First La Scala, now the Met: A year of firsts for Lyric alumna Erin Wall
An amazing season for soprano Erin Wall will continue Monday when the alumna of Lyric Opera of Chicago's Ryan Center for American Artists makes her Metropolitan Opera debut as Donna Anna in Mozart's "Don Giovanni." She will also sing performances on April 16, 20 and 24.
The Canadian-American soprano replaces Barbara Frittoli, who will sing Donna Elvira instead of her originally scheduled role of Donna Anna. Frittoli is replacing Soile Isokoski, who has withdrawn from those four performances due to illness in her family. Louis Langrée will conduct the Met production, featuring Peter Mattei in the title role.
In this season of "firsts," Ms. Wall made her debut at Milan's famed La Scala opera house portraying Helena in Benjamin Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," She also made her debut at Los Angeles Opera as Pamina in Mozart's "The Magic Flute." Her 2008-09 engagements included Konstanze in the Lyric's season-ending new production of Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio."
Wall has previously performed Donna Anna with Lyric Opera, Washington National Opera and Minnesota Opera. Additional Mozart roles at the Lyric have included Fiordiligi in "Cosi fan tutte" in 2006-07, Pamina in 2005-06, along with Marguerite in Charles Gounod's "Faust" in 2003-04. One of her most memorable Lyric moments came on opening night in 2004, when she stepped in for Karita Mattila and gave a critically acclaimed performance as Donna Anna.
Kidz Konzerts next week: Approximately 7,000 area students will gather at the Hemmens Theatre next week to participate in the Elgin Symphony Orchestra's 2009 Kidz Konzerts series. In conjunction with the ESO's Leonard Bernstein American Icon Festival, this student program will pay homage to Bernstein's own pioneering Young People's Concerts. These 50-minute concerts will ask the intriguing question: "What makes music funny?" From cartoons to movies to orchestral masterworks, all kinds of musical humor will be explored. Bernstein's original Young People's Concert on this subject, titled "Humor in Music," was broadcast on CBS television in 1959.
"These concerts are definitely going be fast-moving and fun," said Randal Swiggum, education conductor for the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. "But they won't be lightweight or frivolous. Good musical humor is pretty sophisticated and depends on a certain level of musical understanding to get the 'inside jokes.' This program is intended to get students thinking and listening at a deeper level, and making connections with how music works like language. And if they're tickled with the humor, even better."
The ESO's Kidz Konzerts draw from many school districts and home school groups across northern Illinois, including a large representation by District U-46.
Days and times for these concerts are Tuesday at 9:45 and 11:15 a.m. (Music in the Middle program for Grades 6-8) and Wednesday through Friday at 9:45 and 11:15 a.m. (Kidz Konzerts program for Grades K-5).
For more information about the Kidz Konzerts or the Discover: Bernstein American Icon Festival, call the ESO Box Office at (847) 888-4000 between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
CSO appoints oboist: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has announced the appointment of Lora Schaefer to the position of second oboe. She will officially join the orchestra July 6 at the Ravinia Festival.
Schaefer is leaving her position as principal oboe of the Kansas City Symphony, a post she has held since 1996, and she also is a member of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra in Jackson, Wyo. She has performed with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Houston Ballet and Cleveland Orchestra as well as in the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in Massachusetts and Blossom Music Festival in Ohio.
A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Schaefer began playing the oboe in the third grade and received her formal music education at Interlochen (Mich.) Arts Academy, Cleveland Institute of Music and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston.