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MICHIGAN OPERA THEATRE PRESENTS
PUCCINI’S TRAGIC MASTERPIECE
La Rondine (The Swallow)
April 19 - 26, 2008
At the Detroit Opera House
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La Rondine returns to the MOT Stage for the first time
since the company’s inaugural season in 1972
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Renowned Stage Director Lotfi Mansouri returns to Direct
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DETROIT, Michigan, March 21, 2008...Michigan Opera Theatre continues its 2008 Spring Opera Season, sponsored by Cadillac, with Giacomo Puccini’s tragic masterpiece La Rondine, an opera about the longing for true love and the heartbreak of dashed hopes, with five performances, March 29-April 6, 2008 at the Detroit Opera House. This exciting operatic return marks the first time that the opera has been performed since Michigan Opera Theatre’s inaugural season in 1972, and returns with a cast of local stars as well as international stars, directed by Lotfi Mansouri, opera impresario.
“We felt it was just a great time to bring La Rondine back to the Michigan Opera Theatre stage. To be able to produce the opera with former General Director of San Francisco Opera Lotfi Mansouri and internationally acclaimed conductor Steven Mercurio makes this production such a treat,” says Michigan Opera Theatre General Director David DiChiera.
The opera La Rondine is set in Paris, The City of Love – an appropriate place for the romantic drama that unfolds. At a cocktail party hosted by Magda de Cirvy, the poet Prunier declares that love is in the air. The kept woman of the rich aristocrat Rambaldo, Magda longs for true love. Her thirst for passion is satisfied when she meets the dashing young Ruggiero and she spreads her romantic wings. Keeping the details of her relationships with Rambaldo hidden, she flees with her new lover to a seaside cottage. They say a swallow always returns home, however, and Magda is no exception. Lamenting that she “can be a lover, but never a wife,” Magda reveals her deception to a heartbroken Ruggiero and flutters home to her loveless life of privilege and despair.
Michigan Opera Theatre’s production of La Rondine includes a cast of young artists, many of whom are making their MOT debuts. Acclaimed stage director Lotfi Mansouri, former San Francisco Opera General Director, returns to stage the opera for his first time directing with MOT since 1984’s Anna Bolena. Internationally acclaimed conductor Steven Mercurio will conduct the Michigan Opera Theatre orchestra.
Alternating in the role of Magda is Pamela Armstrong (19, 23, 26), who has been praised for her many performances of the role, and young Italian soprano Tiziana Caruso (20m, 25), who is making her U.S. opera debut. The role of Ruggiero will be performed alternately by Canadian tenor David Pomeroy (19, 23, 26), who is making his MOT debut, and Mexican tenor Arturo Chacón-Cruz (20m, 25), who is returning from his debut last season as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. American tenor Victor Ryan Robertson will sing the role of Prunier, with bass-baritone Philip Skinner singing the role of Rambaldo.
The cast of La Rondine also includes several native Detroiters who are making their Michigan Opera Theatre debut, including Kimwana Doner, a former Cass Tech High School grad in the role of Yvette, and Kisma Jordan, a former Martin Luther King Jr. High School grad, in the role of Bianca.
TICKETS for Michigan Opera Theatre’s production of La Rondine at the magnificent Detroit Opera House range from $28-$120, and are available at the Detroit Opera House ticket office (1526 Broadway, Detroit, 48226), by phone at (313) 237-SING (7464) and online at www.MichiganOpera.org. Tickets are also available at all TicketMaster outlets, by phone at (248) 645-6666 or online at www.TicketMaster.com.
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Giacomo Puccini’s
La Rondine (The Swallow)
Saturday, April 19, 20087:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 20, 20082:30 p.m.
Wednesday, April 23, 20087:30 p.m.
Friday, April 25, 20087:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 26, 20087:30 p.m.
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