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Lee Hoiby's A Month in the Country in Chicago; After Eden Revived at Richmond Ballet

Sep. 01, 2006

Lee Hoiby's A Month in the Country bows in Chicago this month at OperaModa and his ballet After Eden, with choreography by John Butler, is revived by Richmond Ballet for a 2006-07 season tour.

Founded by singers to produce and promote American opera and provide performance opportunities to young artists, OperaModa is run by Genevieve Thiers and Mary Lutz, both of whom will perform in Hoiby's A Month in the Country in performances running September 29 through October 1 at Chicago's Patricia G. Nolan Center For The Arts. Ms. Lutz, who sings the role of Natalia Petrovna, comments:

"Natalia is easily one of the best-written 20th/21st century soprano roles out there. After “living” with the opera for a few months, I discovered the depth of its drama, practically Mozartean in its scope and implementation, with truly human characters who retain their ambiguity and complexities despite their having been adapted from a five-hour Russian play. I am amazed at how beautifully the music supports the drama, and the drama the music. Each rehearsal uncovers new “Aha!” moments in the interplay between the romantically lush music and the psychologically complex plot."

Based on the play by Ivan Turgenev, Hoiby's A Month in the Country weaves a tale of a young tutor, an aristocrat, his wife and her lover on a country estate in mid19th century Russia. The opera, originally known as Natalia Petrovna, had its premiere in 1964 at the New York City Opera. Hailed by critics and audiences alike, its closing octet was called a work "of overwhelming beauty, a supreme moment in opera comparable to the Meistersinger quintet and the Rosenkavalier trio." Anne Midgette writing in The New York Times following a new production by the Manhattan School of Music in December 2004 remarked on the "opera's psychological insight and grateful vocal writing, both equally rare." She continued saying, "This whole evening was a reminder that there are, contrary to conventional wisdom, good operas being writthen in our time."

OperaModa's production is directed by Michael La Tour, a past director for Lyric Opera of Chicago's apprentice program, and is conducted by music director Anna Binneweg.

Richmond Ballet revives Lee Hoiby's After Eden, with choreography by John Butler, this season as part of their touring repertory. Performances begin at Elon University in North Carolina on September 13 in Charlottesville, VA on Sept. 19 and additional venues and locations to be announced throughout the 2006-07 season. After Eden was a commission from the Harkness Ballet and features choreography, for two dancers, by John Butler. A prolific and popular choreographer, John Butler (19181993) created works for an extraordinary range of ballet and modern dance companies thoughout the United States and Europe and for such dancers as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Natalia Makarova, Carla Fracci and Judith Jamison. Hoiby's score is a rich and dramatic depiction of the story of Adam and Eve matching Butler's keen sense of kinetics and theatricality. Productions of After Eden have been mounted by Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, Australian Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, La Scala Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Netherlands Dans Theater, Pennsylvania Ballet and The Royal Ballet of Flanders, among many others.

Finally, September 17 sees an all-Hoiby program at the University of Wisconsin, part of their centennial celebrations honoring the great pianist Gunnar Johansen with whom Hoiby studied. Among the Hoiby works featured are the piano quartet Dark Rosaleen and several songs including The Darkling Thrush, Private First Class Jesse Givens: Last Letter Home, and The Shining Place (Five Poems of Emily Dickinson), among others, with the composer himself at the piano.

For more information on Lee Hoiby, please visit www.schott-music.com. More about OperaModa can be found www.operamoda.com. More about Richmond Ballet can be found at www.richmondballet.com.

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