Sondra Radvanovsky, Janai Brugger, Riccardo Massi Among Highlights of Palm Beach Opera 2018 Season

By Katharine Baran

Palm Beach Opera just announced their 2018 mainstage opera season. Every performance will be held at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach.  The first production of the mainstage season,  Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca,” will run from Jan. 26 through the 28th, 2018.

Soprano Keri Alkema will play the lead role. Her previous works range from roles in works by Puccini, Mozart, Verdi and more. She sings on the 26th and 28th. On the 27th, soprano Alexandra Loutsion will perform as the leading diva, after her performance as Cio-Cio San in “Madam Butterfly.”

Riccardo Massi will play Cavaradossi on the 26th and 28th, while Adam Diegel will take the stage as tortured painter on the 27th. Michael Chioldi will return to the Palm Beach Opera stage as Scarpia. Palm Beach Opera Chief Conductor is David Stern and stage director of the production designed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle will Fenlon Lamb.

On Feb. 15, 2018, the Palm Beach Opera 2018 Gala will take place at The Breakers, with a scheduled performance by superstar soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, who just announced that she will open the Metropolitan Opera 2017-2018 season as “Norma.”  The night will include a cocktail hour, dinner, champagne dessert buffet, and evening entertainment.

The company will celebrate the 100 anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth with his comic operetta “Candide” from Feb 23 to the 25th, 2018.  This will be the first time that Palm Beach Opera will put on a fully staged version of Bernstein’s work. Chief Conductor David Stern and friend of the Bernstein family will musically lead the performance, while recent Julliard graduate, tenor Miles Mykkanen, will sing the title role of Candide.

Soprano Alisa Jordheim will make her debut at the company and play the role of Cunegonde, while former Palm Beach Opera Benenson Young Artist Tobias Greenhalgh plays Maximilian, and mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves returns as The Old Lady.

Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” will premiere on Mar. 23, 2018 with the run ending on the 25th. It will be a co-production between Palm Beach Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Philadelphia, and San Diego Opera, under the guidance of Stephen Lawless with the set and costume design by Leslie Travers and lighting design by Thomas C. Hase.

The conductor of the performances will be Antonino Fogliani, while the international cast will feature Italian Marko Mimica as Figaro, Janai Brugger as Susana, Caitlyn Lynch as the Countess, baritone David Adam Moore as the Count and Irene Roberts as Cherubino.

A children’s performance of the “Marriage of Figaro” will start on Saturday morning and members from the members of the Benenson Young Artist Program and the Apprentice Artist Program, conducted by Associate Conductor and Chorus Master Greg Ritchey, will put on the performance.

Other events for their season are the annual Liederabend performance, the Palm Beach Opera Guild Annual Dinner, Opening Night Dinners, and the Lunch & Learn series.

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