Unleash your inner-child as Pacific Symphony offers another unique concert experience, with a double-bill of both Prokofiev’s symphonic fairy tale “Peter & The Wolf” and Ravel’s one-act opera “L’enfant et les sortilèges.” No stranger to producing elaborate and magical stagings, Robert Neu is once again the stage director, returning after his fantastic work on “The Magic Flute.” (He will return next season to direct Verdi’s “Otello”!) Longtime artistic partner Pacific Chorale, led by Artistic Director Robert Istad, will join the Symphony on stage again, as well as the CSUF Singers and Southern California Children’s Chorus. Returning mezzo-soprano Tess Altiveros plays the lead role, “The Child,” in Ravel’s “L’enfant.”
“Ravel’s Magical Opera” takes place May 16-18. Tickets start at $25. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. for a 7 p.m. preview talk by KUSC host Alan Chapman, for a show beginning at 8 p.m. The 2018-19 Classical series is sponsored by the Hal & Jeanette Segerstrom Family Foundation. To purchase tickets or learn more, please visit our website at PacificSymphony.org, or call our Box Office at (714) 755-5799.
“Peter and the Wolf,” a “symphonic fairy tale,” is a musical composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936. It is Prokofiev’s most frequently performed work, and one of the most frequently performed works in the entire classical repertoire. “Peter and the Wolf” opens the program and features unique performers, the Magic Circle Mime Company.
“L’enfant et les sortilèges” (“The Child and the Spells”) is an opera in one act, with music by Maurice Ravel to a libretto by Colette. It is Ravel’s second opera, his first being “L’heure espagnole.” Written from 1917 to 1925, “L’enfant” was first performed in Monte Carlo in 1925 under the baton of Victor de Sabata. Ravel said of the premiere production: “Our work requires an extraordinary production: the roles are numerous, and the phantasmagoria is constant. Following the principles of American operetta, dancing is continually and intimately intermingled with the action. Now the Monte Carlo Opera possesses a wonderful troupe of Russian dancers, marvelously directed by a prodigious ballet master, M. Balanchine. … And let’s not forget an essential element, the orchestra.”
ARTISTS
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Magic Circle Mime Company
Pacific Symphony
CREATIVE TEAM
Robert Neu, stage director
Matt Scarpino, scenic design
Hannah Welter, director of production – Go Button Production
Kristin Campbell, associate scenic design
CAST – L’enfant et les sortilèges
Tess Altiveros – The Child
Nicole Birkland – Mama, The China Cup, The Dragon Fly
Patricia Westley – The Louis XV Chair, A Country Lass, The Bat, The Screech Owl
Liv Redpath – The Fire, The Princess, The Nightingale
Leandra Ramm – A Shepherd, The White Cat, The Squirrel
Benjamin Sieverding – The Armchair, A Tree
Gabriel Preisser – The Black Cat, The Grandfather Clock
Brian Wallin – The Teapot, The Little Old Man, The Frog
Pacific Chorale—Robert Istad, artistic director
CSUF Singers
Southern California Children’s Chorus
Artists, programs, prices and dates are subject to change.
