Fort Worth Opera Announces 2012 Festival
Fort Worth Opera kicks off it’s 66th season next year with another great mix of productions. They continue the company role as “Champion of Contemporary Opera and Modern Composers” with regional premieres from modern composers, Jake Heggie and Mark Adamo. The season will begin with the wildly-popular Puccini opera, Tosca and be followed by The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart. It is incredibly exciting that this year will also feature not one, but two contemporary works in Heggie’s Three Decembers and Adamo’s Lysistrata. The Fort Worth Opera company produced Adamo’s opera Little Women in 2005 and Heggie’s Dead Man Walking in 2009.
In announcing the 2012 season line-up, General Director Darren K. Woods said, “The casting in Tosca and Figaro is second-to-none, and it is a particular thrill to program works by Mark Adamo and Jake Heggie—two of our generation’s leading opera composers—together in the same Festival. It will be the first time audiences can experience their incredible music in repertory together. After staging Little Women in 2005 and Dead Man Walking in 2009, I knew that we had to bring these gifted composers back to Fort Worth. Plus, we’re pairing these operas with new directors who weren’t involved with the premieres, and I can’t wait to see their vision come to life: David Gately is perfect for Mark’s comedic yet provocative satire Lysistrata, as is Candace Evans for Jake’s touching family drama Three Decembers.”
Continued Woods, “I’m excited that Carter Scott and Michael Chioldi are returning for Tosca—they are literally back by popular demand. Hers was a magnificent Tosca in 2005 and his Scarpia was searing. And our Marriage of Figaro is a perfect example of Fort Worth Opera’s success at showcasing the best of today’s young operatic talent, including the Opera Guild of Fort Worth’s McCammon Competition alumni Donovan Singletary and Jonathan Beyer as Figaro and the Count, respectively, plus fellow up-and-comers Andrea Carroll as Susanna, Jan Cornelius as the Countess, and Wallis Giunta as Cherubino.”
The 2012 Festival begins May 12 and runs through June 3, 2012. The company will once again use the the Scott Theatre at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center for one of their contemporary productions (Three Decembers). The company performed Angels in America in the Scott Theatre in 2008 and will also be using the theater for this year’s production of Hydrogen Jukebox.
Fort Worth is incredibly blessed to feature an opera company that is as dedicated to new music as the Fort Worth Opera Company. Mark Adamo’s Lysistrata was originally premiered in Houston in 2005 and Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers was premiered in Houston in 2008 under the original title Last Acts.
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