Carnevale time!

Just learned about the new Executive Pastry Chef Aaron Stordeur at the Seelbach Hilton who will be constructing fabulous yummies for the patrons of the Opera's main black-tie fundraiser, Carnevale on January 17. I hear there is an interesting story about this guy. I will investigate and get the scoop for you, our faithful blog readers, first!
Here's a video of him in an egg separation battle...

A review from an opera fan

Dearest Opera Lovers,

When the Kentucky Opera 2008-2009 season was announced, a good friend of mine told me that if anyone missed the opportunity to attend one of the performances of Massenet’s Werther (and I quote) “you might as well go hang yourself.” Although I laughed wholeheartedly at his remark, I never thought that his prediction would be so prophetic. Indeed one needs to mourn and subsequently head for the gallows if by any chance he or she missed the opportunity to attend. Werther was by far the best offering this season has exhibited.

It would be futile on my part to try and explain through mortal words this sensational presentation by Kentucky Opera. I was fortunate to attend both performances; thus, I will simply touch upon specific key points. A big bravo to maestro Mechavich for his brilliant interpretation of Massenet’s score; it was touching, alive and without exaggeration. Mr. Kaplan’s costumes were exceptional as always. The direction under Ms. McIntyre created an absolutely dream-like atmosphere (especially with the phenomenal lighting). Ms. McIntyre completely “got it” as far as the heart of this French opera is concerned. Forget about the grandeur of Italian opera and the bombastic “over the head” pounding of German opera. The direction reflected the spirit of the concise, slow unfolding, soft, passionate yet restrained character of French opera which dives into a study of the individual soul and turmoil of the characters and builds slowly but gradually until the end when catharsis is achieved. The ones in attendance only need to bring to mind the bloody letters swirling in the snow, drifting away in the wind denoting the suicide attempt of Werther. Brilliant!! Mrs. Batton and Mr. Sorenson were absolutely breathtaking and exhibited talent which is at the highest level of today’s opera standards. I happen to possess this opera in a three vinyl set with interpretations by renowned Metropolitan Opera stars Jose Carreras and Frederica Von Stade. Mrs. Batton and Mr. Sorenson’s performances have nothing to be jealous of their Metropolitan counterparts. The same holds true for Ms. Vuong who electrified the theater as Sophie as well as the children’s choir which was delightful. Tenors Mr. Angell, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Collins, Mr. Cook and Mr. Sheehan did a wonderful job to complete a very successful performance.

Unfortunately, this is the point where my review takes a different tone…a tone of disappointment for a number of distasteful and out of line comments made by our respected arts critic Mr. Adler. Where should I begin? This time there are too many to mention. I will not spend too much time elaborating on his Werther review calling the tenors “mediocre” because it is obvious by now Mr. Adler and I disagree on our assessment of the talent that these young tenors bring to our Kentucky scene. I would assume it would probably not even interest you because it is simply my artistic opinion versus his. I still believe these young tenors did a magnificent job and they are on their way to fabulous developing careers; thus, I will continue to voice my opinion in opposition to Mr. Adler’s. I do, however, feel great disappointment and deep surprise on his Sunday November the 30th newspaper article (once more my coffee went down the wrong way!!) “3 chances to enrich were missed.” In short, Mr. Adler accused the Ballet, the Orchestra and the Opera of “sins” of omission; failing to inform the public about the works they are presenting!!! WHAT!?!? WHAT!?!? It is obvious that our respected critic has forgotten to do one thing that critics need to do before they critique…their homework!! Since I am writing about the Opera, I will just mention all the venues the Kentucky Opera company offers for public education concerning their works. Well in advance (15 to 20 days) before each performance the Kentucky Opera embarks upon a collective effort to educate its public on its prospective offerings. For starters, the “Lunch and Listen” program is an initial introduction to the upcoming performance offering music as well as a synopsis of the work. “Sights and Sounds” at the Speed Museum comes in second to continue and build upon where the “Lunch and Listen” left off. In between, at least one party follows where patrons and friends of the Opera can attend and continue their educational experience. And if your schedule was busy and all this was missed, an hour before the performance you can attend for free the “Opera Preview” and receive a crash course on the synopsis of the opera, the music, the composer, the libretto etc., etc., etc…(which the Louisville Orchestra does as well. Maestro Mester should be outraged…) plus let’s not forget the radio interviews and the Metro TV appearances in between. Should I even continue? I am already out of breath and overeducated thinking about these opportunities that I have relished the past three months. If we lived in centuries past, I would have firmly taken my glove off, engaged Mr. Adler’s cheek and invited him to a duel to bring this issue to an end once and for all. Since this is not a possibility, I will continue to express my frustration because being an arts critic means being first and foremost informed. Maybe a phone call to the Kentucky Opera or the Louisville Orchestra before the writing of this review would have helped. Bottom line: Mr. Adler, if your intention is to enlighten the public with your critical opinion, please come to the Opera at least an hour in advance, not a minute before the performance begins!!!

Christos “The Wagnerian” Dimitriadis

Edited with the help of Miss S.

Mayor Cuts Arts Funding in Half

Mayor cuts City budget, arts funding cut in half!

David Roth's statement:

While we are shocked at the severity of the cutback in this fiscal year from Metro Louisville, we at Kentucky Opera have anticipated this inevitable drop in external funding from Metro Louisville and possibly the Kentucky Arts Council since each started to announce a month ago their estimated revenue shortfalls from the current economic slowdown. We, like other businesses, must prepare to weather this economic storm with noticeable changes in staffing and programming for this year and the next. Because we have in recent seasons developed a very lean business model, any further changes will require structural changes to programming on our subscription series and our educational outreach.

We are thankful that Brown-Forman has already confirmed their season sponsorship for our Fall 2009 season.

We encourage all Kentucky Opera patrons, subscribers and even single ticket buyers to participate in the Subscriber Appreciation Receptions so we can get your feed back on this and other issues facing your opera company.

Please call us 502.584.4500 and let us know when you would like to attend (dates and times below). There are two morning breakfast opportunities, two afternoon lunch opportunities and two after work opportunities. The receptions will take place at ArtSpace located at 323 West Broadway.

Wednesday, December 10 at 9:30 am

Thursday, December 11 at 9:30 am

Tuesday, January 6 at 12:30 or 6pm

Monday January 12 at 12:30 or 6pm

Giving Thanks for Werther

It seems as though just yesterday we were having a fun romp with Don Quixote in the Brown Theatre. Amid the holiday festivities, Kentucky Opera will present Werther at the Kentucky Center. It's not the candy, it's pronounced Vair- tair.

Our photographer J.David Levy slipped me a few images from the piano dress rehearsal on Sunday, just to share with our blog readers.


Garrett Sorenson sings the role of our tragic hero, Werther. A poet so in love with Charlotte, that all he can do is compose poems for her beauty and grace. Sorenson has an easy task with this as the object of his affection on stage is his wife in real life, Elizabeth Batton. The couple will be on WHAS 11 in the noon hour on Wednesday, November 26. Be sure to tune in.


If you just can't wait until Wednesday, listen to a podcast interview on Classical 90.5 between the couple and Scott Dowd.

Be aware that it doesn't end well for our romantic poet. He does himself in, and we at Kentucky Opera are in no way condoning the violence of suicide.


Tickets are available by calling 502.584.7777 or by clicking here.

A review from an opera fan

Photo courtesy of Beth Olliges (the donkey)

Dearest Opera Fans,

As a citizen who appreciates the arts and strives hard to be able to attend most of these oases of culture in our otherwise busy, difficult and unrefined lives I am most grateful when a nice “bonus”, a graceful “thank you” to the Opera Fan comes along. This is precisely the reason I was so appreciative of the Kentucky Opera’s performance of the Baroque Opera Showcase. The reason for this event was for Louisville to celebrate and showcase (thus the name) our studio artists as well as some of our local musical talent while offering a “bonus” performance to the opera lovers of this town. Since we cannot provide the same strength in numbers like major Metropolitan areas namely Chicago, New York or San Francisco our opera is pretty impressive in its repertoire and its ability to provide such a full and refined season offering for its audience.

This past weekend’s performance did exactly that. Fresh, light hearted and delightfully done the evening opened itself to a wonderful discovery of new territory for this town both musically and artistically. The Showcase was structured not around Handel or Gluck, giants of the Baroque era, but around Georg Philipp Telemann which was a plus (since unless you are a vivid classical music listener you probably have not heard much of the music of Telemann). Thus, the discovery begun!!! I can continue on and on, describing the performance but you can read all about the details in the Courier Journal Arts section, where you will find Mr. Andrew Adler’s review. But I caution you not to take every word in Mr. Adler’s review literally. Although, I will forever fight for his right to be the arts critic of this town and express his free opinion, I will also forever fight for my right (and yours) to emphatically disagree with him. I believe Mr. Adler missed the point of this performance as a “showcase”, a “bonus” to the opera lover as well as a discovery trip to the territory of Telemann and our local talent. Of course an organization like the Kentucky Opera will try to be cautious with its finances in order to remain viable and continue to offer quality programming to its audience; without, however, compromising its integrity and artistic ability as Mr. Adler has eluded to.

As far as “quality” goes, Mr. Nathan Stark stood out as the experienced professional but our studio artists did a wonderful job complementing his style and the pieces selected were tastefully done. Additionally, in the second part of the program the performances were crisp, simple yet well orchestrated, solid but with imagination, humor and well done arias. I can only state humbly that Mr. Adler’s opinion of Mr. Angell Connor’s performances for both Pirates of Penzance as well as the Showcase were harsh, definitely unfair and not in line with popular opinion who seems to be enjoying his performances this season. The rest of the cast as well as the ensemble provided a nice background and a solid groundbreaking experiment if you would like, from which Kentucky Opera will learn and expand to bigger and better things.

The Showcase succeeded in offering the audience a light hearted performance, a nice experiment in different Opera forms and a showcase of our local talent. If Mr. Adler feels the quality of the Showcase was not up to standard he should target his next review on the monstrosity being built downtown. Maybe more support would be offered to help the Kentucky Opera, the orchestra or the ballet if it was not wasted on yet another venue for 18 year old kids to bounce a ball around. Maybe Werther will satisfy Mr. Adler for a positive next review since I am tired of having my Sunday coffee go down the wrong way!!!

Christos “The Wagnerian” Dimitriadis

So much going on!

Kentucky Opera celebrated the Patron's Party last night at Steve Van Hooser & Wayne Jenkins' last night. What a great time. The studio artists performed a choral piece from the Baroque Showcase that will open on Friday 11/14 and the Werther cast showed off their vocal prowess with arias and ensembles from the Massenet piece slated to open on 11/28. This is the first time in my history with the company that we had overlapping rehearsals. It's kind of exciting.

Yesterday, we had a nice article in the Courier Journal featuring the Studio Artists and the Showcase of Baroque Opera. the story was accompanied by a terrific photo of the "kids" as we call them, clockwise from front, Juliana Moura, Benjamin Robinson, Conor Angell, Heather Phillips, Natalie Krupansky and Courtney McKeown. The coach/accompanist Naoko Suga is not pictured.

Rehearsals for the Baroque piece have been in the 2nd floor lobby of ArtSpace. If I can locate the camera, I will go and capture the moment.

Today, Andrew Adler spent some time with out two leads in Werther, Elizabeth Batton and Garrett Sorenson at their home here in Louisville. The couple just moved here from New York with their 10 month old son Jonah, and are very excited about working from home for this production. They were extremely generous with their story and their home, making astute connections between the love story in Werther and their own adoration of one another. It should be a unique angle we rarely get in a preview. We are expecting that article on November 23, hopefully we will get the top of the fold with the charming family photos.

Angels, Pirates and on to the next!

Pirates closed today. We had two student matinees for title one schools sponsored by a group of ANGELS: Brook and Matthew Barzun, Augusta and Gill Holland, and Owsley and Victoire Brown. These six individuals made it possible for hundreds of students to experience live opera - we thank them!! Both performances were pretty much full and the audences seemed to enjoy the performances.

Now the Studio Artists must dive right into Teleman (Brown Theatre November 14 & 15). The Baroque Opera pieces won't be easy for them to learn because there are no translations of the arias in the first half of the show. I have been told (though yet to hear) that the selections are beautiful, and with the period instruments the event should be very cool. Rehearsals are at Austin Clark's home in the mornings, and I hope to get over there some time for a photo and a listen.