Week 5: Blow-out Cast!

In previous letters I have mentioned the international reputations of Maestro Venzago, who will conduct, and stage director Joachim Schamberger, who has created an exciting virtual set. Our cast in the three largest roles are equally well known as Wagnerian singers.

What do I mean by a Wagnerian singer? To begin with, the size of Wagner’s orchestra is much larger than that of many other operatic styles. Add to that the density of his orchestration and you need voices that not only are loud enough to project, but also vocally focused. And I should add that Wagner requires stamina.

Let’s take a look at the qualifications of our cast:

Greer Grimsley

Greer Grimsley (bass-baritone: Wotan) – Making is IO debut. Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Royal Danish Opera, Saint Louis Symphony, Portland Opera, New Orleans Opera, San Diego Opera, Montreal Opera, the Deutsch Op Berlin and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.

Elizabeth Byrne

Elizabeth Byrne (soprano: Fricka) has both performed and covered at the Metropolitan Opera. Other US performances have included the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera, Portland Opera, Arizona Opera and Austin Lyric Opera. She also has performed with the Glimmerglass Opera, Staatstheater Stuttgart and the Scottish Opera, the latter earning her a Royal Philharmonic Society Award Nomination.

Richard Paul Fink

Richard Paul Fink  (baritone: Alberich) is making is IO debut and recently peformed Kurwenal, Tristan und Isolde, Metropolitan Opera; Alberich, Lohengrin, San Francisco Opera; Amonasro, Aida, Seattle Opera; Water Sprite, Rusalka, Canadian Opera Company; Alberich, Der Ring des Grand Opera; Alberich, Lohengrin, Casals Festival; Rigoletto, Rigoletto, Lyric Opera of Kansas City.

Greer Grimsley is hugely popular for Wagner productions, and Indianapolis is very lucky that he had time in his schedule to perform here. As an added bonus, Greer has agreed to participate in a symposium for ticketholders that will take place Saturday, May 16, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Other participants include conductor Mario Venzago and designer/director Joachim Schamberger in a lively discussion moderated by Michael Sells of Butler University.  They will explore Wagner’s “Das Rheingold” and “The Ring Cycle” with the creative team behind it.  Hear how to interpret Wagner without sets and costumes from the perspective of the conductor, the singer, and the designer. This symposium is free and reservations are not required. It will take place at the Hilbert Circle Theatre Wood Room, 45 Monument Circle, Indianapolis.

We were fortunate to have Elizabeth Byrne earlier this season portraying the Mother and the Witch in “Hansel and Gretel.” When she heard we were mounting “Das Rheingold” she expressed keen interest in being cast, since it was the only opera in Wagner’s Ring Cycle missing from her repertoire. Similarly, Richard Paul Fink is well-known as a Wagnerian and is excited to be Indianapolis for this one-of-a-kind production of the famed opera.

Dynamic staging, first rate cast and dynamic artistic collaboration will make for a memorable Indianapolis debut of “Das Rheingold”! See you there!

Jim

Buy Your Tickets NOW! 50% Discount Special Offer!

Rheingold goes Multimedia

As we have discussed earlier, the upcoming production of “Das Rheingold” will feature the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra on the stage and the singers staged on a rising and lowering pit. This staging precludes a standard opera set. So our talented young director set about designing how forms and images could be used to create a “virtual set.”

One of Joachim's images that will be used as part of the "virtual set" of Das Rheingold.

German stage director Joachim Schamberger has put together some very creative ideas! First a “megalithic” set piece will be present in the pit, symbolic of mountains, castles, underwater formations, and other images that are already deep in your imagination. The epic visual aspects of the production also will include “virtual” set pieces that will frame the stage and feature frequently changing digital images representative of the story and the power of the Rhine.  In a standard staging, you have giants who are not that much larger than other characters. Think what virtual images can do for giants!

You probably have noticed the otherworldly Rheingold illustration here on our web page. This is one of Joachim’s images and it is among the digital imagery that will be projected on the Rheingold stage. That one individual can be such an excellent director of “standard” operatic staging and also so talented at creating virtual sets is most impressive. I think Wagner himself would be impressed.

And, I believe, this kind of talent illustrates the future direction of opera and theater.

Next time a preview of some of the internationally recognized Wagnerian singers that our collaborative production has attracted to Indianapolis!

 Jim

BUY YOUR RHEINGOLD TICKETS NOW!