2006-07 Season
Macbeth

Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave
based on the play by William Shakespeare

Friday, October 13 - 8 p.m.
Saturday, October 14 - 8 p.m.
Sunday, October 15 - 2 p.m.
Friday, Ocotber 20 - 8 p.m.
Saturday, October 21 - 8 p.m.
Sunday, October 22 - 2 p.m.
at the Lucie Stern Theatre
1305 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto, CA 94301

FREE Preview with Piano
Thursday, October 5, 2006 - 8:00 p.m.
Palo Alto Art Center
1313 Newell Rd., Palo Alto, CA 94301

Performances last approximately 2 hours and 50 minutes,
including two 15-minute intermissions.
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About Macbeth

World Premiere: Teatro della Pergola, Florence
March 14, 1847
Revised version (in French): Théatre Lyrique
April 21, 1865 
WBO Premiere: February 14, 1975
Pictured: Jason Detwiler as Macbeth


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Creative Team

Pictured: (L to R): Jason Detwiler (Macbeth) and  Kevin Nakatani (Banco)
Sara Jobin - Conductor
Daniel Helfgot - Stage Director
Jean-Francois Revon - Set Designer
Richard Battle - Costume Designer
Chad Bonaker - Lighting Designer
Rande Harris - Makeup & Wig Designer
Joan Sommefield - Props Designer
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Cast

Pictured: Helena Janzén as Lady Macbeth - WBO 2007 - Photo: Otak Jump
Macbeth - Jason Detwiler, Michael Morris (10/14, 20 & 22)
Lady Macbeth - Helena Janzén* Teresa Brown* (10/14, 20 & 22)
Banco - Kevin Nakatani*, John Minagro (10/14, 20 & 22)
Macduff - Adam Flowers*, David Robinson* (10/14, 20 & 22)
Malcolm - Claudio Santomé*
Physician - John Minagro, Kevin Nakatani (10/14&22), John Burton (10/20)
Lady-in-waiting - Kirsten Allegri*, Jennifer Cowgill*
Messengers - Puay Kua, Cameron Latchford
A servant - James Pintner*
An assassin - Terry Hayes
First apparition voice - Cameron Latchford
Second and Third apparition voice - Elias Berezin*
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CHORUS
Pictured: The witches in WBO's 2007 production
Macbeth Chorus
Bruce Olstad, Chorusmaster
Witches, Scottish refugees, assassins, Macbeth's soldiers, English soldiers, apparitions:
Riva Bacon, Dee Baily, Joanne Bogart, Richard Bogart, JoAnn Close, Åsa Hanson*, Terri Hayes, Puay Kua*, Lisa Laird*, Cameron Latchford, Nancy McLean*, Margaret Marshall*, Robert McIvor*, James Pintner*, Vincent Rubino, Melissa Rukstalis, Rene Salazar, Philip Schwartz, Ashley Shannon, Jessica Shannon, Jennisara Sumiri, Diane Yeramian

* First appearance with West Bay Opera
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ORCHESTRA 
Concertmaster | Kristina Anderson
Violin I | Lina Bouze, Virginia Smedberg, Judy Kmetko
 Violin II | Rebecca McCormick, Frida Pukhachevsky, Janet Galbraith
Viola | Janet Lynch-Gillespie, Jacob Hansen-Joseph
Cello | Janet Witharm, Dana Rudin
Double Bass | Marie Laskin
Harp| Randall Pratt
Flute | Michelle Caimotto, Vivian Boudreaux 
Oboe/E. Horn | Kathleen Conner 
Clarinet | Bruce Foster, William Wohlmacher
Bassoon | Alice Benjamin, James Bernhardt
Horn | Alicia Telford, Bill Minkel
Trumpet | Daniel Norris, Steve Anderson
Trombone | Craig Whitwell, Michael Cushing
Bass Trombone | Craig McAmis
Timpani | Don Baker
Percussion | Norman Peck

Pictured (L to R): Adam Flowers (Macduff), Claudio Santomé (Malcolm) and members of the WBO Chorus

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Macbeth 2006 - Media Gallery - Cast A (Detwiler-Janzen)
PRODUCTION PHOTOS by Otak Jump
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Macbeth 2006 - Media Gallery - Cast B (Morris-Brown)
PRODUCTION PHOTOS by Otak Jump
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Macbeth 2007 - Press and Reviews 
  • Read the season preview in the San Francisco Classical Voice

    by Janos Gereben

     

    by Janos Gereben

     

    “Verdi is my desert-island opera composer. There is a classicism, a purity to his musical style that makes what he writes particularly effective, even in the earlier pieces. He truly speaks to the heart,” says West Bay Opera General Director José Luis Moscovich, explaining why he is scheduling an all-Verdi season in 2019–2020 in Palo Alto:


    In this age of people living in the bubble of their own choice, we need artistic experiences that transcend the intellectual and give us a chance to connect at the emotional level, a bunch of strangers allowing themselves to feel the same feelings together, without thinking about what political statements the company is trying to make by the choice of programming (though one could) or trying to divine party affiliations.


    It should be very healing for people to come and experience that, no matter what’s on CNN or Fox News that week. Sometimes, when activism is too dangerous or too complex, the role of art can be that of reminding people of their common humanity.


    The operas are Nabucco (Oct. 18–27), Macbeth (Feb. 14–23, 2020), and La traviata (May 22–31, 2020).


    The choice of Traviata, Moscovich says, “needs no explanation — it’s among Verdi’s finest scores, and it’s still the gold standard in opera. We haven’t done it in well over a decade.


    Macbeth was the first opera WBO produced when Moscovich became general director more than a decade ago, and he says it deserves more frequent hearings: “It is the opera that speaks to the politics of our time, an opera about a usurper and his conscience.”


    Nabucco is “about redemption, and we need a redemptive kind of hope these days.” What Moscovich calls “a real enabling factor” behind the choice of Nabucco and Macbeth is having “a viable Abigaile and Lady Macbeth in Christina Major. I think she will blow people away. I truly believe that she needs to be singing this kind of repertoire widely in the US and Europe, and I want to give her a chance to prove it.”


    José Luis Moscovich conducting a performance with baritone Jason Duika, who will sing the title role of Nabucco as well as Germont in Traviatanext season. | Credit: Jump Otak


    Moscovich, who provided Major with her role debut as Norma, gave Buenos Aires’ famed Teatro Colón a video of Major’s performance in Palo Alto, and she was cast there in the title role. Major also had her first Lucrezia in the WBO’s I due Foscari earlier this year.


    Nabucco’s other principal roles are mezzo Claudia Chapa, baritone Jason Duika, tenor John Kun Park, and bass Benjamin Brady.


    In the title role of Traviata, a young soprano from Phoenix, Anna Lisa Hackett, is making her WBO debut. The Alfredo will be Mario Rojas, a Mexican tenor, currently a member of Chicago Lyric Opera’s young artist program. Jason Duika is cast as Giorgio Germont.


    In Macbeth, joining Major will be baritone Krassen Karagiozov in the title role, bass Benjamin Brady, and tenor Dane Suarez. Karagiozov has been a WBO regular, now with a burgeoning career in Europe, from Italy to Bulgaria.


    Moscovich will conduct the three operas; Layna Chianakas is stage director for Nabucco, Ragnar Conde for Macbeth, Igor Vieira for Traviata. Bruce Olstad is the WBO chorus director. Set design is by Peter Crompton (Traviata and Macbeth), J.F. Revon (Nabucco).


    Moscovich has headed the 64-year-old West Bay Opera (the West Coast’s oldest after SF Opera, which will have its centennial in four years) since 2006, presenting imaginative seasons of critically acclaimed productions. There is a striking comparison with its big sister to the North in that WBO relies on Palo Alto’s population of 67,000 (and a limited number of visitors from elsewhere), operating with a $560,000 budget. SF Opera is currently reducing its budget from $76 million to $71 million.


    Moscovich is Argentinian, a UC Berkeley-trained transportation engineer and planner with 30 years of experience here, who recently retired from 12 years of service as executive director of the SF County Transportation Authority. Since he took over WBO, adventurous programming has been accompanied by fiscal stability, without a deficit even during the Great Recession.


    WBO’s headquarters in the Holt Building, named for company founders Henry and Maria Holt, was renovated through a $100,000 capital campaign, and an endowment for the company is being planned. Moscovich increased the size of the orchestra and chorus (using every inch of the 425-seat Lucie Stern Theatre’s small stage) and he started WBOpera NOW (New Opera Works), an initiative to present operas by living Latin American composers.




    You can see the original article by Janos Gereben, and others, at the following link:

    https://www.sfcv.org/music-news/west-bay-operas-all-verdi-season-set-for-2019-2020