The Collegiate Chorale Presents a Concert Production of Gluck's Alceste featuring Soprano Deborah Voigt and the New York City Opera Orchestra
May 26 at 8pm at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater
New York, N.Y. – On May 26, 2009 at 8:00 PM at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, The Collegiate Chorale will conclude its 67th season with a concert production of Gluck’s Alceste featuring soprano Deborah Voigt and The New York City Opera Orchestra. Ms. Voigt makes her first career appearance in Alceste as she assumes the title role opposite tenor Vinson Cole, who sings the part of King Admète. Baritones Richard Zeller, Ryan Kinsella and Kyungmook Yum complete the cast of this one-night-only Opera in Concert conducted by New York City Opera Music Director George Manahan. Gluck’s Alceste is based upon the play Alcestis by Euripides. Set in ancient Thessaly, this moving tale of steadfast love and sacrifice recounts the internal struggle of Alceste, Queen of Pherae, who is told by the Oracle that the only way her mortally ill husband can survive is if she sacrifices her own life in exchange for his. When the King’s inquiry about his miraculous healing leads to the discovery of his wife’s ultimate act of love, he pleads to the gods in hopes that they will spare his wife. His pleas and her martyrdom are so stirring that the gods show a change of heart, and Alceste is permitted to live. The second of Gluck’s so-called “reform operas” (preceded by Orfeo ed Euridice), Alceste was originally written in Italian when it first premiered in Vienna in 1767, but was followed by a heavily revised version with a French libretto in 1776. In adapting Alceste from Italian for the French premiere, Gluck reorganized the piece dramatically, adding new music, and altering much else, essentially creating a new - and ultimately more successful - opera. The Collegiate Chorale will present the 1776 French revision in a concert that marks the first New York performance of Gluck’s Alceste since 1982.
For tickets, call 646-792-2373 or 212-721-6500.