Opera by Request will present an imaginative double-bill that brings together Béla Bartók’s Symbolist opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle with Rachmaninoff’s Moscow Conservatory graduation composition, Aleko.
Programming for Opera by Request’s performances is driven by the participants, who choose repertoire they’d like to sing. The operas, presented in concert format, let audiences experience works driven by a passionate delivery.
The Operas
Béla Bartók: Duke Bluebeard’s Castle (sung in Hungarian)
Duke Bluebeard’s Castle (or A kékszakállú herceg vára) is an opera in one act. The libretto, by the composer’s friend and poet Béla Balázs, was written in Hungarian. The story is based on a French folk tale as told by author Charles Perreault (often credited as the inventor of the fairy tale).
The opera features two roles: Bluebeard (Kékszakállú) and his Judith (Judit), his latest wife. As the story begins, the couple have just gotten married, having eloped. She is coming to his castle for the first time, and demands that he open all the windows and doors to let light into the gloomy interior. Doors are opened to reveal bloodstained horrors, and accusations fly… but the ending is not what you may expect.
Bartók’s only opera, it was written in 1911, and premiered in 1918. Musically, it incorporates elements of classicism, modernism, including dissonance and polytonality, and Hungarian folk music.
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Aleko (sung in Russian)
Aleko would be the first of just three operas completed by composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. It was composed to a Russian libretto by Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, written as an adaptation of Alexander Pushkin’s poem The Gypsies.
Rachmaninoff wrote the work in 1892 as his graduation piece on completing studies at the Moscow Conservatory. It would go on to win prizes at the Conservatory, and was first performed in public in May 1893.
It was written with five singing roles: Aleko (baritone); Young Gypsy (tenor); Zemfira (soprano); An old man, Zemfira’s father (bass); Gypsy woman (contralto).
As a band of Romani are settled on the banks of a river over night, and an old man tells the story of Mariula, who he loved long ago. Mariula left him for another man after giving birth to their daughter Zemfira. Zemfira grows up without her, and in the present day lives with Aleko, a Russian who has become part of the Romani lifestyle.
As he hears the story, Aleko becomes enraged, and obsessed that Zemfira’s father never took revenge on Mariula. And, Zemfira is another free spirit who has already fallen in love with someone else, a young man of her own people.
Naturally, it leads to tragedy.
The Cast
Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle
Judit……………………….Antonina Ermolenko, soprano
Bluebeard………………..Larry Tozer, baritone
Ukrainian-Canadian soprano Antonina Ermolenko’s approach takes its inspiration from the Golden Age of opera, and singers like American soprano Martina Arroyo. To that style, she adds a character-driven focus to opera and art song. Her performing experience includes venues such as Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio, and the Danny Kaye Playhouse in New York, and she has sung with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Thüringen Philharmonie, Orchestra of the National Theatre of Constanţa, and the Johann Strauss Orchester Wiesbaden.
Larry Tozer previously performed with the company, including the role of Gasparo in Donizetti’s Rita, and the starring role in their production of Verdi’s Rigoletto, among others.
Rachmaninoff: Aleko
Aleko………………………Dylan Wright, bass-baritone
Young Gypsy……………Paul Williamson, tenor
Zemfira……………………Antonina Ermolenko, soprano
Zemfira’s Father………..Henry Irwin, baritone
Gypsy Woman………….Anna Belikova, mezzo-soprano
William Shookhoff, pianist and music director
Calgary native Dylan Wright is a graduate of the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal. His performance experience includes Fasolt and Hagen in Berlin Wagner Gruppe and Opera by Request’s full concert production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, appearances with Toronto City Opera, Windsor Symphony Orchestra, and creating the roles of Sherman Booth and Thomas Montgomery in the new opera Joshua by Colin Mendez Morris with ArsMusica.
Canadian spinto tenor Paul Williamson was born in Jamaica. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Houghton College School of Music in New York, and a Masters degree in Opera Performance from State Glinka Conservatoire of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. He also studied at the University of Manitoba. Paul made his debut at Carnegie Hall in 2013, and has sung with Opera York, Opera in Concert, Southern Ontario Lyric Opera (SOLO), and Tapestry Opera, among other companies.
Henry Irwin is a former chorus member of The Canadian Opera Company, and has performed as a soloist with The Edmonton Opera Company, Opera York, Southern Ontario Lyric Opera, Tryptych Productions, The Shaw Festival, The Santa Barbara Symphony, The Cathedral Bluffs Orchestra, among others, and more recently with No Strings Theatre.
Anna Bélikova earned a diploma in Vocal Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music, and has sung with several opera companies in the Toronto area, including Opera in Concert, Opera by Request, and York Opera, among others.
- The performance takes place March 29 at the College Street United Church. Find more details and tickets [HERE].
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