by Franz Lehar
directed by Beatrice Carpino
Mirth ensues when The Merry Widow leaves Pontevedro for a visit to Paree. Will she find new love and ruin Pontevedro's economy in the process?
Presented in English
Performances: Feb 17, 22, 25, March 2 at 7:30 pm.
Also Feb 19 and March 4 at 2 pm.
Bickford Centre Theatre, 777 Bloor St. W.
English version by Christopher Hassall
Tickets may be purchased at the door, or through U of T Tix at 416-978-8849
The Merry Widow
Background:
A number of important things have happened in the impoverished, imaginary Balkan country of Pontevedro. The love affair between the dashing young count Danilo Danilowitsch and Anna, the beautiful daughter of a commoner, has ended because the count's snobby, aristocratic family found the match unsuitable. Anna was caught on the rebound by the wealthy banker Glawari, who married her and then conveniently died after a week, leaving her an inheritance of 20 million francs Losing this fortune should Anna marry a foreigner could sink the entire Pontevedrian economy!
Act I Pontevedrian Embassy, Paris, 1905
At a party to celebrate the Grand Duke's birthday, Baron Mirko Zeta, the Pontevedrian Ambassador, is worried that Anna may fall for one of the attractive, gold-digging Parisian men among the guests. He's aware of Anna and Danilo's one-time love affair, and plans to get the count to marry her, thus keeping the 20 million in Pontevedro. He instructs his personal secretary Njegus to drag Danilo away from the champagne and girls at Maxims, sober him up, and bring him to the party.
Meanwhile, Camille de Rosillon, one of the guests, is infatuated with Zeta's wife Valencienne; the attraction is mutual, but she stays cool and dutiful. Anna arrives and is courted by all the men, even Camille, whom Valencienne is determined to marry off, to stop herself falling for him. When Danilo arrives and tries to have a short sleep, Anna wakes him up and they argue, Danilo swearing that she will never make him say "I love you." He promises Zeta to keep the Parisians from trying to marry Anna. He succeeds by offering to auction the Ladies Choice dance to which Anna invites him. When the other men beat a hasty retreat, Danilo claims his dance and sweeps the reluctant Anna off her feet.
Act II Anna's villa
Anna is throwing a Pontevedrian party. There are folk dances, and then she sings the legend of the Vilia wood-nymph temptress. Some amorous complications arising from a lady's fan found inscribed with "I love you" alternate with Anna's campaign to win Danilo over, but he remains cool under fire. Camille makes a last and apparently successful effort to win Valencienne and takes her into a small summerhouse. Njegus spies them through the keyhole, and keeps Zeta from discovering his wife in the summerhouse. When he tells Anna whats going on, she sportingly changes places with the compromised Valencienne through a back door. So it is Camille and Anna who are then unmasked, and Anna is overjoyed at Danilo's jealous outburst when she calmly announces her engagement to Camille.
Act III Anna's villa
Later that night, Njegus has transformed Anna's villa into a replica of Maxims. It is here that all is resolved: Danilo and Anna finally get together. When Anna explains that he needn't fear being seen to marry her for money, for remarriage means she loses all her fortune, he finally declares his love. When she explains that she would, of course, lose it to her husband, Danilo confesses that he would still have married her even if she had 40 million francs
Beatrice Carpino
Beatrice Carpino received her BFA in Music from York University and her Teacher's ARCT from the Royal Conservatory of Music. As well as formal music education, Beatrice grew up in an artistic environment - her mother is a soprano and her father was a tenor as well as an internationally known performing chef. She saw her first opera at the age of four and was hooked. The opera was the COC's production of Madama Butterfly , starring Maria Pellegrini. In 2002, as fate would have it, Beatrice had the honour of singing with Maria Pellegrini in a tribute to Giuseppe Verdi.
Beatrice's vocal flexibility, commanding presence, and dramatic abilities have given her the opportunities to perform the title roles in Carmen and Cenerentola , Rosina in The Barber of Seville , Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro , Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte , Musetta in La Boheme , Suzuki in Madama Butterfly , Maddalena in Rigoletto , Prince Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus , and Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana .
As well as opera, Beatrice enjoys performing the songs of Broadway and classic jazz standards. She has been invited to perform at many community functions throughout Ontario. Last year she performed in Florida with a touring company in the show From Russia with Love. In November 2009, Beatrice will be a guest performer in the Christian Festival Concert at Roy Thomson Hall .
Beatrice is very excited about having been invited to be the stage director for this year's production of The Merry Widow , still at the beginning of a new chapter in her musical career.
Sung in English. All performances take place at the Bickford Centre, 777 Bloor St. W., just west of TTC Christie Station.
Performances: Feb 17, 22, 25 and March 2 at 7:30 pm.
Anna Glawari
Prince Danilo Danilovitch
Baron Mirko Zeta
Valencienne
Camille de Rosillon
Vicomte Cascada
Raoul de St. Brioche
Bogdanowitsch
Sylviane
Kromow
Olga
Pritschitsch
Praskowia
Njegus
Zozo
Folk Dancers
Grisettes
Waiter
Chorus : Kurt Annen, Don Ballanger, Pablo Benitez, Larry Blas, Teodora Borcean, Alicia Bulwik, Sue Cimicata, Silvia Croci, Elenita Diaz-Raiha, Louise Grady, Carrie Gray, Susan Hyttenrauch, Susan Jackson, Karen Johnston, Kailey Kaufman, Chris Lea, Anwen Leung, Vivien Mann, James Matthews, Terese Okrent, William Parker, Peter Price, William Redelmeier, Robert L. Rimsay, Tammy Short, Henry Tang, Sandra Tang, Tiffany Tobias, Terry Walker, Yevgeny Yablonovsky, Patritziya Zlateva
Jennifer Rasor (all performances)
Jay Lambie (all performances)
Gerald Hannon (all performances)
Caroline Colantonio (Feb 19, 25 Mar 2) / Christie Kidd (Feb 17, 22, Mar 4)
Pablo Benitez (Feb 17, 25, Mar 4) / William Parker (Feb 19, 22, Mar 2)
Rob Maxwell (all performances)
Anthony Fauré , (all performances)
Giovanni Minardi (all performances)
Renee Moreau (all performances)
Michaelangelo D'Onofrio (all performances)
Elaine Chak (all performances)
Frank De Jong (all performances)
Lynne Shuttleworth (all performances)
David Roche (all performances)
Christie Kidd (Feb 19, 25, Mar 2)/ Caroline Colantonio (Feb 17, 22, Mar 4)
Larry Blas & Patritziya Zlateva
Renee Moreau, Elaine Chak, Sylvia Croci, Susan Hyttenrauch,
Lynne Shuttleworth, Tiffany Tobias
Sergio Emer
Director
Conductor
Pianist
Rehearsal Pianist
Adolfo De Santis
Rina KimHyewon
Stage Manager
Assistant Stage Manager
Supertitles
Ada Tsang
Jeremy Loughton
Peter Price
Lighting Design
Lighting Board
Stage Crew
Supertitles Operator
Chris Humphrey
Terry Alexis
Gabriel Graziano
James Cataldo
Jennifer Rasor After portraying Cio Cio San last year with TOR, Jennifer is happy to be returning to play Anna Glawari in The Merry Widow. Last spring she also revived Gilda in Rigoletto with Coro Verdi. In summer 2012, Jennifer will return to Coro Verdi to sing Oscar in Verdis Un Ballo in Maschera, a role she recently sang with Opera by Request. Other past operatic experiences include: Miriam in James Rolfes opera for children, Elijahs Kite, with Tapestry New Opera; Georgette in Puccinis Il Tabarro with Atelier S in Mexico; Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Gilda in Rigoletto with Zwei-Groschen-Oper in Germany; and The Voice from Heaven in Don Carlo by Verdi with l'Opéra de Montréal.
Gerald Hannon has been singing with Toronto Opera Repertoire for a decade. Although he has sung both dramatic and comic roles, his talents (and his nose) are much more suited to the latter.
Lynne Shuttleworth enjoys playing sidekicks and oddball characters. Last year with TOR she was Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly and Sally in Die Fledermaus. Other previous roles include Mercedes in Carmen, Giovanna in Rigoletto, and Gianetta in L'Elisir d'Amore. As a mezzo-soprano, Lynne never gets the guy, but believes she has more fun than sopranos, who usually end up dead by the end of the opera. She studied piano for 10 years, and got her first stage experience singing pop and mistakenly R&B.
David Roche has been a part of TOR since 2003, pouring wine in Bohème, Cavalleria and La Traviata, and pantomiming in La Serva Padrone, when not abducting Gilda or succumbing to Carmen. Last year he was the drunken jailor in Fledermaus. David writes and acts in his own shows, too, which have taken him to Western Canada, New Orleans, and recently Cyprus. But, he says, "it's very hard to stay away from TOR's fun, drama and classic material."
Giovanni Minardi
is back for another season with TOR in his role as
Bogdanowitch in The Merry Widow. Previous roles with TOR include Yamadori and Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly, Frank in Die Fledermaus, Silvio in Pagliacci, and Baron Douphol in a La Traviata concert. Giovanni thanks his voice teachers, Nihal and Caroleve Fonseka, and Maestro Giuseppe Macina, for their support and inspiring mentorship.
Jay Lambie is pleased to be singing with TOR once again, last year reprising the role of Eisenstein (Fledermaus) and adding that of Pinkerton (Butterfly) to his repertoire. His operatic roles in concert and on stage have included Alfredo, Almaviva, Dandini, Belmonte, Des Grieux, Don Jose, Eisenstein, Ernesto, Ferrando, Hoffmann, Ramiro, Rodolfo and Turridu. Upcoming performances include "Norma" and "L'Elisir d'Amore."
Renée Moreau
is excited to be playing the roles of Sylviane and Lolo in The Merry Widow this year. She studied voice and theory at the Royal Conservatory of Music, and with Toronto teacher Alan Reid. When not at her job as associate director at CBC Television, The Nature of Things with David Suzuki, Renée attends vocal master classes, and has participated in TOR excerpts from Lakmé and L'Elisir d'Amore, and for four seasons as a soloist with Les voix du coeur, with whom she performed as Carmen in an excerpt. Renée has also performed in concerts at The Annex Live, and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.
Caroline Colantonio
holds a Bachelor of Music, Honours Voice Performance from the University of Western Ontario. She studies with Joel Katz in Toronto. In 2008, Caroline took part in the RCM Summer Opera Scene Study; playing Amor in Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice. Caroline was awarded the Dundas Centre Choral Scholarship in 2009. In 2010, she took part as a Collaborative Artist in the Opera on the Avalon Festival in St. John's, Newfoundland. In 2011, Caroline sang Annina in Verdi's La Traviata and Beth in Copland's The Tender Land with Summer Opera Lyric Theatre. She was also one of the top five finalists in the York Region Celebration of the Arts 2011 competition.
Rob Maxwell
This is Rob's fifth season with TOR. He has sung in the chorus of La Boheme and Cenerentola, as well as the roles of El Dancairo in Carmen, Antonio in The Marriage of Figaro, and Bonzo in Madama Butterfly.
Elaine Chak is pleased to be back with TOR for her second year. She first
fell in love with opera when her junior high school produced The Magic
Flute and she was one of the Nine Ladies -- the roles of the Three Ladies
were tripled! Last year, Elaine enjoyed singing in the chorus, and this year she's
thrilled to be playing Olga and Dodo (a Grisette!) in The Merry Widow.
BIOS FOR FRANK DE JONG, WILLIAM PARKER, CHRISTIE KIDD, CARRIE GRAY AND PABLO BENITEZ ASTUDILLO CAN BE FOUND ON LUCIA PAGES
