Courtesy of the Vermont Opera Project
Vermont soprano Suzanne Kantorski will perform the role of Euridice in a summer production of “Orpheus and Euridice” at the Vermont Marble Museum.
PROCTOR—The Vermont Opera Project will present its inaugural production on Aug. 12 and 13, in a fully staged opera at the Vermont Marble Museum in Proctor, Vt. “Orpheus and Euridice” by Ricky Ian Gordon features Vermont residents soprano Suzanne Kantorski as Euridice and clarinetist Wesley Christensen as Orpheus. Repeat performances on Sept. 10 and 11 will take place at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
The opera will be directed and choreographed by Keturah Stickann. Stickann is active as a director and choreographer in numerous regional opera companies across the United States such as Chautauqua Opera and San Diego Opera. Four dancers will perform alongside Kantorski and Christensen as a Greek chorus, representing various characters. A string quartet and piano round out the musical forces, with Robert Wood conducting. Wood is a veteran conductor at such esteemed companies as San Francisco Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Opera Colorado, as well as having founded UrbanArias, an opera company presenting contemporary opera in the Washington, D.C. area.
The innovative production will be performed in an 8,800-square-foot abandoned manufacturing space that is part of the Marble Museum, once the Monument Room of the Vermont Marble Company.
Linda Doty, the executive director of the Vermont Marble Museum says: “On behalf of the Vermont Marble Museum and the Preservation Trust of Vermont, I am very excited that The Vermont Opera Project will present ‘Orpheus and Euridice’ here. To my knowledge, we have never hosted such an elegant event at the Museum and we are so proud to be a part of this project.”
The opera will be performed again at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 10 and 11. Danielle Hahn, head of music programs at the Gallery, was impressed by the Vermont Opera Project’s ambition to present a contemporary opera based on the classical theme of Orpheus and Euridice. Hahn says “I knew this was a perfect fit for the Gallery,” especially when she also realized the link between the Project’s Marble Museum performance venue and the many structures and monuments in Washington, including parts of the National Gallery itself, built of Vermont marble.
More information about The Vermont Opera Project, and tickets for the Proctor, Vt. performances may be purchased at VTOperaProject.com.
The Vermont Opera Project is a not-for-profit initiative founded by Quincy Bruckerhoff, general director and Jeff Bruckerhoff, managing director.
