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DPO prepares to step into Verdi's dramatic world
Monday, May 12, 2008
DAYTON — The Schuster Center's Mead Theatre Stage will be full when the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra concludes its Classical Concert and Classical Connections series for the 2007-08 season with performances of Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem Mass Thursday, Friday and Saturday, May 15-17.
The 90-minute work will be performed, with intermission, in the traditional Classical Concert setting on Thursday and Saturday, as well as the focus of the more casual Classical Connections program on Friday.
Extras
Joining the orchestral musicians will be the Dayton Philharmonic Chorus, prepared by Director Hank Dahlman, and four guest vocalists: Soprano Rachel Rosales, mezzo-soprano Kathleen Clawson, tenor Richard Crawley and bass-baritone Charles Robert
Austin.
Considered by some to be the greatest of the concert hall Requiems (within an elite league that includes Mozart and Brahms), Verdi's work brings in the musical drama and beautiful vocal writing of his best operatic works. And yet it is not merely opera without costumes and set.
As DPO Music Director Neal Gittleman writes in his program notes for Friday's Connections concert: "It's music meant to be acted out in your imagination as you listen."
Gittleman goes on to write, however, that the work's theatrical attributes do lend themselves nevertheless toward dramatic staging, an idea he found less blasphemous after conversations this spring with opera director Gary Briggle, who set the Dayton Opera's recent production of "The Barber of Seville."
"No, it's not an opera, but it's not a purely liturgical piece, either. ... And that's precisely what makes the Verdi Requiem such a compelling work," Gittleman concludes. "It appeals to us as a concert piece. But it also appeals as a dramatic work. It's the best of both worlds."
Contact the reporter at (937) 225-7309 or
csimmons@DaytonDailyNews.com.
How to go
Who: Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dayton Philharmonic Chorus and guest vocalists
What: Conclusion of the 2007-08 Classical Series, with a performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem
When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday
Where: Schuster Center, Second and Main streets, Dayton
Tickets: $59, $46, $34.50, $20.50 and $10.50; call (937) 228-3630 or order online at www.ticketcenterstage.com
Classical Connections Program: Verdi's Requiem also will be the focus of season's final Classical Connections Program, 8 p.m. Friday at the Schuster; tickets are $39, $34, $27, $20.50 and $10.50.
