Boheme Opera NJ has announced its cast for the company’s first main stage event of the 27th season. Johann Strauss’s operetta Die Fledermaus will be presented in a special semi-staged performance on Sunday, November 22, 2015 at 3 p.m. at Kendall Main Stage Theatre, the largest venue of The College of New Jersey Center for the Arts, 2000 Pennington Road, Ewing.
Tickets range in price from $25 to $45, with student price being $15. Groups of 10 or more receive $10 off in Premiere and Median sections. On-campus Special Needs Shuttle is available from a designated drop point. The TCNJ Box Office is located on-campus in the Music Building lobby with hours Mon-Fri, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. for phone or in-person purchase, (609) 771-2775. Tickets online 24/7 are at tcnj.edu/boxoffice.
Soprano Kristin K. Vogel returns to the Boheme Opera stage as Rosalinde after her Pamina in The Magic Flute (2013) and her Marguerite in Faust (2014). She is acclaimed for her powerful lyric voice, her intensity onstage, and her well-honed vocal technique. Recent honors include the prize for Acting and Interpretation at the International Competition “Cappuccilli – Patané – Respighi” in Alessandria, Italy, and second place in the Michael Ballam Concorso Lirico International Opera Competition.
As Rosalinde’s crafty husband Gabriel von Eisenstein is versatile American tenor James Price, who enjoys a crossover career in venues throughout the world. Mr. Price is a regular guest at the Macao International Music Festival, Finland’s Savonlinna Opera Festival, and Hawaii Opera Theatre. Notable appearances have included roles in The Phantom of the Opera in Jakarta, Lohengrin at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, and the role of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables in Maui, Hawaii.
Guests will witness the Boheme Opera debut of countertenor Ray Chenez as Prince Orlofsky, singing the traditional mezzo pants role. He is the winner of the prestigious 2014 George London Award and is rapidly establishing a major international career in opera.
Soprano Erica Cochran will sing the role of Adele. Cochran has been hailed for her “flexible voice,” and “mastery of comic timing.” She made her debut at Skylight Music Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as Lily in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and was last seen with Boheme Opera singing Papagena in The Magic Flute in 2012.
New Jersey baritone Charles Schneider will sing Falke. He has enjoyed a thriving operatic career of performing over 30 roles in more than 15 opera houses on the regional and local level. He was heard last season as Boheme Opera’s Schaunard in La Boheme.
Portraying the role of Alfred, a singer friend of Rosalinde, is tenor Philippe Castagner, who joined the Lindermann Young Artists Program in 2002 and has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera on a regular basis during the past decade. His North American concert engagements include featured solo appearances with the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Tanglewood Festival and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
In the comic role of Frosch will be popular veteran Boheme artist bass-baritone Edward Bogusz. His wide repertoire includes well over one hundred operatic and eighty concert-oratorio roles, and he has been particularly associated with the great comic roles for bass and bass-baritone in the operas of Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, and Richard Strauss.
Other roles in this production include baritone Stefanos Koroneos as Frank, tenor Christopher Hodson as Dr. Blind and Soprano Rachel Cetel as Sally.
Boheme Opera NJ Artistic Director Joseph Pucciatti will host a Pre-Curtain Talk in the theater starting at 2 p.m. He will also conduct this Boheme Opera production, which will be sung in English.
Howard Zogott is making his Boheme Opera directing debut, having first directed Die Fledermaus in 1985. He has directed numerous plays and operas in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware and New Jersey, with notable operas being La Bohème, (twice) Cavalleria Rusticana, Madama Butterfly (twice), The Marriage of Figaro, Gianni Schicchi, and La Traviata, as well as world premieres of Rappaccini’s Daughter by Sam Dennison and The Klezmers by David Finko.
Die Fledermaus, (German for: The Bat) is the most well-known operetta by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss the Younger. On New Year’s Eve, the wealthy and fashionable Eisenstein is being forced to go to jail for insulting a police officer. However, he decides to evade jail for one night so that he can go to Prince Orlofsky’s lavish party with his friend Dr. Falke. Falke has his own reasons for inviting Eisenstein to postpone his jail term. So Eisenstein tells his wife, Rosalinde, that he is heading off to jail, thinking he has created a perfect evening for himself. Little does he know everyone around him has plans for that evening as well. After many mistaken identities at Prince Orlofsky’s party, Eisenstein attempts to seduce his own wife without knowing.
Major funding for Boheme Opera NJ 2015-2016 programming is provided in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Dept. of State and the Boheme Opera Guild, Inc. For details on Boheme Opera’s 27th season main stage and outreach events, visit bohemeopera.com.
