Juilliard Opera Presents Handel's "Ariodante" on November 11, 13, and 15 in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater

Directed by Stephen Wadsworth With Singers from Juilliard's Vocal Arts Program; Gary Thor Wedow Conducts the Juilliard Orchestra

Juilliard Opera presents George Frideric Handel's Ariodante on Wednesday, November 11 and Friday, November 13 at 8 PM with a Sunday matinee on November 15 at 2 PM in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater (155 West 65^th Street). The production features singers from the Juilliard's Vocal Arts program. Stephen Wadsworth directs the production and Juilliard conductor Gary Thor Wedow leads the Juilliard Orchestra. Set design is by Derek McLane; costume design is by Ann Hould-Ward; and lighting design is by David Lander.

Tickets to Ariodante are $20 and available at the Janet and Leonard Kramer Box Office located in the lobby of Juilliard at 155 West 65^th Street. Half-price tickets for students and seniors are available only at the Box Office; TDF is accepted. Box Office hours are Monday through Friday from 11 AM to 6 PM. For further information, call (212) 769-7406 or go to www.juilliard.edu.

In Handel's Ariodante, a Scottish prince is betrayed by a deceitful duke in a tale of passion, envy, greed, despair and triumph. The libretto for the opera is adapted from Antonio Salvi's Ginevra, Principessa di Scozia. The cast features: Cecelia Hall as Ariodante; Tharanga Goonetilleke as Ginevra; Haeran Hong as Dalinda; Anthony Roth Costanzo as Polinesso; Nicholas Coppolo as Lurcanio; Shenyang as Re, King of Scotland; and Javier Ernesto Bernardo as Odoardo.

Director Stephen Wadsworth is the James S. Marcus Faculty Fellow at Juilliard and director of the Juilliard's Artist Diploma in Opera Studies program. He also is head of dramatic studies at the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artists Development Program. He has directed productions for the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera Convent Garden, Vienna Staatsoper, Nederlandse Opera, Edinburgh Festival, and in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Santa Fe. He made his Seattle Opera debut in 1985 with Janácěk's Jenůfa; other Seattle Opera credits include Gluck's Iphigenia in Tauris and Orphée et Eurydice, Handel's Xerxes, and Wagner's Lohengrin, Fliegende Holländer, and the 2009 Ring. Mr. Wadsworth conducted Agamemnon with Tyne Daly and Delroy Lindo in September 2008 at the Getty Villa in Los Angeles, and his productions of plays by Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Molière, Marivaux, Goldoni, Shaw, Wilde, and Coward, a number of which have played at Seattle Repertory Theatre (where he was an affiliate artist from 1998 to 2004), have established him as a master of the classical repertoire. He wrote the opera, A Quiet Place, with Leonard Bernstein, and served as dramaturg and director for the world premieres of Daron Aric Hagen's Shining Brow and Peter Lieberson's Ashoka's Dream. Mr. Wadsworth has translated and adapted a number of works for the stage, including operas by Monteverdi, Handel, and Mozart, and plays by Molière, Marivaux, and Goldoni. He was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his literary achievement as a writer and scholar on works of Molière and Marivaux.

Conductor and Juilliard faculty member Gary Thor Wedow has established an enviable reputation with opera companies, festivals, and choral organizations throughout North America. This season he returns to the New York City Opera for the company's first new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni since 2002. Additional upcoming engagements include The Messiah with the Seattle Symphony, Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Florida Grand Opera and Le nozze di Figaro for Pittsburgh Opera. Mr. Wedow is a faculty member at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.

About Juilliard Vocal Arts

One of America's most prestigious programs for educating singers, The Juilliard School's Department of Vocal Arts offers young artists programs tailored to their talents and needs. From bachelor and master of music degrees to advanced artist diploma programs in voice and opera studies, Juilliard provides frequent performance opportunities, featuring singers in its own recital halls, on Lincoln Center's stages, and around New York City. Juilliard Opera has presented numerous premieres of new operas as well as works from the standard repertoire.

Juilliard graduates may be heard in opera houses and concert halls throughout the world; diverse alumni artists include well-known performers such as John Aler, Sasha Cooke, Faith Esham, Simon Estes, Renée Fleming, Anthony Dean Griffey, Barbara Hendricks, Hei-Kyung Hong, Gwendolyn Killebrew, Michael Maniaci, Susanne Mentzer, Leona Mitchell, Leontyne Price, Florence Quivar, Neil Rosenshein, Risë Stevens, Tatiana Troyanos, Shirley Verrett, Veronica Villarroel, and Robert White, among others.

In February 2008, the Metropolitan Opera and Juilliard announced a collaborative initiative to identify and train the finest young opera singers and accompanists, preparing them for careers in the world's great opera houses. This collaboration was announced by Peter Gelb, the Met's General Manager, and Joseph W. Polisi, President of Juilliard. Met Music Director James Levine will serve as the program's Artistic Director, and Brian Zeger, Artistic Director of Juilliard Vocal Arts, will serve as Executive Director. The program will begin with the 2010-2011 season and will include a joint production conducted by Maestro James Levine in the 2010-2011 season.

These performances are part of Juilliard Opera, a program dedicated to the education and training of future generations of singers at Juilliard. Juilliard Opera is supported by the vision and generous lead funding of the International Foundation for Arts and Culture and its Chairman, Dr. Haruhisa Handa.

These performances are also supported in part by generous grants from the E.H.A. Foundation and the
Muriel Gluck Production Fund.

FOR LISTINGS:

ARIODANTE

Music by: George Frideric Handel

Featuring singers from Juilliard's Vocal Arts Program and the Juilliard Orchestra

Wednesday, November 11 and Friday, November 13 at 8 PM, Sunday, November 15 at 2 PM

Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 155 West 65^th Street

Director: Stephen Wadsworth

Conductor: Gary Thor Wedow

Set Designer: Derek McLane

Costume Designer: Ann Hould-Ward

Lighting Designer: David Lander

Cast:

Ariodante: Cecelia Hall

Ginevra: Tharanga Goonetilleke

Dalinda: Haeran Hong

Polinesso: Anthony Roth Costanzo

Lurcanio: Nicholas Coppolo

Re, King of Scotland: Shenyang

Odoardo: Javier Ernesto Bernardo