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Recent Press Releases
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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Boston Opera Company
Premieres Composition Based on the Lives of
Two Poets Boston--Intermezzo-The
New England Chamber Opera Series, open its 2005 season with the
premiere of Verlaine and Rimbaud,
a chamber opera commission by David Paul Gibson. The composition portrays
the tumultuous relationship between 19th century French poets Paul
Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud. The
performances take place Friday,
January 7, 2005, at 8 p.m.,
and Sunday, January 9, 2005, at
4 p.m., at the David Friend
Recital Hall of the Berklee School of Music Genko Uchido Building, 921
Boylston St, Boston, MA. Adult tickets cost $20, while student and senior
tickets cost $15. Tickets may be purchased at the door, or reserved online
by sending an e-mail message to jwopera@aol.com. Both performances are
sung in English, and the cast is accompanied by piano and violin. Verlaine
and Rimbaud
traces the poets’ association from the beginning of their working
relationship as mentor and protégé, through their sexual involvement, to
their tragic break up. The composition also highlights the poetry
generated by the affair. “These
are two poets who really suffered for their art,” says John Whittlesey,
Intermezzo’s founder and artistic director. Composers
from Gabriel Fauré to Jim Morrison have validated the beauty of their
poetry by setting it to music, but this is the first time an opera has
been based on their lives and poetry. Verlaine
and Rimbaud is the fifth world premiere by the Boston-based chamber
opera company, and the seventh major work by composer David Paul Gibson. The
cast features Boston opera veterans Whittlesey (baritone) and Aaron
Sheehan (tenor) in the title roles. Kaja Schuppert (soprano) sings the
role of Verlaine’s wife Mathilde,
and Sharon Brown (mezzo-soprano) rounds out the cast as Verlaine’s
mother in law, Madame Maute.
James Busby, Intermezzo’s music director will accompany the performers
on piano, with Stanislov Antonevich on the violin. The
program will also feature art songs based on the poems of Verlaine and
Rimbaud by Fauré, Debussy, and Britten #
# # About
the company-
Intermezzo -The New England Chamber
Opera Series was
born out of a vision to produce contemporary chamber operas and bring new
and exciting works to the musical life of New England. Chamber opera
merges the musical and dramatic flavor of grand opera with the immediacy
of art song, performed on a smaller, more intimate scale.
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