Friday, March 2, 2012
An opera in one act with English supertitles
Eric Townell, conductor | Judith A. Ranaletta, stage director
The German House
7:00 pm Reception | 8:30 Opera | 9:30 Dessert Reception
Reception to include savory and sweet offerings and an open bar.
Tickets: $25 (Opera only) | $50 (Opera and receptions)
Artist Bios
Artistic Director – Judith A. Ranaletta
Judith Ranaletta served as the Vocal Music and Drama Director at Greece Athena High School for 29 years before her retirement in June, 2011. Dozens of her students have gone on to achieve successful careers in the performing arts, both on Broadway and in National Tours, as well as in opera, on international recording labels, and in film and television. Her Concert and Show Choirs have garnered National and International praise. They enjoyed 7 Performance Tours of Europe and won 29 consecutive 1st Place/Gold Awards at National Music Competitions. Her 2-time National Champion Show Choir was also featured in the 2010 British Documentary Film, “Gleeful”, and referred to as the number one Show Choir in America.
Ms. Ranaletta received her Masters Degree in Vocal Performance from Ithaca College and did her Post-Graduate work, in voice, at the Eastman School of Music and the Vocal Arts Symposium in Spoletto, Italy. She is also a seasoned singer, actress and director, having performed in and directed nearly 200 productions, including numerous radio, TV and film works. She is also an international clinician, adjudicator and guest conductor for voice, music theatre and choirs, and has served as the ACDA and NYSSMA State Chairperson for Show Choirs and Music Theatre.
Since leaving Greece Athena, Judith has been appointed Artistic and Creative Director of Rochester Association of the Performing Arts, (RAPA), and its East End Theatre. In addition, Judith is the Founder and Director of the newly formed ROC City Singers Regional Show Choir, a premier group of talented singers and dancers. The group has been invited to represent the UNITED States of America and perform at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.Ms. Ranaletta also maintains a private voice and acting studio.
Judith is enjoying her new position with Empire State Lyric Theatre as its Resident Stage Director. Having directed the highly successful “Opera Rocks” this past summer, and most recently, the delightful “Tales of Custard the Dragon”, with her current and past students, including four of her Broadway “stars”, Judith is thrilled to be staging ESLT’s first opera, “La Cambiale di Matrimonio”, and delighted to be sharing the honor with such a gifted cast, orchestra and staff. She continues to be grateful to Sue Cotroneo for her trust and friendship, applauds her artistic vision, and is most excited to be part of this memorable Chamber Opera Festival weekend, the first of many for the Rochester area.
Conductor – Eric Townell
A versatile and dynamic musician, conductor Eric Townell has appeared to critical acclaim as guest conductor of the Silesian State Opera Orchestra in the Czech Republic and the Milwaukee, Lincoln, Madison, Adrian, Fox Valley, Waukesha and Hershey Symphony Orchestras and the Prince George's Philharmonic in the US. Eric has conducted holiday and regional outreach concerts as a frequent guest conductor for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Twice winner of the International Opera Conducting Course/Competition, he made his European debut conducting Eugene Onegin at the Silesian State Opera Company of the Czech Republic. He conducted an acclaimed production of Rigoletto with L'Opera Piccola of Chicago in 2002. Eric has led performances for the national touring company of Amahl and the Night Visitors and concerts of opera scenes and arias with the Beethoven Chamber Orchestra of the Czech Republic. He recently substituted on short notice to conduct the Hellas Soloists of Patras, Greece in two concerts in Italy during the orchestra's European tour. As Music Director of the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra (1991-2001), Eric conducted the orchestra in its first concert broadcast recordings for Wisconsin Public Radio. He led an energetic series of commissions of works by American women and collaborated with soloists Mischa Dichter, Edgar Meyer, flutist Jim Walker and baritone Kurt Ollmann, among many others.
In 2006, Eric became the third Music Director in the 60-year history of the Rochester Oratorio Society. He has led the ROS in subscription concerts, regional outreach performances, live radio broadcasts, televised concerts and an award-winning tour to Beijing and Shanghai for the 2008 Olympic Cultural Festival. He has prepared the ROS for several appearances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra under Christopher Seaman and Jeff Tyzik in music of Bach, Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, Handel, Verdi, Gershwin and Orff, all of which have been recorded for broadcast, and led collaborative concerts with the region's leading arts organizations.
An experienced and effective communicator on music and arts topics, Eric is in demand as clinician and adjudicator for choral and orchestral festivals and for choirs of all types across the country. He has offered pre-concert chats, creative consultation and program annotation for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic and several other ensembles and chamber music series. He is a frequent commentator on arts topics on WXXI radio in Rochester.
“Fanny” – Sue Cotroneo
A native of Rochester, NY, Susan Cotroneo is at home on both the concert and operatic stage. Operatic credits include such roles as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata, Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Lauretta in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Goldentrill in Mozart’s Impresario, Lucy in Menotti’s The Telephone and Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, a role she debuted at La Festival di Musica da Camera in Italy. As a featured soloist, she has performed such works as Handel’s Messiah, Poulenc’s Gloria, Faure’s Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate.
Ms. Cotroneo has studied under Gianni Raimondi and Giuseppe Taddei at Il Corso Internazionale di Perfezionamento d’Arte Vocale in Italy where she had the honor of performing the role of Musetta opposite Giuseppe Taddei as Marcello. She continues to coach with Maestro Gildo DiNunzo of the Metropolitan Opera and Isabelle Aubin.
“Tobias Mill”– Jimi James
Jimi James
has recently performed the roles of Escamillo, Baron Scarpia, Silvio, Wilfred Shadbolt and Dandini with concert appearances as bass soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, The Messiah and Carmina Burana. Born in Hawaii and raised on Cape Cod, the baritone’s repertoire is as diverse as his travels with over 30 main-stage roles ranging from Baron Scarpia to Billy Bigelow. A strong proponent of arts education, he is particularly fond of his more than 900 outreach performances. Mr. James’ upcoming schedule includes Ein Deutsches Requiem in Missouriand Figaro in The Barber of Seville in both New York City and Geneva, NY. --- Visit Mr. James at www.JimiJamesBaritone.com.
“Edoardo” – Grant Knox
American tenor, Grant Knox, is enjoying a varied career in opera, musical theater, concert and recital. He has appeared with the Atlanta Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Syracuse Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Ohio Light Opera, Lyric Opera Atlanta, Treasure Coast Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, and with Maestro Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Opera Festival. Grant is thrilled to return to Rochester to perform with the Empire State Lyric Theater after singing Alfred in Die Fledermaus with the company in 2010. He has been hailed as a “sweet toned lyric tenor” (Washington Post) and as “a winning tenor, suave and comfortable as comedian or romantic lead” (Cleveland Plain Dealer). Equally at home in concert repertoire, Grant has been engaged by the Atlanta Symphony, Illinois Philharmonic, Cobb Symphony, Binghamton Philharmonic, and in recital at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In May 2009 he sang the tenor solos in Liszt’s A Faust Symphony under the baton of Victor Yampolsky at the Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millenium Park. In May, Grant will be one of six artists to participate in the Fall Island Vocal Arts Festival, celebrating English language song repertoire, led by American mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe and acclaimed collaborative pianist Allan Smith. This June, he will perform at the SongFest Festival in Malibu, CA as a Stern Fellow. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York and his doctorate from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. Grant is currently assistant professor of voice and opera at Northern Kentucky University, just outside of Cincinnati.
“Norton” – Ryan Scott Lathan received a MM in Performance and Literature degree and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School
of Music. He recently appeared as Don Alfonso in New York Lyric Opera’s production of Così fan tutte and as the villainous pig, Orwell, in
David Chesky's new opera The Pig, The Farmer & The Artist as part of
the New York International Fringe Festival. Other roles include Baron Douphol in La Traviata, Mars, God of War in Orpheus in the Underworld, Demetrius in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Prosdocimo, Il Poeta in Il Turco in Italia, Schaunard in La Boheme, & Don Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro. Upcoming engagements include Capital III in Virgil Thomson & Gertrude Stein’s opera Capital, Capital with Encompass New Opera Theatre and Zuniga in Carmen with Opera Theater Pittsburgh.
“Slook” – Mario Martínez made his United States professional operatic debut in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra production of Beethoven’s Fidelio, performing the role of Don Pizarro. During his professional career, Martínez has appeared with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, Charleston Symphony, Western New York Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras of Santo Domingo, Orchard Park Chorale and Symphony, New Eastman Symphony, Eastman Philharmonia, Eastman Opera Theater, Mercury Opera of Rochester, Opera Rochester, Buffalo Opera Unlimited, Opera de las Américas and Compañia Lírica Dominicana. This performance marks his debut with the Empire State Lyric Theater.
Recent performances include his leading roles in the critically acclaimed Eastman Opera Theater production of Le Nozze di Figaro, in Mercury Opera productions of L’Elisir D’Amore and L’amico Fritz, as well as a concert presentation at Merkin Concert Hall, in New York City. In addition to Figaro in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Dulcamara in Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore and David in Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz, his operatic repertoire includes Emperor Uberall in Ullmann’s The Emperor of Atlantis, Falstaff in Verdi’s Falstaff, Almaviva in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Raymondo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Junius in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, The Father in Milhaud’s Le Pauvre Matelot, Bohechio in Braga’s Opera 1492, and Marullo in Verdi’s Rigoletto. Martínez holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees in Vocal Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music, and a Bachelor of Arts from Luther College.
“Clarina” – Clara Nieman
Mezzo-soprano Clara Nieman recently won the Phyllis Bryn-Julson Award in the Civic Morning Musical competition, and spent this past summer as a Victoria J. Mastrobuono Emerging Artist with Opera New Jersey singing the role of Vera Boronel in The Consul. She received her masters degree in voice at the Eastman School, where she was seen as Grace Ansley in Roman Fever, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, and the Mistress of the Novices in Suor Angelica, and frequently as a choral soloist. Ms. Nieman earned her undergraduate degree in voice from Indiana University, where she appeared as both Nireno and Sesto in Giulio Cesare, as well as singing the role of Dorilla in the North American premiere of Scarlatti's Tigrane with the Bloomington Early Music Festival. She was also a young artist with the Seagle Music Colony, where she appeared as Angelina in La Cenerentola and as Hansel in Hansel and Gretel.
