Dispatches from the Company Artists – Dane Suarez
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Dane Suarez (Manrico) + Renata Vari (Leonora) – Opera română Craiova
Bună! Bună! – I'm writing this from Romania, where I've spent the last two weeks singing Manrico in Il trovatore and Cavaradossi in Tosca at Opera Română Craiova. Today, we leave on a tour of Germany for 2 opera galas, 3 more Toscas, and 2 more Trovatores. It's been a grueling two weeks, and I've many hours on a bus ahead of me with performances in 7 German cities! All the while, I'm writing this. It's a strange and wonderful thing to sing Verdi and Puccini thousands of miles from Wilmington while my inbox fills up with edits for the playbill, box office reports, and photos from the final room run of Don Giovanni. This is the life of an OperaDelaware Company Artist.
This season I'm looking forward to more than a dozen house, role, and orchestra debuts all while holding the post as the newly minted Marketing Manager of OperaDelaware. This week, I thought I'd use Unamplified to amplify what current and recent Company Artists have been up to... because it's been a pretty excellent few weeks.
toni marie palmertree (Amelia) accepting her ovation at san francisco opera
Former Company Artist Toni Marie Palmertree, our Maddalena from this past spring's Andrea Chénier, returned to San Francisco Opera to debut Amelia/Maria in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra.
The cast of die fledermaus at knoxville opera
Company Artist Emily Margevich has just begun rehearsals as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus with Knoxville Opera. She's joined by many OD guest artists including Brian James Myer (The Barber of Seville, Andrea Chénier, Tosca), Rachel Blaustein (Rigoletto), Marcus DeLoach (Andrea Chénier), Dean Anthony (The Marriage of Figaro), and Julius Ahn (who sings Kaspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors this December). Emily is also OD's new Education and Community Engagement Manager.
Company Artist Gerard Moon is certainly keeping busy this week! He's singing Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni Portraits at the OperaDelaware Studios this Thursday and Saturday, and in between those performances he sings Masetto as Opera Baltimore opens our co-production of Don Giovanni on Friday and Sunday. That's a lot of Giovanni! Next weekend, he brings Masetto home to The Grand.
Julian Grabarek, our newest Company Artist and OD's Resident Coach and Conductor, is serving as assistant conductor on Don Giovanni, while preparing to music direct Fernanda this November.
Which brings me to…
Gerard moon (masetto) + Robin steitz (zerlina) in rehearsal for don giovanni at operadelaware