Favorite musical highlights from upcoming operas of Seattle Opera's 16/17 season: Verdi's LA TRAVIATA (January 2017), Janáček’s KATYA KABANOVA (Feb/March 2017), Mozart's MAGIC FLUTE (May 2017).

2017 Season Highlights

The Queen of the Night sings one of the most familiar and popular arias ever written for coloratura soprano in Act Two of Mozart’s “Magic Flute.” Furious that her daughter (plus boyfriend) have turned against her, this power-hungry monster does her best to manipulate the princess with fearsome words and music: “The vengeance of hell boils in my heart. Flames of death and despair burn around me! Unless you make Sarastro suffer the pangs of death, you are no longer my daughter. Be cast off forever! Be forsaken forever! Let all bonds of nature be shattered forever—unless you kill Sarastro. Hear, gods of vengeance: hear a mother's vow!” Greek-born soprano Christina Poulitsi makes her Seattle Opera debut in this role, with the Seattle Opera orchestra conducted by Julia Jones. Photo by Philip Newton.

CHRISTINA POULITSI as The Queen of the Night

Mozart’s beloved overture to “The Magic Flute” features a lively fugue subject, brilliantly deployed across the full orchestra. Julia Jones conducts Seattle Opera's 2017 production of this masterwork.

THE MAGIC FLUTE Overture: Main Theme

Papageno, Mozart’s beloved bird-catcher, is a simple guy who tells us over and over again about how much he wants a wife. When he plays his magic bells and sings the charming aria “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen,” in Act Two, his wish ALMOST comes true. At Seattle Opera, John Moore sings Papageno while Philip A. Kelsey plays his bells (on the celeste) in the orchestra conducted by Julia Jones. Photo by Jacob Lucas.

“Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen” from THE MAGIC FLUTE

In Act 3 of “La traviata,” Alfredo comforts the dying Violetta with a fantasy of leaving Paris together, retiring to the country so Violetta can regain her health and their happiness and love can flower once more. At Seattle Opera in 2009, Francesco Demuro sang Alfredo to Eglise Guttierez’s Violetta, with the orchestra conducted by Brian Garman. Photo by Rozarii Lynch.

“Parigi, o cara” from LA TRAVIATA

One of Verdi’s most infectious melodies, the toast from the first act of “La traviata” celebrates the glittering, superficial merriment of the Paris demimonde. Stefano Ranzani conducts Corinne Winters as Violetta, Joshua Dennis as Alfredo, and the chorus and orchestra of Seattle Opera. Photo by Philip Newton.

Violetta's Toast (“Libiamo nei lieti calici”) from LA TRAVIATA

Act Two of KATYA KABANOVA concludes with some of the most tender, romantic music in all Janáček. Kudrjas (Joshua Kohl) summons Boris (Scott Quinn) and Katya back from the riverbank, where they have been making love, then sings a sweet little duet of farewell with his girlfriend Varvara (Maya Lahyani). Oliver von Dohnanyi conducts the orchestra of Seattle Opera. 
Photo by Philip Newton

KATYA KABANOVA: Love Scene Climax

Melody Moore makes her Seattle Opera debut as Janáček’s KATYA KABANOVA. In her Act One aria, this fragile young wife tells her foster-sister-in-law, Varvara (sung here by Maya Lahyani) about her childhood experience of spirituality: “I used to love going to church. I felt as if I were soaring into paradise, seeing no one, hearing no one; I’m not aware of time, or the service ending. Mother used to say all the people would watch me, uncomprehending. You know, on a sunny day, shafts of light stream through the church window and the incense billows like clouds, and I would see angels flying and singing, and fall on my knees and weep, and not know why. That’s how they’d find me. And the dreams I used to dream: golden towering cathedrals, and mountains and forests, and I used to feel as if I were flying high above, hearing voices singing.” Varvara, concerned, asks Katya what is wrong with her. Oliver von Dohnanyi conducts the orchestra of Seattle Opera. 
Photo by Philip Newton

MELODY MOORE as Katya Kabanova

Dana Pundt, a native of southeast Texas, made her Seattle Opera mainstage debut as Clorinda in “La Cenerentola” in January, 2013. She opened the “Viva Verdi!” concert with Violetta’s tour de force Act One of “La traviata.” In its final minutes, she proclaims herself unfit for the true love offered earlier in the scene by the adoring Alfredo: “Madness! I live only for pleasure. I must be forever free, reeling about from joy to joy.” But the tenor’s passionate declaration of love echoes in her mind...

Dana Pundt as Violetta, Theo Lebow as Alfredo; Brian Garman conducts the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program Orchestra. Photo by Bill Mohn.

For an interview with Dana Pundt, go to http://www.seattleoperablog.com/2012/12/meet-our-singers-dana-pundt-clorinda.html. 

"Sempre libera" from LA TRAVIATA

Founded in 1963, Seattle Opera is a leading American opera company. The company presents the classics of the European repertoire as well as new works of American opera. Frequent productions of Wagner's RING, beginning in 1975, established the company's worldwide reputation. Seattle Opera usually presents five opera productions each year.