Utah Symphony Presents Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet

Utah Symphony Presents

Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet

The Utah Symphony and Music Director Thierry Fischer Present Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet featuring the Utah Symphony Chorus.

New Music Director Thierry Fischer will lead the Utah Symphony and the Utah Symphony Chorus in Berlioz’s symphonic version of Shakespeare’s tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet. The evening will feature mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford, tenor Jason Slayden and bass Eric Owens. The performances will be held at Abravanel Hall on Friday, November 5 and Saturday, November 6 at 8:00 p.m.

A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Tamara Mumford made her debut there in Luisa Miller, and has since appeared in their productions of Rigoletto, Parsifal, Idomeneo, Cavalleria Rusticana, the complete Ring Cycle, the new children’s English version of The Magic Flute, debuts at the Opera Company of Philadelphia in The Rape of Lucretia, Glimmerglass Opera in Dido and Aeneas, and the Glyndebourne Opera Festival and the BBC Proms in L'incoronazione di Poppea, L’Italiana in Algeri at the Palm Beach Opera, The Rape of Lucretia, conducted by Lorin Maazel and produced by his Chateauville Foundation; Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi with the Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi di Milano in Italy; and La Cenerentola at Utah Festival Opera. A native of Sandy, Utah, Ms. Mumford holds a Bachelors of Music from Utah State University.

A native Texan, tenor Jason Slayden is a graduate of Texas State University and is completing a Masters degree in vocal performance at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. There he has won the John Alexander Memorial Scholarship and was awarded the Emily Dieterle Scholarship. This summer, Jason completed his second year as an Apprentice Artist with the Santa Fe Opera where he sang First Priest and covered Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, covered the Mayor in Albert Herring and was a featured soloist in their sacred concert series. Last year at Santa Fe he was awarded the Donald Gramm Memorial Award for Singers, and he sang the role of the First Clubman and covered Hammond in the world premier of The Letter. He was also an apprentice with Des Moines Metro Opera in 2008 where he covered Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore. Other recent appearances include Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia with CCM Opera Theater, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with the Kentucky Opera and Owensboro Symphony, tenor soloist for Mozart’s Requiem with the Santa Fe Symphony, tenor soloist for Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Concert:Nova of Cincinnati, and Peter Quint in Britten’s Turn of the Screw with Texas State University Opera Theater.

Eric Owens opens the 2010-11 season of the Metropolitan Opera as Alberich in Das Rheingold in a new production by Robert Lepage, conducted by James Levine. He essays the title role in Peter Sellars’s new production of Handel’s Hercules, conducted by Harry Bicket at Lyric Opera of Chicago; returns to San Francisco Opera as Ramfis in Aïda, conducted by Giuseppe Finzi; and joins Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony as Lodovico in concert performances of Verdi’s Otello both in Chicago and at Carnegie Hall. His concert calendar includes Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony; Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Jaap van Zweden and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic; Mozart’s Requiem with the Handel & Haydn Society under Harry Christophers; Brahms’s Ein Deutshces Requiem at Carnegie Hall with James Bagwell and the Collegiate Chorale; and Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette with the Utah Symphony, conducted by Thierry Fischer.

Tickets for the evening’s performances start at $15 and can be purchased by calling (801) 355-ARTS (2787), in person at the Abravanel Hall box office, or by visiting www.usuo.org. Subscribers and those desiring group or student discounts should call (801) 533-NOTE (6683). Ticket prices will increase $5 day of performance.


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