Kevin Puts Gives Cinematic Scope To New Opera In Minnesota

Cast Your Votes: Composer Kevin Puts

"Like the kid who won baseball’s Triple Crown in his rookie season, Kevin Puts returns to Minnesota Opera with the eyes and ears of the music world upon him. His first opera, Silent Night, won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for music, and his sophomore attempt, The Manchurian Candidate, launches its world premiere at Ordway Center on Saturday. He has again teamed with librettist Mark Campbell, and early listens in workshops and rehearsals justify an optimism and curiosity about this new work. Dale Johnson, the opera’s artistic director, told a gathering of cast, designers and staff that he believed that The Manchurian Candidate is 'the best thing we’ve ever done.' Kevin Newbury, who is directing the staging, added that he believed that Minnesota Opera was 'looking toward the future' with this new piece. 'Our goal is for audiences to say, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that,’' Newbury said. And Tomer Zvulun, director of the Atlanta Opera, upped the ante in a recent conversation about Puts. 'He is the composer of our generation,' said Zvulun, who directed the European premiere of Silent Night at the Wexford Festival. 'He understands with a witty partner in crime [Campbell] that we live in a generation that expects strong, fast stories.' No wonder Puts, a modest and polite gentleman, admits in understatement, 'There is a lot more pressure and expectation now.' The composer of his generation still has to work for a living. He was just finishing two long days of

Ex-opera CEO Kevin Smith Will Temporarily Lead Minnesota Orchestra

Minnesota Non-Profit Hero: Kevin Smith

"Kevin Smith, who retired as CEO of Minnesota Opera in 2011, is becoming interim chief executive at the Minnesota Orchestra. The Star Tribune reports on the appointment, which will take effect in July as current Minnesota Orchestra CEO Michael Henson steps down. Henson exited after the end of the orchestra's long-running labor dispute. Smith led the Minnesota Opera for 24 years, a period of strong growth for the nonprofit. A search for a permanent replacement is expected to take up to six months; Smith isn't expected to be a permanent replacement." [Source]

Barrie Kosky Magic Flute Makes Big Splash At LA Opera

"A celebration of true love conquering all, The Magic Flute transports us into an enchanted world where good faces the forces of darkness. Under the masterful baton of James Conlon, LA Opera presents the U.S. Production Premiere of a highly inventive staging that originated at the Komische Oper Berlin, created by director Barrie Kosky in combination with the British theater group '1927,' whose humorous shows have thrilled audiences all over the world with their interaction between film animation and live-performing actors: 'A perfect mixture of all the things worth loving: silent films, the cabaret of the Weimar Republic, David Lynch, and the brothers Grimm (The Guardian, UK).' Packed with exquisite singing and stage wizardry, Mozart's delightful blend of high comedy and serious drama enchants young and old alike." This is a co-production with Minnesota Opera, where it will be performed in April. Read the New York Times review by clicking here and check out a large photo gallery of the production here. The complete LA Opera cast list is after the jump.

Minnesota Opera Names New President and General Manager

"The Minnesota Opera today made it official and named interim leader Kevin Ramach (right) the company's new president and general manager. Ramach took the reins at the Opera earlier this year after the abrupt departure of Allan Naplan who resigned in March for personal reasons. Naming Ramach to the job gives the organization a little more certainty as it enters its important 50th anniversary season ion the fall. When asked how he feels about taking on the new permanent job at a time of a rocky economy, he said he's already enjoyed the support of the creative team at the Opera, and knows from experience about the enthusiasm of the Minnesota Opera audience. 'I am more excited actually than nervous,' he said. 'I think there will be tough days and those things we will just get through if we all work together.'" [Source]

Composer Kevin Puts Will Debut His First Opera in Minnesota

Composer Kevin Puts
(Photo: Gregory Downer/Opera News)

"When Dale Johnson, artistic director of Minnesota Opera, saw Joyeux Noël, Christian Carion's 2005 film inspired by this true story, he immediately sensed in it the makings of a powerful opera. 'I was so moved by it. The singing of 'Silent Night,' the image of Sprink carrying the Christmas tree, the three lieutenants' struggle with the orders from their commanders [to resume fighting], their struggle with themselves as human beings.... Here are these young guys stuck in this horrible situation. How are they going to deal with it?' Joyeux Noël focuses on the lieutenants, the priest and the German singer and his love interest, all of whose lives are irrevocably changed by the unofficial truce. 'It felt like a very classical opera plot. They're all trying to live their lives, and there's this huge story going on around them that they can't control, and that they're being buffeted by.' The film has many potent visual images, and Johnson felt music could be used to create equivalent effects. So he knew he wanted a composer who was 'a really strong orchestral writer.' Johnson wanted a fresh voice and contacted music publisher Bill Holab to ask, ''Who's interesting? Who's got a real point of view?' And Bill sent me Kevin Puts, plus several other extraordinary young people. I was listening to Kevin's Second Symphony, and I started crying — it was so beautiful. The next day I told [Minnesota Opera's then President and CEO] Kevin Smith, 'I think I have the guy for Joyeux Noël.' He listened and agreed.' However, though Puts (Puts as in

Conductor Michael Christie
(Photo: Krista Campbell)

'Johnson puts his money where his mouth is') had written a great deal of extraordinary orchestral work, including four symphonies and numerous concertos, he had never written an opera. In fact, the composer, who is thirty-nine, had written only one piece of vocal music — Einstein on Mercer Street, a work for baritone and chamber ensemble. Still, Johnson believed in him. 'I knew he had it in him. I knew he knew how to create tension and develop a piece of music — really develop it to a climax and finish it — and that's a rare commodity.' So, like that German singer on the battlefield, Johnson took a leap of faith and offered Puts the commission." [Source] Read the whole story, including a funny anecdote about troubleshooting a bagpipe during composition, at Opera News. The Minnesota Opera will perform Silent Night on November 12, 15, 17, 19 and 20, 2011. The cast includes William Burden, Joseph Beutel, Liam Bonner, Troy Cook, Ben Wager and Karin Wolverton. Michael Christie will conduct. A full biography for composer Kevin Puts is after the jump. For more information about the opera, click here.

OPERATIC OVERTONES
One of the reasons the Dale Johnson may have felt the film was worthy of becoming an opera, was the fact that the soundtrack heavily featured soprano Natalie Dessay and tenor Rolando Villazón. Listen to clips from the film to hear the extraordinary use of music to touch the hearts of so many film goers. A trailer of the film follows.

Minnesota Opera Presents Elizabeth Futral as Verdi's Violetta

Act 2, Scene 2 (Photo: Michal Daniel)

"With soprano Elizabeth Futral as Violetta, tenor Bruno Ribeiro as Alfredo, and baritone Stephen Powell as Alfredo’s disapproving father, Giorgio Germont, La traviata offers a trio of astonishing performances. (Note: the roles of Violetta and Alfredo will be played on alternating nights by, respectfully, Georgia Jarman and Daniel Montenegro.) Futral is resplendent in the lead, voicing Violetta’s inner conflict with heartrending arias that soar to resoundingly poignant heights. Distinguished by a dazzling vibrato, spectacularly displayed in Act I’s show-stopping climax, Futral is an absolute revelation. Likewise, Ribeiro (so memorable in last season’s Roberto Devereux) allows vulnerability to color his expressive tenor. And rounding out the three, Powell’s sumptuous baritone establishes resolve, but without sacrificing the underlying sympathy of his character." [Source]