TIME Magazine Features Opera Twins Christopher and David Alden

"Known for their audacious, pro- vocative takes on masterpieces, identical-twin opera directors Christopher and David Alden have been at the pinnacle of their field for three decades. 'It is strange,' says David, 'to have someone else in the world who looks just like you and does the same thing you do, and often with the same people, but never at the same time.' Or, for that matter, on the same continent Christopher is based in New York City, David in London, and both are in constant demand all over the world. This year, however, both Aldens are taking on high-profile assignments Stateside: Christopher with Don Giovanni for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, David with Un Ballo in Maschera for New York City's Metropolitan Opera House. The brothers grew up in Manhattan, sons of playwright Jerome Alden and ballerina Barbara Gaye, who, while pregnant, danced in the original production of Annie Get Your Gun starring Ethel Merman. 'That probably explains why we became who we are,' Christopher says. 'All of Merman's screaming prepared us to spend our lives around opera singers.' Immersed in theater and classical music from childhood, they were drawn to opera for its combination of the two art forms. By their teens, they were 'fanatical standees' (David's phrase) at the old Metropolitan Opera house." [Source]

OTSL's "Pelléas and Mélisande": No Opium Required

Liam Bonner in Debussy's Masterpiece

"Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, in the persons of stage director David Alden, set designer Paul Steinberg and lighting designer Adam Silverman, made all the right artistic decisions in their very American production of French composer Claude Debussy's only opera, Pelléas and Mélisande. Whether you enjoy it will depend on your reaction to Debussy's very French decision to use as the libretto Symbolist playwright Maurice Maeterlinck's play of the same name....The leads in particular — buttery soprano Corinne Winters (Mélisande),

richly expressive baritones Liam Bonner (Pelléas) and Gregory Dahl (Golaud), and spectacular twelve-year-old (you read that right) soprano Michael Meo — are unflagging in their creativity and musical good sense....Debussy, an inveterate opium smoker, would have loved it." [Source] Watch a multi-media preview of the production by clicking here.