Patricia Racette To Step Into The Director’s Seat at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis

By Francisco Salazar

Patricia Racette is slated to make her directorial stage debut in 2018.

The soprano will direct a new production of Verdi’s “La Traviata” at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. The production will feature sets by Laura Jellinek, costumes by Kaye Voyce, and lighting by Christopher Ackerlind.

In a press statement, Patricia Racette said, “My collaborations with James Robinson over the years have confirmed that he not only has the eye of a director but the heart and mind of a true musician. His style of collaborative inclusion has been – and continues to be – the cornerstone of my respect and enthusiasm for his work. I will always happily be on my ‘usual side’ of the stage with him in the director’s chair, and I am thrilled that he had the idea to welcome me into the realm of a director!”

The production marks the return to Racette’s to OTSL, where she appeared as Donna Elvira in “Don Giovanni” in 1993 and in the title role in 1994’s “Iphigenia in Tauris.” Racette went on to be an international opera star singing for all the major companies and making headlines for her work in Puccini’s “Tosca,’ “Madama Butterfly,” “Il Trittico” and Minnie in “La Fanciulla del West,” and most recently as “Salome” in Strauss’ early masterwork.  Next season she is slated to make her role debut as Magda in Menotti’s “The Consul,” a role and house debut in Weill’s “Street Scene” for Madrid’s Teatro Real, and a return to Barcelona’s Teatro Liceu for Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.”

The production will open on May 19, 2018, and will receive eight performances through June 23, 2018. The production will feature soprano Sydney Mancasola and tenor Geoffrey Agpalo, two former OTSL Gerdine Young Artists, with Joo Wan Kang making his OTSL debut as Germont. Christopher Allen will conduct.

 

 

 

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