Jacobs announces new season for IU Opera & Ballet Theater

The Jacobs School of Music will present an ambitious season this year, including four new IU Opera & Ballet Theater productions, as well as hundreds of other performances. Other highlights of the season include classical, jazz, band and choral concerts by students, faculty and guests.

Orchestra
To kick off the orchestral season on Sept. 17, faculty member Leonard Slatkin will conduct the IU Philharmonic Orchestra and violinist Joshua Bell in the IU Auditorium.

The concert will include John Corigliano’s “Concerto for Violin and Orchestra” (The Red Violin), Beethoven’s “Overture to Egmont, Op. 84” and Paul Hindemith’s “Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes” by Carl Maria von Weber, said Alain Barker, director of marketing and publicity at the music school.

The “Red Violin Concerto” premiered in 2003, following Bell and Corigliano’s collaboration on the 1999 movie “The Red Violin.” In anticipation of the concert, the Buskirk-Chumley Theater will offer a free screening of the film at 7 p.m. Sept. 14. A special guest will also welcome moviegoers and give background information on the film, Barker said.

Opera
IU Opera Theater will celebrate its 60th anniversary season and its 400th production with the opening night performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata” on Sept. 26, said Maria Levy, executive administrator of IU Opera & Ballet.

Magnificent new sets and costumes created by professor C. David Higgins will be featured in the all-new manifestation of the opera, which was conceived and staged by returning guest director Tito Capobianco, Levy said.

“The production is not exactly a traditional production, in that we are not doing period-correct scenery,” Higgins said. “It takes place in a stage environment made up mostly of mirror. There will be lots of chandeliers and thin transparent drapery. The costumes will be based on the fashion designs of Valentino and will resemble formal wear.”
Other fall opera productions include Otto Nicolai’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and Sergei Prokofiev’s “The Love for Three Oranges.”

Guest maestro Klauspeter Seibel and resident stage director Vincent Liotta will collaborate on “Windsor,” a comedy based on William Shakespeare’s story about the fictitious knight Sir John Falstaff. Guest conductor Robert Wood and guest stage director Nicholas Muni will collaborate on the fantastical story of “Oranges.”

“‘The Love for Three Oranges’ will be perfect for children,” Levy said. “It’s an almost fairy- tale story about a prince who was dying because he was bored and could only live if someone could make him laugh.”

And in Bloomington holiday tradition, “The Nutcracker” will take place in December and will feature Vernon’s all-new choreography that debuted last year, Barker said.

Ballet
In its third season under the direction of acclaimed choreographer and pedagogue Michael Vernon, the IU Ballet Theater will present its innovative fall show, “Ballets of our Time,” Oct. 10 and 11, which features three ballets.

The program will feature “Sweet Fields,” with choreography by dance icon Twyla Tharp and early American music from the Shape Note and Shaker Traditions, in collaboration with the IU Choral Department, Barker said.

Also included will be “Endless Night,” with music by Phillip Glass played by the Kuttner Quartet, and “The Four Temperaments,” with music by Paul Hindemith, featuring pianist Susan Chou.

Spring
In March, this season’s spring ballet will be “Variations on a Russian Theme,” which will include a new and updated version of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” and a world-premiere ballet by choreographer Matthew Neenan.

In the spring, IU Opera Theater will open with another new production, Jules Massenet’s “Le Cendrillon,” conducted by guest Ronald Zollman and directed by guest Chuck Hudson.

The last two productions of the opera season will be George Frideric Handel’s “Guilio Cesare,” conducted by guest and IU alumnus Gary Thor Wedow and stage directed by Canadian guest Tom Diamond; and Frank Loesser’s “The Most Happy Fella,” featuring internationally renowned faculty member Timothy Noble.

The Singing Hoosiers will perform their annual concert April 4, and the annual Big Band Extravaganza will swing the MAC April 25 with IU jazz musicians David N. Baker and Brent Wallarab.