Yale Opera students and alumni perform in Warsaw
Students and alumni of the Yale Opera program will perform in Warsaw, Poland on March 18 and 25, 2016 as part of the twentieth annual Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival. Each concert will offer different repertoire, with a program on March 18 program featuring one-act operas by Vaughan Williams and Holst, and the second program on March 25 featuring Krzysztof Penderecki conducting his own St. Luke Passion.
The Yale Opera singers involved in the performances are current students Evanna Chiew '16 AD and Kathleen Reveille '16 MM, and alumni Nicole Percifield '15 AD, Eric Barry ’10 MM, ’11 AD, and David Pershall ’10 MM, '11 AD. Krzysztof Penderecki is a former member of the Yale School of Music faculty.
For the Friday, March 18 concert, Evanna Chiew, Nicole Percifield, and Kathleen Reveille will each sing in a concert performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams's one-act opera, Riders to the Sea. The performance will feature additional cast members Gary Griffiths and Anna Fijałkowska, along with the Warsaw Philharmonic Women’s Chamber Choir and the Warsaw Chamber Opera Sinfonietta conducted by Łukasz Borowicz. Part II of that concert will present another one-act opera, Gustav Holst's At the Boar's Head, Op. 42, in concert. In this performance, Eric Barry, Kathleen Reveille, and Nicole Percifield will sing leading roles, and the Warsaw Chamber Opera Sinfonietta, conducted by Łukasz Borowicz, will again perform. Both parts of the concert will be held at the Warsaw Philharmonic's Concert Hall.
On Friday, March 25, David Pershall will sing the baritone solo role in esteemed Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki's St. Luke Passion. The closing concert of the festival, the work will be conducted by Penderecki, and will also feature soloists Johanna Rusanen, Nikolay Didenko, and narrator Jerzy Trela. Three choirs will sing in the piece — the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, Choir of the Karol Szymanowski Philharmonic in Cracow, and the Warsaw Boys Choir — and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra will also perform. For more information on the festival and for the complete schedule, click here.
