The Southwest Florida Symphony continues its 55th season of Masterworks with Masterworks IV: A Night at the Opera on Saturday, March 5, 2016
Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Fort Myers, FL— The Southwest Florida Symphony, Lee County’s professional orchestra and one of the oldest symphony orchestras on Florida’s gulf coast, turns the page in its “Symphonic Storybook” once again to Masterworks IV: A Night at the Opera. This concert is under the baton of Music Director Nir Kabaretti and takes place at 8:00 PM on Saturday, March 5, 2016 at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall at FSW. Tickets cost between $24 and $84 per person and may be purchased online at www.swflso.org, by visiting the Southwest Florida Symphony Box Office located at 8290 College Parkway, Suite 103 in Fort Myers, by calling the Symphony Box Office at (239) 418-1500 or in person at the Barbara B. Mann Box Office one hour prior to the concert. Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall is located at 13350 FSW Parkway in Fort Myers. Patrons are invited to attend a conductor-led pre-concert lecture at 7 PM, one hour prior to the performance. Maestro Kabaretti and the symphony’s guest artists enhance the concert experience through their insights into the pieces being performed.
Masterworks IV: A Night at the Opera boasts all of the high drama that makes opera so captivating; love, murder, intrigue, passion, betrayal and more! This concert features arias, choruses and duets from the world’s most famous and beloved operas – Carmen, La Traviata, Don Giovanni, Nabucco and others. Performing with the symphony are lauded stars of the opera world, soprano, Jeneatte Vecchione, bass/baritone, Eugene Brancoveanu and the Symphonic Chorale of Southwest Florida.
Jeneatte Vecchione Bio
Jeanette Vecchione made her American opera debut at the age of 24 with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis in the summer of 2009 in the role of Florestine in John Corigiano’s Ghosts of Versailles. That same season she joined the Opera Bastille for Les Contes d’Hoffmann, and the Albany Symphony for the Die Königin der Nacht in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.
During the 2010 – 2011 season Ms. Vecchione made her Wiener Staatsoper debut as Die Königin der Nacht and reprised the role for Opera Köln that same season. Additional engagements this season include debuts with Teatro del Lago Chile as Blondchen in Die Endführung aus dem Serail, concerts with the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, and the role of Flaminia in Il Mondo della Luna with the Teatre Avenida Opera Lirica in Buenos Aires.
During the 2011 – 2012 season Ms. Vecchione has debuts with Theatre des Champs Elysees as Die Königen der Nacht and Olympia (cover) at Teatro alla Scala. She also returns to Buenos Aires Lirica at Teatro Avenida as Blondchen in Die Endführung aus dem Serail and Florianopolis, Brasil in a solo concert with Jurere Classic. More upcoming engagements will be announced in the near future!
Ms. Vecchione graduated from The Juilliard School in 2006 and returned there on a full scholarship for her Master’s degree in 2008. She has performed with the Juilliard Orchestra, Palm Beach Opera Orchestra and the Norwalk Symphony. She was won awards from Opera Index Competition, George London Foundation, Licia-Albanese Puccini Competition, Palm Beach Opera Competition, the Giulio Gari Competition, Sullivan Awards, National Opera Association, Mario Lanza Competition, and the International Opera Competition of Riccardo Zandonai in Riva del Garda, Italy.
Eugene Brancoveanu Bio
Eugene Brancoveanu’s robust voice and superior stagecraft have earned him critical acclaim in both North America and Europe. Following recent performances of San Francisco Opera’s The Little Prince, the San Francisco Chronicle lauds the superb cast as being “led by extravagantly gifted baritone Eugene Brancoveanu as the Pilot. With his unforced charisma, vocal clarity, and total heft, Brancoveanu managed the tricky feat of doing most of the show’s heavy lifting…”
In 2008-09 Eugene Brancoveanu returns to San Francisco Opera as Belcore in L’elisir d’amore; sings Karnak in Lalo’s Le Roi d’ys with the American Symphony Orchestra; sings as soloist in Elijah at the Mondavi Center for Performing Arts in California; in Carmina Burana with Peninsula Symphony Orchestra; and, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, continues his performing of Michael Tilson Thomas’ The Tomashevskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theatre, a work which he premiered in 2005-06 and has reprised with the New World Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony. In the 2007-08 season he made his New York City Opera debut as Pandolfe in Cendrillon, sang the role of The Pilot in Portman’s The Little Prince for San Francisco Opera, sang as soloist in Brahms’ Requiem with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in a concert of Bernstein repertoire.
Eugene Brancoveanu made his debut with San Francisco Opera in 2005-06 as Fra Melitone in La forza del destino. He held a prestigious appointment as an Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera for two seasons, directly following his critically acclaimed summer 2005 performances of Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia with the company’s Merola Opera Program. With San
Francisco Opera he has performed Christian in Un ballo in maschera, Marullo in Rigoletto, Moralès in Carmen, Frank in Die Fledermaus, Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and the Innkeeper and the Captain in Manon Lescaut.
Originating the role of Marcello in Baz Luhrmann’s Broadway production of La Bohème, the honorary Tony Award winner is also a recipient of a 2004 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award for his performances of this production in Los Angeles. Other career highlights include performing the role of Nicomedes in the rarely heard Lou Harrison opera, Young Caesar,for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; a recital as part of the prestigious Schwabacher Debut Recital Series; the title role in Le nozze di Figaro with the International Music Festival in Gut-Immlings, Germany; and the title role in Philip Glass’s Orphée with the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg. Mr. Brancoveanu’s numerous performances with the Romanian State Opera include the Count in Le nozze di Figaro, the title role in Don Giovanni, Silvio in I Pagliacci, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Escamillo in Carmen, and Uberto in La serva pedrona.
Mr. Brancoveanu is a graduate of the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz and the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg. Mr. Brancoveanu is also a recent winner of the National Young Opera Singer Competition in Leipzig, the International Music Award in Loenberg, and the International Opera contest “Ferruccio Tagliavini” Deutschlandsberg with Dame Joan Sutherland as Head of Jury.
The Symphonic Chorale of Southwest Florida
Although the Symphonic Chorale of Southwest Florida was incorporated in 2011, it has a long history in this community. Many of its singers were former members of the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra Chorus, an ensemble of 80 to 100 vocalists that performed with the Symphony for nearly 50 years. Concerts during its 2014-15 season included works by Michael Haydn and Vivaldi. Choral legend Robert Page presided over a choral fest culminating in a concert featuring arias from the complete Messiah. This year, the Chorale welcomes its new artistic director, Dr. Trent Brown, who also serves as the associate professor of music at Florida Gulf Coast University where he directs all choral ensembles, teaches courses in choral literature, conducting and secondary vocal methods, and serves as a Faculty Scholar for the University’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).
Southwest Florida Symphony General Information
The Southwest Florida Symphony is the only professional orchestra in Lee County and the one of the oldest on Florida’s gulf coast. It enters its 55th season this year, having made its debut as a community orchestra on April 15, 1961. Conducted by Arlo Deibler, the Symphony began its life as a community orchestra and its original roster consisted of 24 musicians. It performed in
community centers and schools throughout Lee and Collier Counties. It has since grown to become Lee County’s only professional symphony orchestra, filling Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall with symphonic music enthusiasts and a roster consisting of more than 65 world-class musicians. The Southwest Florida Symphony’s 55th year promises to be a season of continued enthusiasm as internationally acclaimed Maestro Nir Kabaretti leads the symphony into another season of blockbuster performances. Maestro Kabaretti is the fifth music director in the organization’s history. His presence and caliber of musicality garnered record setting
attendance at many of the symphony’s 2014-15 Masterworks Concerts. The Southwest Florida Symphony’s mission is to celebrate the joy of music and to inspire audiences with a variety of quality concerts performed by professional musicians that are accessible to all.
This season features the Southwest Florida Symphony’s signature Masterworks Classical Concert Series, entitled A Symphonic Storybook (November 21, Carmina Burana; January 23, One Thousand and One Nights; February 13, Love Triangle; March 5, A Night at the Opera; and April 2 & 3, The Shakespeare Experience), a special Holiday Pops concert entitled The Holidays in Paradise on December 16 & 17 at Flagler College in St. Augustine, December 19 at Barbara
B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, December 20 at BIG ARTS on Sanibel and December 21 at The Village Church at Shell Point; its Pops Series (Rodgers & Hammerstein Celebration on January 8 & 9; A Night at the Oscars on February 5 & 6; and My Sinatra on April 2 & 3), a chamber series called Small Stage Symphonies℠, performed at BIG ARTS on Sanibel Island (January 13,
February 3 and March 23), Faith Presbyterian Church in Cape Coral (August 12, 2015, January 15 and March 22), The Village Church at Shell Point (August 13, 2015, January 14 and February 4), and at the Sidney & Berne Davis Arts Center (August 14, 2015 and March 21).
Maestro Nir Kabaretti bio
Nir Kabaretti comes to Southwest Florida from the Santa Barbara Symphony in California, where he also serves as music and artistic director. He enters his tenth season with Santa Barbara this year. He has been described as “a conductor with immense musicality and warm personality” by Maestro Zubin Mehta. Kabaretti has earned an impressive reputation across continents for his command of a vast symphonic and operatic repertoire.
Upon graduation from the prestigious University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Kabaretti began working as coach and Chorus Master at the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival. He later advanced to positions as Assistant to the Music Director at the Teatro Real in Madrid and Personal Assistant to Maestro Zubin Mehta at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy.
Nir Kabaretti has worked with some of the world’s most sought-after musicians, such as Lang Lang, Placido Domingo, Itzhak Perlman, and Hélène Grimaud. His guest conducting appearances have included the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmonica de Buenos Aires, Orquestre National du Theatre du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Orchestra del Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari, Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi di Milano, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, La Orquesta Sinfonica de Madrid, Real Orquesta Sinfònica de Sevilla, La Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria and the Bochumer Symphoniker.
He was appointed Principal Conductor of the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra in Israel in 2002, and later as its Music Director till 2008.
Kabaretti’s operatic experience includes productions at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Real in Madrid, The Israeli Opera, Opéra de Lausanne, Avenches Opera Festival in Switzerland, Tokyo New National Theatre and Opera Santa Barbara.
He conducted The Diary of Anne Frank, a guest production of the Vienna State Opera performed at both the Bregenz Festival and Expo 2000 in Hannover. In 2005, Kabaretti lead Teatro San Carlo di Napoli on its first tour to Japan, conducting Il Trovatore both in Kyoto and Tokyo.
During the 2004-05 season he made his debut at Teatro alla Scala di Milano. In 2007 he was invited again for the ballet production of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer night’s Dream (broadcasted by Italian television RAI, and released as a commercial DVD).
Maestro Kabaretti received the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Grant for Young Conductors. In 1993, he won the Forum Junger Künstler Conducting Competition in Vienna. In 1994 he was among the finalists in the International Competition for Conductors in Douai, France.
Southwest Florida Symphony Sponsors
The Southwest Florida Symphony’s 2015-16 sponsors include The Southwest Florida Symphony’s Board of Trustees, The Southwest Florida Community Foundation, The City of Fort Myers, The State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, The Florida Council on Arts & Culture, The Southwest Florida Symphony Endowment Foundation, The Southwest Florida Symphony Society, The L.A.T. Foundation, Uhler & Vertich Financial Planners, Enterprise Rent-a-car, IberiaBank, The Neil Goldberg Dream Foundation, Rev. Gary & Mrs. Christine LaCroix, Mr. Charles B. Munsch, Mr. Don Fjellin, Ernie Fogg & Margot Flinn,‘Tween Waters Inn, Bailey’s General Store, Sanibel Captiva Community Bank, Crowne Plaza, Mastello Ristorante, Advanced Pain Management and Spine Specialists, Alexander & Hoover, LCEC, The Cape Coral Community Foundation, The Friends of the Symphony on Sanibel, Mr. & Mrs. Steve and Charlotte Qua, Pamela Templeton and the Red Lipstick Foundation, Suncoast Schools Credit Union and Mark Loren Designs.
####
Event: Southwest Florida Symphony’s Masterworks IV: A Night at the Opera
Date: Saturday, March 5, 2016
Location: Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall Time: 8:00 p.m. with a pre-concert lecture at 7:00 p.m. Tickets: $24-$84
For more information, call 239-418-1500 or visit www.swflso.org
