WATSEKA, IL—FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
MAY 18, 2009
Sugar Creek Symphony & Song’s Passionate Seventh
Season Comes Under the Big Top at the Glenn Raymond Auditorium
Sugar
Creek Symphony & Song’s first opera production of the summer brings to life
Ruggero Leoncavallo’s tragic drama Pagliacci, or The
Clowns, in the round of the Glenn Raymond Auditorium, 101 West Mulberry
Street in Watseka, IL on Saturday, August 8, 2009 at 8:00 PM. The carnival
atmosphere of a circus will be magically created under an authentic Big Top in
the spacious Glenn Raymond Auditorium. Patrons seated on the orchestra
floor will be merely an arm's length from all the exciting action! Comfortable
seatbacks will be provided for upper level seats, as was done in the 2007
season. Tickets for the performance are available for purchase through
the Sugar Creek Symphony & Song Box Office at
Farmers’ Insurance, 136 E. Walnut Street in Watseka. Discounted tickets are
available for those who purchase their tickets before July 1, 2009, and for
Sugar Creek Symphony & Song donors. Free student tickets are
available for Pagliacci ; this was made possible by the generosity
of an anonymous donor.
Sugar
Creek’s production of Pagliacci, directed by A. Scott Parry and
conducted by James Lowe, stars prominent tenor Tonio Di Paolo as
Canio, the jealous circus clown driven to madness by his beautiful wife, Nedda,
portrayed by Sugar Creek Symphony & Song’s general director, soprano Helen
Todd. The company of circus clowns is completed by baritones Michael
Mayes as the hunchbacked Tonio and Christopher Hutton as the suave
Silvio, with tenor William Bennett as Beppe, another member of the
troupe.
As
always, Sugar Creek Symphony & Song engages world-class professionals for
the festival, and this season sees no exceptions. A. Scott Parry’s work has
been seen on the stages of such institutions as the New York City Opera,
Florida Grand Opera and at Chautauqua Opera, and has received praise from such
noteworthy publications as Opera News. James Lowe most recently
conducted Broadway performances of the Tony Award-winning revival of Gypsy,
starring Patti LuPone, has appeared in concert with Sir Elton John and has
conducted for such companies as Houston Grand Opera and Pittsburgh Opera, as
well as for the first national tour of The Light in the Piazza, the Tony
Award-winning musical by Adam Guettel, grandson of the legendary Richard
Rodgers. Mr. Di Paolo has dazzled audiences at such venerable houses as the
Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera in this
country alone, to say nothing of his reputation in leading opera houses the
world over. Up and coming baritone sensation Michael Mayes has established
himself as one to watch, having received much notice for his work in the new
American opera, Margaret Garner, with music by Grammy Award-winning
composer Richard Danielpour and with libretto by Nobel Prize-winning novelist
Toni Morrison, alongside acclaimed mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, for whom the
title role was written. Christopher Hutton, familiar to Sugar Creek audiences
who will remember him from the 2007 season’s production of La Traviata,
has performed with the Boston Lyric Opera, Arizona Opera and Florida Grand
Opera, among others. William Bennett, engineer turned opera singer, recently
solidified his transition from baritone to tenor by singing the role of Tamino
with with Lyric Opera of Chicago’s outreach production of The Magic
Flute. And, of course, the work of Helen Todd is quite well known to Sugar
Creek ticket holders: her interpretations of lyric coloratura mainstays, such
as Violetta and The Queen of the Night and her forays into contemporary opera,
from realizing Madame Mao in Nixon in China to Aunt Lydia in The
Handmaid’s Tale, have garnered her international attention from New York to
Minnesota to Toronto.
Keep
your eye on the choristers in Pagliacci. The fresh faces you’ll see on
Saturday night will appear in The Tender Land, Aaron Copland’s iconic
portrait of an American rural family, which will round out the opera season for
Sugar Creek Symphony & Song. Performed with piano accompaniment, the
production will feature the work of twenty-three promising young artists
selected by Ms. Todd from around the country. The Tender Land will be
produced on Sunday, August 9th, 2009 at 2:00 PM, also at the Glenn
Raymond Auditorium.
In
addition to Sugar Creek Symphony & Song’s operatic offerings, the Cherry
Street Art Fest will showcase live guitarist Greg Herriges, award-winning
barbershop singers The Iroquois Valley Harmonizers, a fine art fair and Taste
Event, all to take place on the Old Courthouse lawn at 103 W. Cherry Street.
Additionally, an antique sale at the historic Watseka Train Depot on 2nd
and Cherry and historical monologues delivered in the courtroom of the Old
Courthouse promise something for everyone.
Special Early Ticket
Purchase Promotion!
Audience members who purchase Pagliacci tickets before July 1, 2009
receive $5.00 off per ticket. Each early ticket purchased for Pagliacci grants
the patron $10.00 off the price of a ticket for The Tender Land. Regular
rates for single tickets are as follows: Pagliacci tickets range from
$70.00 to $40.00; The Tender Land tickets are $40.00 and $35.00.Student
tickets for The Tender Land are available, when a valid student ID is
presented, for just $15.00. Donors who have contributed $2,000.00 or more
receive four free tickets to both Pagliacci and The Tender
Land, plus a 20% discount on additional tickets. Donors who have
contributed $750.00 to $2,000.00 receive two free tickets to both Pagliacci
and The Tender Land on the floor in the Dress Circle, plus a 20%
discount on additional tickets. Donors who have contributed $500.00 to $750.00
receive two free tickets to Pagliacci on the floor in the
Dress Circle, plus a 20% discount on additional tickets. Donors who contributed
$250.00 to $500.00 receive a 20% discount on the purchase of up to four
tickets. Donors who contributed $100.00 to $250.00 receive a 20% discount on
the purchase of up to two tickets. Donors who contributed $50.00 to $100.00
receive a 20% discount on a single ticket purchase. Please note that the 20%
donor discount may be applied to either Pagliacci or The Tender Land
ticket purchases. The 20% donor discounted rate may not be combined with the
$10.00 off ticket offer for The Tender Land. To find out more
information about the benefits of becoming a donor, visit
www.sugarcreekfestival.org and click the Donation link.
Watseka,
IL is located approximately 90 miles south of Chicago at the intersection of
Routes 1 & 24, and more information about the festival can be found online:
www.sugarcreekfestival.org. Sugar Creek Symphony
& Song is produced in part through the generous support of The Illinois
Arts Council, The City of Watseka, Iroquois Federal Savings and Loan
Association, First Trust and Savings Bank of Watseka, Iroquois Title, Sumner
National Bank, Federated Bank, Gwen Hopkins Group, Walmart, Big R of Watseka,
Iroquois Memorial Hospital, Riverside Medical Center, WGFA 94.1 FM and AM 1360,
WVLI FM 95.1 The Valley, WIVR River Country 101.7, Justin Kaiser and Associates
and Speckman Realty GMAC.
FOR
MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Lydia
Hall,, PR/Mktg. Assistant for Sugar Creek Symphony & Song
216.631.6776/617.680.7663
lydiahall@hotmail.com