British conductor Edward Gardner, music director of the English National Opera, has withdrawn from his debut engagement at Lyric Opera of Chicago, general director William Mason announced today. Gardner withdrew because his first child is due in late February.
Gardner was to have conducted 11 performances of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro Feb. 28 through Mar. 27, 2010. Lyric’s revival production closes the company’s eight-opera season.
Mason announced that Lyric’s music director, Sir Andrew Davis, will conduct the Figaro opening-night performance on Feb. 28 and the March 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 20 performances. Italian conductor Leonardo Vordoni will make his Lyric Opera debut leading performances on March 15, 22, 24, and 27.
Sir Andrew Davis has served as Lyric’s music director since 2000. This season he conducted the first six performances of Tosca, which opened the company’s 55th season in late September through mid-October, and is leading all ten performances of Faust, Oct. 5-Nov. 7. He will also conduct all seven performances of a new production of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust Feb. 20-Mar. 17, a company premiere and the first work of Berlioz ever presented at Lyric.
Also this season, Davis will be seen on the podium with the Montreal Symphony, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Additionally he returns to the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Davis is the conductor laureate of the Toronto Symphony (having previously served as the principal conductor), the conductor Laureate of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (having served as the second-longest-running chief conductor since its founder, Sir Adrian Boult) and the former music director of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
With the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Davis has led concerts at the London Proms and on tour to Hong Kong, Japan, the U.S., and Europe. He has conducted all of the major orchestras of the world from the Chicago Symphony to the Berlin Philharmonic to the Royal Concertgebouw, and at opera houses throughout the world including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, and the Bayreuth Festival.
A native of Hertfordshire, England, Maestro Davis studied at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was an organ scholar before taking up the baton. His diverse repertoire ranges from baroque to contemporary. A prolific recording artist, Davis has recorded for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Warner Classics International, Capriccio, EMI and CBS, performances. In 2008, Sir Andrew released Elgar’s Violin Concertos featuring violinist James Ehnes and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra on the Onyx Classics label, which won Gramophone’s coveted “Best of Category – Concerto” award….Releases in 2007 include Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with violinist Min-Jyn Kim and Philharmonia Orchestra on the Sony label; a solo recital of operatic favorites sung by soprano Nicole Cabell with Philharmonic Orchestra on the Decca label, which in May won the Solti Prize from the French Académie du Disque Lyrique; Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with pianist Yundi Li and the London Philharmonia Orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon.
In 1992, Maestro Davis was created a Commander of the British Empire for his services to British Music, and in 1999 he was made a Knight Bachelor in the New Year Honours List. In 1991, he received the highly prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society/Charles Heidsieck Music Award.
Leonardo Vordoni opened the current season with the Minnesota Opera (debut) in a well-praised new production of The Pearl Fishers: “Under conductor Leonardo Vordoni, both orchestra and chorus resounded grandly…[he] dependably found the gentle pulse of Bizet’s music and, in an evening largely about color, mixed the composer’s sonic pigments with a sure hand.” (Minneapolis Star-Tribune) He also conducts Dominick Argento’s Cassanova’s Homecoming in November at Minnesota Opera. In February he will debut at Opera Colorado with The Barber of Seville (in a production he’ll lead at Houston Grand Opera in late 2011) before arriving in Chicago for The Marriage of Figaro. Following his Lyric Opera debut he proceeds to Chicago Opera Theater for Rossini’s Moses in Egypt in April.
In the summer of 2008 Vordoni debuted (in concert) at the internationally renowned Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. Other conducting debuts in recent seasons include Carlo Pedrotti’s Tutti in Maschera with Wexford Opera, Madama Butterfly with Madison Opera, and La Cenerentola with Orlando Opera. Vordoni received considerable critical acclaim for his conducting debut in 2004 at the Teatro Mancinelli in Orvieto (Così fan tutte), and for his return engagement in 2005 for Il matrimonio segreto.
During the 2008-09 season, Vordoni was a member of the music staff at the Metropolitan Opera, where he worked on productions of Macbeth, La traviata, Aida, La clemenza di Tito, La bohème, Un ballo in maschera, Norma, and Madama Butterfly. He was also the cover conductor for L’elisir d’amore. He has collaborated with Edoardo Müller, one of Italy’s most respected operatic conductors, on L’Italiana in Algeri with Seattle Opera, La Cenerentola for Houston Grand Opera, and Il trovatore and The Marriage of Figaro for San Diego Opera.
A native of Trieste, Italy, Vordoni studied piano at the Conservatorio Tartini and composition at the Accademia Musicale in Portogruaro before earning a diploma in opera conducting at Bologna’s Reale Accademia Filarmonica. Recognized for his musicality and interpretation, he has given master classes in Italian repertoire across the United States for young-artist programs including those of the San Francisco, Seattle, and Utah opera companies, and at several universities and conservatories.
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (in Italian with projected English translations) 11 performances beginning at 7:30 p.m., except for matinees at 2:00 p.m.
Feb. 28 (mat.), March 3 (mat.), 6, 9, 12 (mat.), 15, 18 (mat.), 20, 22, 24, 27
“La folle journée” (“The Crazy Day”) was the subtitle of Beaumarchais’ comedy on which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart based his opera, one of the greatest creations in the entire repertoire. It centers on a single frantic day in the life of Aguas Frescas, the castle of Count Almaviva (baritone Mariusz Kwiecien). The Count has designs on Susanna (soprano Danielle de Niese), maid of the Countess (soprano Anne Schwanewilms). Susanna is to be married this very day to the count’s valet, Figaro (bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen), which doesn’t stand in the way of the Count’s keeping an assignation with her. But he reckons without Figaro and Susanna who – aided by the Countess – conspire to teach the philandering Count a lesson. Others figuring prominently in the plot are the amorous young page, Cherubino (mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato); an older couple, Dr. Bartolo (bass Andrea Silvestrelli) and Marcellina (mezzo-soprano Diana Montague, debut), who turn out to be Figaro’s parents, to his amazement; Susanna’s devious music master, Basilio (tenor Keith Jameson); and Antonio, the Count’s gardener (baritone Philip Kraus).
The production will be conducted by Sir Andrew Davis (7 performances) and Leonardo Vordoni (debut, 4 performances). The original production is by Sir Peter Hall, and Herbert Kellner is stage director, with sets and costumes by John Bury and lighting by Duane Schuler.
The Dr. and Mrs. Edwin J. DeCosta and the Walter E. Heller Foundation Production. Revival made possible by Mr. & Mrs. Dietrich M. Gross.
Lyric Opera has presented Le nozze di Figaro eight times previously since 1957, most recently during the 2003-04 season. “Mozart’s sublimely human comedy will return in our witty and elegant Sir Peter Hall production,” says Mason. “We’re thrilled by this season’s truly all-star cast, headed by Mariusz Kwiecien, who triumphed as Eugene Onegin here last year; Danielle de Niese, our dazzling Cleopatra last season; Anne Schwanewilms, luminous as Strauss’s Marschallin a few seasons ago; the vibrant young bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen; and of course, Joyce DiDonato, one of the world’s leading mezzo-sopranos – what a marvelous way to end the season!”
