WSO ~ Premier Classics

Gioaachino Rossini
Overture from Guillaume Tell

Guiseppe Verdi
"Anvil Chorus" from Il trovatore

Saturday, March 8, 2008
8:00 p.m.
Chrysler Theatre
Instrumentally Speaking, pre-concert talk, inside the Chrysler Theatre
at 7:00 p.m.

Tickets: $56-$13

John Morris Russell, Conductor

Joni Henson, Santuzza

Marcia Whitehead, Lola

Catherine McKeever, Mama Lucia

David Pomeroy, Turiddu

Peter McGillivray, Alfio

WSO Chorus, Timothy Shantz, Chorusmaster

University of Windsor Singers & Women's Chamber Choir, Timothy Shantz, Director

Overture from Guillaume Tell
Gioachino Rossini
B. February 29, 1792, Pesaro, Italy
D. November 13, 1868, Passy, Italy

The opera was first performed at the Paris Opéra on August 3, 1829. (approx. 12 minutes).

Edited by Shelley Sharpe
Guillaume Tell (William Tell) is an opera in four acts by Gioacchino Rossini, set to a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis and based on Friedrich Schiller’s play Wilhelm Tell. Inspired by the legend of William Tell, this opera was Rossini’s last, even though the composer lived for nearly forty more years.

The opera’s length, roughly four hours of music, and casting requirements, such as the high range required for the tenor, have contributed to the difficulty of producing the work. As a result, the work is often heavily cut when performed.

Today, the opera is remembered mostly for its famous overture. The high-energy finale is particularly familiar through its use in the American radio and television shows The Lone Ranger. The overture falls into four parts, each segueing into the next:
Prelude - a slow passage starting with a passage for five cellos.
Storm - a dynamic section played by full orchestra.
Ranz des vaches (call to the dairy cows) - featuring the Cor anglais (English horn)
Finale - ultra-dynamic “cavalry charge” galop (type of dance) heralded by trumpets
and played by full orchestra.

Il trovatore
Giuseppe Verdi
B. October 9 or 10, 1813, Le Roncole, Italy
D. January 27, 1901, Milano, Italy

The opera was first performed at the Teatro Apollo, Rome on January 19, 1853. (approx. 3 minutes).

Edited by Shelley Sharpe
Il trovatore (The Troubadour) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Leone Emanuele Bardare and Salvatore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. First performed at the Teatro Apollo, Rome on January 19, 1853, Verdi revised the opera for Paris as Le trouvère and added a ballet.

On many different occasions this opera and its music have been featured in various forms of popular culture and entertainment. Scenes of hilarious comic chaos play out over a performance of the opera in the Marx Brothers’s film, A Night at the Opera, while, on a more serious note, the opening sequence of Luchino Visconti’s 1954 film Senso features a performance at La Fenice. Noting that the opera is very easy to produce, Enrico Caruso once said that “…all you need is the four best singers in the world.”

As a staple of the standard operatic repertoire, Il trovatore appears on Opera America’s list of the 20 most-performed operas in North America, at number 17.

Cavalleria rusticana
Pietro Mascagni
B. December 7, 1863, Livorno, Tuscany, Italy
D. August 2, 1945, Rome

The opera was premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome.

By Dr. Ed Kovarik
Mascagni was born at Livorno, on the west coast of Italy some eighteen kilometres south of Pisa, in 1863. He studied piano and composition in his native town and later at Milan, and in his late twenties (1890) he created a sensation by entering a contest for new one-act operas with his first opera, Cavalleria Rusticana (Rustic Chivalry). He continued to write operas for the next fifty years but was never able to duplicate this youthful success.

The scene is a rustic Sicillian village at dawn on Easter morning. On one side of the Square is the village church; on the other the taverna of Mama Lucia. The short orchestral prelude begins quietly, builds in intensity, and then breaks off as Turridu is heard serenading Lola, a former flame who is now another man’s wife. The villagers gather before Mass (Chorus in Sicillian dialect); Santuzza, who has been seduced and abandoned by Turridu, asks his mother, Mama Lucia, where she can find him. Alfio, the husband of Lola, drives in and sings about his happy life as a freight carrier and travelling merchant. He’s away a lot, but now “It’s Easter and I’m home.” Alfio and Mama Lucia converse:
“Where’s your son?”
“He’s gone away to buy wine.”
“No, he’s in town; I saw him early this morning near my house.”

The villagers gather to form an Easter procession (Chorus). After they march into church, Santuzza and Mama Lucia are left alone in the Square. Santuzza explains that Turridu had a fling with Lola before he left to become a soldier; now he’s returned and taken up with her again. Santuzza grieves that Lola has stolen him away from her.

Turridu enters, looking for his mother. Santuzza says everyone knows where he was that morning, and it wasn’t away buying wine. They hear Lola singing of her happiness; she joins them briefly, taunts Santuzza, and then goes into church. Santuzza and Turridu continue to quarrel:
her refrain, “I still love you;”
his, “Leave me alone.”

After she curses him, Turridu storms out after Lola. Alfio arrives and to the accompaniment of agitated music Santuzza tells him the whole story; Alfio vows to revenge his honour. They leave and the Square stands empty as the quiet Intermezzo is heard.

Bells signal the end of Mass. The villagers pour out of church (Chorus: “Let’s be joyful on this Easter morning”). Turridu flirts with Lola, then leads the villagers in a drinking song: “Let’s drink some wine to celebrate this day.”

Alfio enters and refuses to drink with Turridu, who provokes a quarrel:
“I know the fault is mine.”
Alfio: “I’ll wait for you behind the garden.”
Turridu turns to his mother:
“I’ve had too much wine; Give me your blessing; Take care of Santuzza; Pray for me.”
He goes off to find Alfio while Santuzza and Mama Lucia comfort one another. Then comes the cry “They’ve killed Turridu” as the curtain falls.

Joni Henson

Soprano Joni Henson is quickly becoming one of Canada’s most thrilling young performers. Recent successes on the opera stage include starring as Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosí fan Tutte and Gutrune in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung for the Canadian Opera Company’s inaugural season at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. For Toronto’s Opera in Concert she was Marietta / Marie in Korngold’s rarely heard Die Tote Stadt.

Ms. Henson’s 2007-2008 season includes Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, Elisabeth in Verdi’s Don Carlos with the Canadian Opera Company and concerts with the Aldeburgh Connection and Off Centre Music Salon.

Ms. Henson earned her Bachelor in Vocal Performance from the University of Toronto. She also received her Artist Diploma from the University of Toronto’s Opera Division.
In 2003, Ms. Henson was awarded the Opera Grand Prize at the XVth Concours International de Chant de Verviers Competition in Belgium. She also received the First Place Opera and French Melodie Awards at the Concours International de Chant de Marmande Competition in France. In 2006 Ms. Henson was a semi-finalist in the Metropolitan National Council Auditions.

Ms. Henson attended the esteemed Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California where she studied with Marilyn Horne. She was honoured to receive Encouragement Awards in the Marilyn Horne Foundation Vocal Competition.

Marcia Whitehead

Mezzo soprano Marcia Whitehead is a jewel of a debut artist brightening the operatic and concert stages. A recent graduate of l’Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, she has been praised for her warm, elegant voice; for her fine musicianship and her dramatic talents.

Lithe and lovely on stage, Ms. Whitehead debuted the role of Jeanne d’Arc at l’ Opéra Nationale de Lyon, France with Autumn Leaf Performances in their production of Electric Flesh; has sung the role of Dorabella in Cosí fan Tutte, which the Atelier toured in Atlantic Canada; appeared as Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor; and as the Pastore in Tosca on the mainstage with l’Opéra de Montréal.

No stranger to the mezzo-soprano’s plight as a young boy, she delighted in the roles of: l’Enfant in l’Enfant et les Sortilèges; Hansel in Hansel und Gretel; and as Amahl in Amahl and the Night Visitors for Edmonton’s acclaimed program N.U.O.V.A.

Ms. Whitehead has sung the role of Laura, in Russian, in Tchaikovski’s Iolanta at the Festival de Lanaudière, Québec; and most recently the roles of Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana with Manitoba Opera and Flora in La Traviata with Royal Opera Canada and with l’Opéra de Montréal.

Intensive coaching and role study have been with Nico Castel, Michael McMahon and Martin Isepp; and of many masterclasses, the most memorable are with Tracy Dahl and a coveted position in the Marilyn Horne masterclass series at the 2002 Jeunesses Musicales competition in Montréal that became a documentary produced and broadcast by CBC Radio.

With a taste for contemporary repertoire, Marcia Whitehead has broadened her post-graduate musical studies at the Banff Centre in the 20th century opera program focusing on extended vocal technique. Ms. Whitehead performed as soloist, at the invitation of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for their performance of Elijah, January 2006.

Catherine McKeever

Catherine McKeever has a mastery of an impressive vocal repertory that includes Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody, Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, Elgar’s Sea Pictures, the Bach Passions, Christmas Oratorio, and many of the Cantatas, the Duruflé Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Messiah and other concert and oratorio repertoire. Operatic roles performed include “Amneris” (Aida), “Mother” (Amahl and the Night Visitors), “Miss Todd” (The Old Maid and the Thief), “Mrs. Ott” (Susannah), “Nicklausse” (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), and Julia Child (Bon Appetit).

Ms. McKeever received her Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan. Her undergraduate work was completed at the University of Windsor, where she was the honored recipient of the Board of Governors Medal in Music. She balances a busy performing career with a teaching position on the voice faculty at University of Windsor School of Music.

David Pomeroy

David Pomeroy first performed with Pacific Opera Victoria as Rodolfo in La Bohème (2002); he returned in 2004, first to sing the role of Don José in Carmen, and then to perform Pollione in Norma. In 2006 he sang the Male Chorus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. He returned in October 2007 to sing the title role in Mozart’s Idomeneo.
“Blessed with a rich tenor and thrilling high notes” (Saskatoon Star Phoenix), the former Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio member has caught the attention of artistic directors in Canada, the U.S and Europe.

The Newfoundland native made his Canadian Opera Company debut in Il Trovatore. Other COC credits include the Altamira Opera Concerts, Sartorio’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Il Tabarro, La Fanciulla del West, Venus and Adonis, Billy Budd, Il Viaggio a Reims, Boris Godunov, Otello, Idomeneo, Salome, The Bartered Bride, and the world premiere of The Scarlet Princess.

Mr. Pomeroy is proud to have created the role of Stefano in the world premiere of Filumena with Calgary Opera and has performed remounts in Banff and Ottawa.

Mr. Pomeroy has been a soloist with the Toronto Symphony, CBC Radio/TV, Toronto’s Opera in Concert, Opera Ontario, Toronto Operetta Theatre, Toronto’s Aldeburgh Connection, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, the Vancouver and Victoria Symphonies, the Newfoundland Symphony, Chorus Niagara, the Orpheus Choir, the Saskatoon Symphony, the Mississauga Choral Society and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. His discography includes Sam Jarvis Jr. in Serinette, Enkidu in The Death of Enkidu, both by Harry Somers for Soundstreams Canada on the Centrediscs label, and Henze’s Venus and Adonis at
the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam for Vara Radio. He was awarded an emerging artist grant by the Canada Council for the Arts and was a prize-winner in the Elardo International Opera Competition in New York City.

In the 2008/2009 season Mr. Pomeroy will appear as Don José in Carmen with the Vancouver Opera and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with the Michigan Opera Theatre.

Peter McGillivray

Born in Saskatchewan and raised in Ontario, Peter McGillivray is an emerging Canadian talent on both the concert and operatic stage. He walked away with the Deuxième Grand Prix, as well as the Chalmers Award for Best Canadian Performance, at the 2005 Montreal International Musical Competition broadcast live to a national radio audience in Canada. He then followed this success by winning another 2nd Prize at the Queen Sonja Competition in Oslo, Norway and was broadcast live over Scandinavian television. He previously gained similar national recognition at the 2003 CBC Radio-Canada Young Performers Competition in Calgary when he took home 1st Prize in the vocal category, as well as the Audience Prize.

This season, Mr. McGillivray will be heard with Rilling at the International Bach Festival, in a Poulenc concert with the Aldeburgh Connection of Toronto and with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir in Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Haydn’s Die Schöpfung. He also looks forward to an engagement with the Richard Eaton Singers of Edmonton.

As a recent member of the Ensemble Studio of the Canadian Opera Company, he made his professional debut as Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and as Schlendrian in a staged production of Bach’s Coffee Cantata in 2003.

Highlights of past seasons have also included a recital tour of the Maritime Provinces with Debut Atlantic; recitals in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Saskatoon and Ottawa; as well as engagements with the Calgary Philharmonic, the Regina Symphony and l’Orchestre Symphonique de Québec.

Mr. McGillvray is a graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Music’s Opera Division, where he was a student of soprano Lynn Blaser and mezzo-soprano Patricia Kern. He also holds an honours degree in Canadian history and literature from the University of Toronto.

Having previously performed at the Ravinia, Aldeburgh and Aspen Music Festivals, he has been awarded substantial grants from both the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts. He has been a finalist and prize-winner at the Eckhart-Gramatté Competition, at the Lotte Lenya Singing Competition and at the Robert Schumann International Competition for Piano and Lied, held in the composer’s birthplace of Zwickau, Germany.

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