OPERAPRESS RELEASE

OPERADELAWARE
Julie W. Van Blarcom, Executive Director
Leland P. Kimball III, General Director

Telephone: (302) 658-8063, ext. 3159 Fax: (302) 658-4991
Box Office: The Grand Opera House, 1-800-37-GRAND
Post Office Box 432, Wilmington, DE 19801-0432

Contact: Cindy Frankey
e-mail: cindyf@desymphony.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WILMINGTON, DE - OPERADELAWARE presents THE BARBER OF SEVILLE

Opera of "Figaro" fame perfect for newcomers to opera


WILMINGTON, DE – April 9, 2002 – "Figaro, Figaro, Figaro!!" Need we say more? Rossini's comedy The Barber of Seville will be presented by OperaDelaware at The Grand Opera House on Saturday, May 4 at 8:00 pm; Thursday, May 9 at 7:30 pm; Saturday, May 11 at 8:00 pm; and Sunday, May 12 at 2:00 pm. New to OperaDelaware's stage are mezzo-soprano Kathryn Honan-Carter as the beautiful Rosina and tenor Chad Freeburg as the suitor Count Almaviva. Conductor is Francis Graffeo and director is John Leyhmeyer. Single tickets ($19-$64) are on sale through The Grand Box Office at (800) 37-GRAND or online at www.operadel.org. Funding for lead singers generously provided by First USA.

THE OPERA
Il barbiere di Sigivlia (The Barber of Seville), one of Rossini's most popular works, contains some of opera's most tuneful and recognizable music - from its lively overture, to Figaro's Largo al factotum, to Rosina's Una voce poco fa. The Barber of Seville is probably the best known and most-loved work from the Bel Canto period. Based on the play of the same title by the French dramatist Beaumarchais (1732-1799), the opera is a delightful rigmarole of riotous situations in a race between a handsome young Count Almaviva and an aging Dr. Bartolo to win the hand of the young Rosina.

THE ARTISTS
Kathryn Honan-Carter (Rosina), mezzo-soprano, makes her debut with OperaDelaware as the lovely Rosina, a role she recently performed on two National Tours with San Francisco Opera. She made her professional debut with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis as Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream. She has performed many roles, including the title role in Carmen, Dorabella in Così fan Tutte, the title role in Iolanthe, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, Annio in La Clemenza di Tito, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, Nancy in Albert Herring and Meg Page in Falstaff. She has been on the roster of New York City Opera, performing such roles as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Jenny Reffer in The Mother of us All, and Maddelena in Il Viaggio a Reims, all at Lincoln Center in New York. Most recently, Ms. Honan-Carter performed the role of Annio in La Clemenza di Tito under the baton of Christopher Hogwood with the National Symphony Orchestra, and Garcias in Don Quichotte with Washington Opera, both at the Kennedy Center in D.C. She has won numerous awards including her selection as a national finalist at the Metropolitan Opera Competition and two-time recipient of the Met education fund grant. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The University of Connecticut and a Master of Music Degree from New England Conservatory.

Accompanying Rosina as Count Almaviva is tenor Chad Freeburg, who also makes his debut with OperaDelaware in this production. A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Mr. Freeburg recently completed the Master of Music program at Peabody Conservatory (Baltimore), where he studied voice with Dr. Stanley Cornett. At Peabody, Mr. Freeburg performed in both operatic and concert performances including Così fan Tutte, Ariadne auf Naxos, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Britten), and Egisto (Cavalli). He has performed in concerts of Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ, Stravinsky's Pulcinella, Handel's Messiah, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony alongside John Shirley-Quirk, Janice Chandler, and Marianna Busching. Mr. Freeburg is a frequent performer of oratorio, appearing as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Annapolis Symphony, Handel Choir of Baltimore, Bach Choral Society of Baltimore, Columbia Symphony, Concert Artists of Baltimore, and Dartmouth University. He was a member of the Young American Artist Program at Glimmerglass Opera and Opera North's Young Artist Program. As first place winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council's Middle Atlantic Finals regional competition in 2000-2001, Mr. Freeburg advanced on to the National Semifinals in New York.

Steven Condy (Don Bartolo), baritone, has appeared with opera companies throughout the United States and has become especially known for his portrayals of the great "buffo" roles. Mr. Condy has sung the role of Bartolo with Opera Memphis, Washington Opera, Arizona Opera, San Francisco Opera, Calgary Opera (Canadian debut), Austin Lyric Opera, and the Orlando Opera. He performed in the world premiere of Ochelata's Wedding, a new comic opera by Jean-Michel Damase, at the OK Mozart Festival in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. He made his European debut in Handel's Messiah with the Orquesta del Principado de Asturias in Oviedo, Spain. Messiah was also the vehicle for Mr. Condy's Carnegie Hall debut in 1996 with the Masterworks Chorus. In 1992, he was a winner of the Opera Company of Philadelphia's Fourth Luciano Pavarotti International Voice competition, and he was a recipient of a Role Preparation Grant from the Sullivan Foundation. In 1993, he was a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions. A native of Plainview, New York, Mr. Condy received his B.M. degree in music education from the University of Hartford and attended the Yale University School of Music for voice and opera performance, where he earned his M.M. degree in 1990.

Andrea Arena (Berta), mezzo-soprano, made her professional debut in 1999 with OperaDelaware in the blockbuster production of Carmen. Recent engagements for Ms. Arena include touring Taiwan this past spring 2001 with the American Opera Theatre Company as Maddalena in Rigoletto and being invited to participate in the prestigious Des Moines Metro Opera Resident Artist Program. Other operatic roles have included Venus in Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Baba in The Medium, Sandman in Hansel und Gretel, Mrs. Todd in The Old Maid and the Thief, and Lady Jane in Patience. As an accomplished soloist, Ms. Arena's oratorio performances have included Handel's Messiah, Saint-Saen's Christmas Oratorio, and Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. Ms. Arena was also a 1999 finalist in the Richard Parkinson Italian Scholarship Competition. She is a native Delawarean and a recent graduate of the University of Delaware.

Derrick Ballard (Don Basilio), bass-baritone, has performed with many opera companies and symphony orchestras throughout the United States, appearing in a wide variety of roles and concert repertoire. Mr. Ballard has appeared with the Florentine Opera, Opera Colorado, the Colorado Opera Festival, Riverside Opera, Bronx Opera and the Lamont Opera in roles including Figaro in Le Nozzo di Figaro, the title role in Don Giovanni, the Speaker in Die Zauberflöte, Don Basilio and Dr. Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor. He has sung Tom/John in Mollicone's The Face on the Barroom Floor and the role of El Prior in the zarzuela La Dolorosa with the Sante Fe Opera Apprentice Tour. Mr. Ballard's operatic roles also include Leporello and Masetto in Don Giovanni, and Colline in La Bohème. Mr. Ballard has sung as a soloist with the Dallas Symphony, the Santa Fe Symphony, the Boulder Philharmonic, the Rocky Mountain Chorale, and the Lamont Symphony and Chorale, performing in Puccini's Tosca, Handel's Messiah, and the Mozart Requiem. In addition, he has premiered several new works for bass soloist and chamber ensemble. Mr. Ballard's concert repertoire also includes Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Rossini's Stabat Mater, the Verdi Requiem, as well as several orchestral song cycles.

Francis Graffeo, conductor, has numerous conducting credits, including an appearances with OperadDelaware's 2000 production of Madama Butterfly. His credits also include the Opera Theater of Lucca, Italy, the Lima Philharmonic, Peru, the AIMS Orchestra in Austria, as well as numerous American engagements with the symphonies, opera and/or ballet companies of Phoenix, Denver, Nashville, Eugene, Knoxville, Wilmington, Boise, Tacoma, Tucson, Santa Barbara, and Central City. Formerly Artistic Director of Oregon's Eugene Opera and director of the Oregon Opera Ensemble at the University of Oregon Graffeo became General Director and Conductor of Knoxville Opera in January 2000. This season Graffeo conducts Gianni Schicchi/I Pagliacci, Romèo et Juliette, La Cenerentola and Il Signor Bruschino in the first full season under his artistic direction in Knoxville.

Known as a dynamic conductor, a bottom-line conscious administrator, and a charismatic producer of opera, Francis Graffeo resides in Knoxville with his wife Christina, and continues his busy guest-conducting schedule. The 2001-2002 season includes appearances with The Oregon Mozart Players for an orchestral and opera concert. Graffeo will debut with Nashville Opera in their 2002-2003 season with Il Barbiere, followed by a Don Giovanni at Rimrock Opera Company in Billings, Montana.

Recent seasons have included The Nutcracker with Wilmington Ballet; a concert with The Oregon Mozart Players, and Rossini's La Cenerentola at Santa Barbara Grand Opera. Graffeo also judged the renowned Sorantin Young Artist Competition in Texas last year.

Graffeo's performances in Italy with Opera Theater of Lucca included a program at Enrico Caruso's Villa Bellosguardo. He has also enjoyed several conducting engagements with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, in a wide variety of concert repertoire. Graffeo led an acclaimed production of Verdi's Otello in a return to Arizona Opera with the Phoenix Symphony.

John Lehmeyer (Stage Director and Costume Designer) directed OperaDelaware's recent productions of The Tales of Hoffmann, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, La traviata, and The Student Prince. His freelance directing and designing have taken him to the Florentine Grand Opera of Milwaukee, Florida Grand Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Kentucky Opera, Mobile Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Columbus, Opera Company of Boston, Tulsa Opera, and the Washington Summer Opera Theatre. Mr. Lehmeyer recently directed a highly acclaimed multi-media production of Faust for Baltimore Opera. In addition, his theater work has been seen at Center Stage, Baltimore; Trinity Square, Providence; the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, and at the Edinburgh Festival and on Broadway. He is also a faculty member of the Peabody Conservatory.

THE COMPOSER - Gioacchino Rossini (1792 - 1868)
Rossini was born in Pesaro to a family of musicians, singing as a boy soprano and traveling with his opera singer mother before his precocious admission to the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna at the age of 14. After a few years, he left the conservatory to work as an apprentice composer at a small theater in Venice. There Rossini produced several one-act comic operas, refining his compositional style. His first major success was with two-act comedy La pietra del paragone, written for Milan in 1812.

Rossini's next opera, Tancredi (1813) was an even greater landmark in his career. He followed it with L'italiana in Algeri (1813) and Il turco in Italia (1814), before being offered a contract by the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. This theater was at the time the most lavishly financed opera house in Europe, and the deal was lucrative for Rossini. From 1815 to his departure from Naples in 1822, he wrote 18 operas, including Il barbiere di Siviglia, Otello (both 1816), La gazza ladra, La Cenerentola, Armida (all 1817), Mosé in Egitto (1818) and La donna del lago (1819).

After Naples, Rossini settled in Paris, and lived there the rest of his life. After the composition of many more operas including Semiramide (1822) and Guillaume Tell (1829), Rossini effectively retired from opera composing at the age of 37. He continued to compose, but stuck to sacred and instrumental works, such as his Stabat Mater (1833) and the Petite messe solennelle (1864).

He wrote 39 operas in 19 years, few of them failures, and many of them masterpieces. He had the reputation for an almost preternatural brilliance-as well as extreme laziness. He bragged that he'd written Barber in two weeks, and would as soon write new music as revise a composition. In fact, Rossini was a comic genius, a generous benefactor, a mentor to young musicians, and a gourmet (as evidenced by his ample waistline). The recent resurgence in the popularity of his music is further testament to Rossini's legacy as the most influential Italian composer of his time.

OperaDelaware's mission is to enrich the cultural life of people in the Delaware Valley by producing opera, educational and outreach programs. The company presents new and traditional operas, using a unique blend of nationally known stars and rising talent. OperaDelaware programs are supported by Basell, MBNA America, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Delaware Division of the Arts – a state agency committed to promoting and supporting the arts in Delaware. Funding for lead singers is generously provided by First USA.

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