass voice to die for…”
–Musical Notes, CA), a longtime presence at FWOpera currently singing in Tosca and The Marriage of Figaro, sings Sergeant Sulpice, head of the 21^st regiment which adopted the orphaned baby Marie and raised her as their “daughter.”  Renowned character mezzo-soprano Joyce Castle (“gloriously sung” –Opera News) who last graced the FWOpera stage in The Turn of the Screw (2003), returns as the Marquise of Berkenfeld, who holds the secret to Marie’s heritage.  FWOpera General Director and retired character tenor Darren K. Woods* returns to the stage, making his company debut as the hapless butler Hortensius. Conductor Christopher Larkin (Three Decembers, 2012) leads the charge, with direction by Broadway and Hollywood veteran Dorothy Danner (Pirates of Penzance, 2004)—a frequent conductor-director team who have led Daughter to great acclaim and laughter across the U.S.

Ariadne auf Naxos
Music by Richard Strauss; libretto by Hugo von Hofmannstahl

* denotes Fort Worth Opera debut season

• May 4, 12m, 2013 (m=matinee)
• Bass Performance Hall, downtown Fort Worth
• In German with projected English surtitles
• Company Premiere

Making its long-awaited company premiere is Richard Strauss’s opera-within-an-opera, Ariadne auf Naxos.  When a rich patron decrees that a serious opera and a commedia dell’arte act should perform simultaneously at his big party, hilarity and mayhem ensue.  Soprano Marjorie Owens (“a gifted soprano” –The New York Times), who triumphed in FWOpera’s Il Trovatore (2011), returns to sing the role of the Prima Donna, whose character Ariadne is wooed by the Greek god Bacchus, sung by tenor Corey Bix* (“true heldentenor command and focus” –Opera News ) making his company debut.  Soprano Audrey Luna* (“power and a blazing coloratura facility that most lyric sopranos can only dream of” –Opera News) makes her company debut as Zerbinetta, the comedy troupe’s leading lady.  Singing a pants role for her company debut, mezzo-soprano Cecelia Hall* (“gleaming voiced” –Chicago Tribune) is the opera’s Composer, terrified that his opera will be upstaged by the comedy.  FWOpera Music Director Joe Illick conducts, and frequent FWOpera presence David Gately (Lysistrata, 2012) directs.

Biographies of leading cast members for the 2013 season will be available on the company’s website beginning this summer.

TICKETS: Tickets for the 2013 Festival can be purchased online, by phone, or in person at the Fort Worth Opera Box Office inside the Fort Worth Community Arts Center at 1300 Gendy St., Fort Worth, Texas, 76107. Season subscriptions range from $47 to $397 while single tickets range from $25 to $200 (prices subject to change). Subscriptions are available now and single tickets go on sale August 1.  For more information, please visit www.fwopera.org or call 817.731.0726 or toll-free at 1.877.396.7372. To purchase tickets online, go to www.fwopera.org.

Schedule of 2013 Festival Performances

Saturday, April 20        7:30 p.m.          Bass Hall                    La Bohème     

Sunday, April 21          2:00 p.m.          McDavid Studio          Glory Denied

Tuesday, April 23         7:30 p.m.          McDavid Studio          Glory Denied

Wednesday, April 24    7:30 p.m.          McDavid Studio          Glory Denied

Saturday, April 27        2:00 p.m.          McDavid Studio         Glory Denied

Saturday, April 27        7:30 p.m.         Bass Hall                   The Daughter of the Regiment

Sunday, April 28          2:00 p.m.         Bass Hall                   La Bohème

Tuesday, April 30         7:30 p.m.         McDavid Studio          Glory Denied

Wednesday, May 1       7:30 p.m.         McDavid Studio          Glory Denied

Friday, May 3               7:30 p.m.         Bass Hall                   La Bohème

Saturday, May 4          2:00 p.m.          McDavid Studio          Glory Denied

Saturday, May 4          7:30 p.m.          Bass Hall                    Ariadne auf Naxos

Sunday, May 5             2:00 p.m.         Bass Hall                   The Daughter of the Regiment

Tuesday, May 7           7:30 p.m.          McDavid Studio          Glory Denied

Wednesday, May 8      7:30 p.m.          McDavid Studio          Glory Denied

Thursday, May 9          time TBA          McDavid Studio           Frontiers Showcase #1

Friday, May 10             time TBA          McDavid Studio           Frontiers Showcase #2

Friday, May 10            7:30 p.m.         Bass Hall                     The Daughter of the Regiment

Saturday, May 11        2:00 p.m.         McDavid Studio           Glory Denied

Saturday, May 11        7:30 p.m.         Bass Hall                    La Bohème

Sunday, May 12          2:00 p.m.         Bass Hall                     Ariadne auf Naxos