News B-MINOR MASS TOUR Shanghai – December 16/Paris – January 21/Leipzig – June 23 “Bach‘s final large-scale vocal composition presents itself to us as the composer‘s artistic legacy. Like no other of Bach‘s works, the B-minor Mass is a consummation of his writing for the voice……“ Christoph Wolff Show MoreBegun in 1715 as a 1-part mass for the Dresden court, Bach came back to the score throughout his life, ultimately completing it in 1749 shortly before his death. Its manuscript, preserved in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek joins Beethoven’s 9th symphony as the only musical works to be included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World register.. Joining Opera Fuoco’s orchestra and three young artists on this tour to the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Hall ~ where the piece will be heard for the first time in 100 years, the Paris Philharmonie and Leipzig’s Thomaskirche, are soloists Andreas Scholl, Markus Werba, Laurent Naouri and the Tölzer Knabenchor. Heifetz Baroque Vocal Workshop I am very excited to announce the Heifetz Baroque Vocal Workshop, a new and unique creative venture. As an added feature to the Heifetz International Music Institute, this program will offer a 10-day intensive course in baroque performance practice to singers and instrumentalists. Show More Having worked with period instrument ensembles in Europe for the past thirty years, and as founder and director of Opera Fuoco, a Paris-based young artists program and period instrument ensemble, I am looking forward to sharing the passion and artistry of 18th-century music in the US. For the inaugural season I will be collaborating with renowned Canadian soprano Dominique Labelle and we will focus on arias from Handel’s operas and oratorios. The stunning replica of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars theater in Staunton, Virginia is a perfect acoustic for this repertoire. The singers will be accompanied by experts in baroque style and students from the Institue who are expanding their understanding of baroque string technique. https://www.heifetzinstitute.org/baroque/ Händel – Serse Xerxes, composed in 1738 is one of Händel’s more celebrated operas and is often performed all over the world. Händel perfects in his score all the humour and melodrama in this adaptation of an old Venetian libretto by Nicolo Minato. Händel’s Xerxes has reached the immortality with the beautiful “Ombra mai fu”. Die Goldene Kale David Stern and Opera Fuoco’s young artists travel to Sweden with this quintessential 1923 Yiddish operetta, “Die Goldene Kale,” featuring music by Joseph Rumshinsky, lyrics by Louis Gilrod and a libretto by Frieda Freiman. Show More Originally shown at the Second Avenue Theater, the heart of “Jewish Broadway” on the Lower East Side, this farcical, tuneful romance, part old-fashioned musical comedy, part operetta, is a fantasy that spoke directly to the hopes and dreams of the immigrant community. The story of the feisty Goldele enjoyed a revival at the National Yiddish Theater in New York in 2015 and a performance by Opera Fuoco at the Mona Bismarck American Center in 2016. Swedish Chamber Orchestra May 18, 2019 in the Orebro Concert Hall, Sweden http://operafuoco.fr/portfolios/the-golden-bride-2/ Die Stumme Serenade Investigations, conspiracies, seduction and scandals make up the fabric of Die Stumme Serenade (The Silent Serenade). In this miniature masterpiece, composed in 1946, Erich Korngold combines elements of jazz, film music and the Viennese operetta tradition. Show More Die Stumme Serenade brings to the stage some of the classic plot twists so often portrayed in the Golden Age of American cinema. David Stern, Opera Fuoco Young Artists and an 10-piece Opera Fuoco Orchestra will perform the opera in Salle Ravel of Levallois with a full staging by Olivier Dhénin. May 11, 2019 http://operafuoco.fr/portfolios/die-stumme-serenade-e-w-korngold/ Die Fledermaus Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus is a comedic series of mischief, intrigue, and revenge set at a lavish Viennese bal. Palm Beach Opera’s Chief Conductor, David Stern, conducts this high-spirited comedy, directed by Artistic Director of Opera at Manhattan School of Music, Dona Vaughn. Show More Returning to Palm Beach Opera after a critically-acclaimed performance in The Pirates of Penzance, world-renowned mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe is Orlofsky. Palm Beach Opera March 22, 23, 24, 2019 https://pbopera.org/event/die-fledermaus/ Don Giovanni In a production inspired by film noir and staged by Kristine McIntyre, Mozart’s opera is a brilliant combination of stark human tragedy and touching human comedy. For Mozart and da Ponte, the seducer is amoral and yet sincere until his doom. Unrepentant, he refuses his last chance to atone in his final moments, and we are all mesmerized by his descent into hell. Show More David Stern, chief conductor of Palm Beach Opera, conducts the masterpiece which quickly became the barometer for all musical drama to come. Palm Beach Opera February 22, 23, 24, 2019 https://pbopera.org/event/don-giovanni/ West Side Story This American masterpiece with an iconic musical score by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, West Side Story is a unique blend of musical theater, opera and dance. Show More David Stern and Opera Fuoco’s young artists present this semi-staged production after musical performances at the Mona Bismarck American Center and the Bal Blomet jazz club in Paris during the previous season. La Barbacane, Beynes March 30, 2019 http://operafuoco.fr/portfolios/west-side-story-2/ Hong Kong Philharmonic Works by Mozart and Hans Rott Gustav Mahler posthumously called Hans Rott the “the founder of the New Symphony”. The E major symphony is a fascinating work that contains ideas that Mahler would later adapt in many of his early works. Show More A youthful piece (Rott died at age 24), it was criticized by Brahms, who disliked any student of Bruckner’s. The rejection hurt the young composer deeply and led to his eventual descent into madness. January 11th and 13th, 2019 https://bachtrack.com/concert-listing/tsuen-wan-town-hall-auditorium/discover-classical-romance/11-january-2019/20-00 Shanghai Baroque Festival On December 15 and 16, 2018 David Stern offers Shanghai music lovers the 4th annual baroque festival at the Shanghai Symphony Hall, with a performance of Bach’s B-minor Mass with Opera Fuoco and the Tölzer Knabenchor. The work has not been heard in Shanghai since 1918. Show MoreAndreas Scholl returns to the festival after a series of performances in 2016. He will be joined by Markus Werba, bass-baritone and three members of Opera Fuoco’s young artist program, Theodora Raftis, Adèle Charvet and Andrés Agudelo. David Stern has previously brought Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Alcina to the festival as well as Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and vocal soloists such as Vivica Genaux, Rafaela Milanese, and Alice Coote. This year’s festival will also include a concert with Paris-based 18th century wind ensemble, Tibiades and a masterclass by French baroque cellist, Jérôme Huile. Idomeneo Inspired by the Odyssey, the return of Idomeneo, King of Crete, is a work of monumental dramaturgy. With Idomeneo, the young Mozart (only 25 years old at the time) proves his unparalleled musical maturity. His mastery of the opera seria genre, so highly developed in his later masterworks is already clearly evident. Show More After Finta Giardiniera, Der Schauspieldirektor, and Don Giovanni, Opera Fuoco comes back to Mozart’s operas with a staging by Elsa Rooke. October 13, 2018 at the Salle Ravel, Levallois http://operafuoco.fr/portfolios/idomeneo-mozart/ Enemies, A Love Story David Stern conducts the Kentucky Opera revival of Ben Moore’s Enemies, A Love Story, originally premiered at the Palm Beach Opera in 2015. Mary Birnbaum stages the opera based on the riveting novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer. November 9 & 11, 2018 in the Brown’s Theater Louisville, Kentucky https://kyopera.org/enemies-a-love-story/ OPERA FUOCO/ APARTÉ CD RELEASE Berenice, che fai ? Axelle Fanyo, soprano Chantal Santon, soprano Natalie Perez, mezzo-soprano November 24, 2018 Theatre de St Quentin This concert celebrates Opera Fuoco’s latest recoding and featuring three former members of Opera Fuoco’s Young Artists Studio and the Opera Fuoco orchestra conducted by David Stern. Berenice is a compilation of late baroque and early Classical works based principally on Metastasio’s famous 18th-century opera scene « Ah Berenice » from his opera Antigono. Show MoreNot only was the scene set to music by such composers as Haydn and Hasse, but also by Antonio Maria Mazzoni and Marianna Martinez, a composer of Spanish descent who was widely connected to the Viennese music scene and, for a time, lived in the same noble house as Metastasio and Haydn at Grosse Michelstrasse. The young Mozart’s concert aria « Berenice » and Johann Christian Bach’s aria « Confusa, smarrita» from the composer’s lost pasticcio opera, Berenice, as well as Hasse’s Antigono overture complement the program.