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The
Letters and Diaries
of FrÉdÉric Chopin
&
George Sand
The Letters, Diaries and Music of Frederic Chopin and George Sand presented by WordStage Vermont was elegant. Everything, from the setting in the period Unitarian church , the tuxedo and top hat, the pinstriped pants, the ‘long-hair” at the piano; the black, the white and the lust was elegant. The times (1831) demanded it. Paris demanded it.
Chopin, as portrayed by William Pelton never had a chance. His first concern was what would be on the tongues of all of Paris, to avoid scandal and impropriety; so he packed his music with the sublimation and it was sensual and beckoning. Pelton did well to convey the struggle of early success on an introverted man who just wanted to play his piano.
George Sand was a woman independent of popular thinking. For her “the eye of the body is not always the eye of the soul.” Played by Ellie Blachly, she was stunning in a black top hat and winter white scarf, her long legs and hair also dominated by black. Her dark blue eyes conveyed a woman after her man.
J.D. Williams, did a superb job of combining and translating into music the passions of the new romance and the despair of Chopin, Williams and the piano were one, imparting pure emotion into the room ever faithful to the compositional requirements of each piece.
As if the sensual stimuli of the evening weren’t enough, a muse of love, sung and played by Margot Button, as Delfina Potocka, a former friend and lover of Chopin, repeatedly brought us back to our senses in case we in the audience for a moment fancied a sort of dalliance such as the one passing before us in letters, poetry and music.
For a Saturday "date night" in Montpelier in late winter, nothing could have been better than perhaps an early dinner at one of the six restaurants on the next block, and this superb show created by Tim Tavcar.
Mary Alice Clark - for The Montpelier Bridge |
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The Hollow Crown
Combining authentic words and music, "The Hollow Crown," went a long way in proving that history can be fascinating and entertaining, even touching. Readings from personal journals of the monarchs and their friends, as well as their contemporaries, were interspersed with songs and arias of the period. The result was a most entertaining way to enjoy history - real history.
Jim Lowe - The Times Argus |
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winterreise
(Simon) Chaussé has a wonderful sense of drama….He has the capacity to color individual words as well as phrases to fit the emotional impact of this exemplar of the German Sturm und Drang school. There were quite subtle places within a number of the songs that pianist (Eliza) Thomas provided apt sonic support and intelligence of phrasing.
(Tim) Tavcar provided interesting background from Schubert’s newly-discovered diary…. including, most poignantly, his reading of Schubert’s last letter, wirtten in November, 1828, shortly before the composer’s untimely death at 31.
The concert was successful on many levels, and I personally thank WordStage Vermont for daring to present this masterpiece.
Dan Wolfe - The Vermont Times-Sentinel |
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Callas On Callas
At Thursday's opening night performance, Blachly made a convincing Callas with her barely hidden arrogance and her overpowering passion for her art.
She made the aging Callas quite real, as the diva faced her declining career. She successfully showcased this brilliant woman.
Not surprisingly, the most touching moments are the film clips of Callas performing. From her powerful dramatic performance in Puccini’s "Tosca," to her almost scary portrayal in "Medea," to her touchingly intimate singing in Massenet's "Manon" (in a concert performance), it is easy to see why this woman was a star.
Jim Lowe - The Times-Argus
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| About
the performers |
Core
company
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Tim
Tavcar
Artistic Director Tim
Tavcar began his musical and theatrical education at the Cleveland
(Institute of Music He attended Northwestern University in
Evanston, IL beginning as a scholarship student in oboe and
changing midstream to voice and opera direction. For the succeeding
years he spent most of his time as a singer/actor/director
touring across the country in a variety of venues including
Washington DC’s Kennedy Center with the Washington National
Opera and at the Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City as
narrator with the Saratoga Chamber Music Society.
Following
those years he turned to arts management and held a variety
of positions in that varied field from Audience Services
Manager for Akron Ohio’s Weathervane Playhouse to general
Manager/Artistic Director of Vermont’s Vergennes Opera
House. In addition, he has been an administrative and artistic
company member of Montpelier, VT’s Lost Nation Theater
since 1997, where he was awarded the Burlington City Arts “Bessie” Award
for Best Direction. He has been a guest stage director for
the Lamoille County Players, The Vergennes High School, Johnson
State College, The University of Akron, and the Vermont Opera
Theater. He is a noted lecturer for the Vermont Opera Theater’s
Opera Insights programs as well as being their resident Stage
Director and has also been featured on UVM’ Osher Life
Long Learning Institute’s Lecture Series. He is currently
the Executive Director of The Monteverdi Music School in
Montpelier, VT.
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G. Richard Ames
G. Richard
Ames lives in Burlington with his cat Janis. He is a graduate
of Saint Michael’s College with degrees in drama and
English.
As on
stage, Rick has played many roles in life: banker, counselor,
roofer, graphic designer, mall Santa Claus and proofreader,
to name a few. He last appeared onstage as Cléante
in Tartuffe at Lost Nation Theater where he has also been
featured
in several Fall Foliage Shakespeare productions, and will
next appear in The Rainmaker with the Shelburne Players.
When
not acting and temping, Rick can be seen browsing at local
thrift shops, picking up litter, visiting animals
and
the elderly,
penning songs, lyric poetry, drama and letters to the
editor, or as the announcer on Survey Says!, Vermont’s
hottest game show sensation, on VCAM-15. |
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Ellen Blachly
Central Vermont actor, singer, dancer
and Irish fiddler, Ellie Blachly recently won critical acclaim
for her performance astray
Maria Callas in Lost Nation Theater’s world premiere production
of Callas on Callas for WINTERFEST 2007. Previous Lost
Nation Theater productions have included The Winter’s Tale
and The Cradle Will Rock.
A company member
of the Unadilla Theater, she has portrayed virtually all
the soprano leads in their ongoing Gilbert & Sullivan productions
as well as leading dramatic roles in Art, Death and the Maiden
and The Cherry Orchard among many others. She has, also,
performed with The Plainfield Little Theater, The Barre Players,
Earnest
Productions, Celebration Theater and WGDR Radio.
This past
season Ellie sang the role of Dona Anna in The Echo Valley
Community Arts Production of Don Giovanni. Offstage,
Ellie has created a successful business in the arts of
costume design and construction and fine upholstery.
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Daniel
Bruce
Daniel received degrees
in Piano Performance and Conducting from the Hartt School
of Music and Northwestern
University,
and is now widely sought after as a musical director, pianist,
and teacher. Currently Mr. Bruce teaches Instrumental Music
at Peoples Academy in Morrisville, and he has been on the faculties
of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, as well as in the Northfield
and Barre, Vermont school systems.
He has also been on the
staff of the Monteverdi Music School, has appeared as a guest
conductor with several musical festivals, and was twice nominated
to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.
He
has performed extensively as a solo and collaborative pianist
in every musical style from classical
to Broadway to jazz,
including acclaimed performances with the Vermont Philharmonic,
Montpelier Chamber Orchestra, and Vermont Jazz Ensemble.
Mr.
Bruce is an accompanist and soloist performing regularly
in the Bruce Klavier Duo with Alison Cerutti, as well as
with
violinist Ray Malone. He also accompanies vocalist Carol
Ansell Spradling, for whom he arranged jazz trio and orchestra
scores
for a 2005 concert appearance with the Onondaga Civic Symphony.
Mr. Bruce is the Music Director of the Amateur Musicians
Orchestra in Burlington and was a past conductor of the Barre
Choraleers
and the Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra.
He has
directed music and/or played piano and/or percussion in over
sixty
amateur
and professional musical productions in Vermont, New
York, and Illinois, and was most recently Coordinator of
Music
for Syracuse Children’s Theatre and Syracuse Civic Theatre
before relocating to Vermont.
Returning
to Vermont, Mr. Bruce has performed with Lost Nation Theater
having appeared as music
director for 1940’s Radio Hour, The World Goes Round,
Something for Everyone and Musical of Musicals , the Musical. |
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Margot
Button
Margot Button has appeared in opera, oratorio and recital in the U.S.A., England, Australia, and her native New Zealand. She has recorded for radio, television and short film. Her operatic roles have included Rosalinda, Santuzza, Fiordiligi, Electra, Clemene, Dido, Regina Giddens, and the Mother in both Amahl and the Nightvisitors. She has appeared as a soloist with Opera New Zealand, the Wellington City Opera, New Zealand, the Bathurst Opera Festival, Australia, the Boston Conservatory Alumni Opera, the Masterworks Chorale, and the Aldeburgh Festival Opera in England among others. Locally Margot has performed with the Sky Meadow Trio, Onion River Chorus, Otter Creek Choral Society, VT Opera Theatre, Lost Nation Theatre, Paine Mountain Arts Council, Echo Valley Arts, the Monteverdi Music School, and the VT American Contemporary Opera Project, of which she is a founding member.
Prior to her move to Vermont Margot performed regularly as a soloist throughout Massachusetts and was an Artist-educator for Brown Bag Opera in Boston. She guest lectured for the Opera Departments of the Boston Conservatory and the Longy School of Music and maintained voice studios at both the Wellesley, and Gardiner Public Schools, MA.
Margot holds a 3-year Post Graduate Certificate in Opera Performance and was recipient of a 3 year Artistic Merit scholarship from the Boston Conservatory of Music. A winner of several major Aria, and Art Song competitions in New Zealand and Australia she also holds a Diploma in Dramatic Performance from the New Zealand Academy of the Performing Arts.
She currently studies voice with Elisabeth Phinney Boston, MA, and coaches with Lorraine Nubar, in New York. Her former teachers include Prof. Rae Woodland of the Royal College of Music in England, and Emily Mair, Head of Music, Victoria University in New Zealand. She has coached with Dame Janet Baker, Warren Jones, Dalton Baldwin, Phyllis Curtain, Rudolf Piernay, Prof.
George Shirley, Cecelia Schieve, Patricia Weinmann, Bernd Benthaak, John Mathieson, and Bruce Greenfield.
A former Executive Director of the Vergennes Opera House Margot has been a faculty member of the Flynn Theatre of the Performing Arts for four years.
She currently teaches voice at the Monteverdi Music School in Montpelier, and privately in Burlington and also directs the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony Opera for Harvard University, and the Annals of Improbable Research, in Boston. |
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Simon
ChaussÉ
French Canadian baritone
Simon Chaussé has
sung in recital and concert in Europe, Japan, Canada and the
USA. In recital he often collaborates with Dalton Baldwin who
invited Mr. Chaussé for a concert tour of Japan in November
1999.
Mr. Chaussé has won several prizes in International
Art Song Competitions in France, Spain, Canada and USA. He
has studied interpretation with such artists as Frederica Von
Stade, Jose Van Dam, Gerard Souzay and Elly Ameling. With opera
companies in New York and Vermont he has sung the roles of:
Papageno, Belcore, Malatesta, Schaunard, Dandini, Silvio, the
Father in “Hansel and Gretel” and Sam in Bernstein’s “Trouble
in Tahiti” among others.
In 2000 he sang Antoine in the
World premiere of “A Fleeting Animal” by Vermont
composer Erik Nielsen’s. In 2006 Mr. Chaussé sang
in concert the role of Horace Giddens in Marc Blitsztein’s
opera “Regina” with the Vermont American Opera
Project, Lord Dunmow in Lennox Berkeley “A Dinner Engagement” with
the Opera Company of Middlebury under Troy Peters and Fiorello
in “Il Barbiere Di Siviglia” with the Green Mountain
Opera Festival conducted by Giovanni Reggioli.
This
past year Mr. Chaussé sang the tile in Mozart’s
Don Giovanni at the Barre Opera House with Echo Valley Community
Arts and Yamadori in the acclaimed production of Madama Butterfly
by the Green Mountain Opera Festival also at the Barre Opera
House. He also performed the role of Mr. Lindquist with the
Opera Company of Middlebury production of “A Little Night
Music”and on July 8th he premiered a new song cycle by
Vermont composer Erik Nielsen at the Rochester Chamber Music
Society in Rochester VT.
Mr. Chaussé currently teaches
voice at Monteverdi Music School in Montpelier.
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Wendy Hoffman Farrell
Mezzo soprano Wendy Hoffman Farrell began her vocal career with the Essex Children's Choir, and went on to receive both Bachelors and Masters Degrees in vocal performance.
Wendy has performed nationally with Atlanta Opera, The Atlanta Lyric Theatre, and The Peter Harrower Opera Workshop. Regionally, Wendy has been featured with a number of Vermont based ensembles, including the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Vermont Mozart Festival, Vermont Youth Orchestra, f y d o, and Vermont Opera Theater. She will be singing her first Musetta in La Boheme with The Opera Company of Middlebury this coming August.
An enthusiast of contemporary music, Wendy has premiered the works of several American composers, including those of Vermont composers Erik Nielsen and Troy Peters. She has been on the applied faculties of St. Lawrence University and Middlebury College. Wendy lives and snowboards in Bolton Valley with her husband Tim and their three children. |
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Lisa
Jablow
Lisa’s checkered career as a
performer began at age three, when she played a character
named Mrs. Buttonnose
in a community
theater production in Shrub Oak, NY. Her elementary school
debut came at age seven, when she played a library book.
Other roles
followed and in junior high school, she entered the preparatory
division of the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City.
She arrived at college as a theater major; but received degrees
in choral conducting with a minor in voice. During this
time,
she
performed a great deal of opera and musical theater, mostly
on stage, but sometimes conducting in the pit.
After graduate school, Lisa spent nine years at New York City
Opera also performing with Opera Orchestra of New York, Skylight
Opera, Boise Opera, the Milwaukee Symphony, Long Wharf Theatre
and Lost Nation Theater. She also joined the music faculty
at Johnson State College where, among other things, Lisa directs
the musical theater program.
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William
Pelton
Bill, a Syracuse
University graduate with a degree in Visual and Performing
Arts, has worked
many times
with Montpelier’s
Lost Nation Theater in, among others Mother Courage, Othello
and the award-winning Stone.
Some
favorite shows and roles include Bruce in Beyond Therapy,
Constable Dull in
Love’s Labors Lost, Antonio, Feste
and Andrew Aguecheek in multiple productions of Twelfth Night,
and company member in the musicals Sweeny Todd, A Little Night
Music, Threepenny Opera, Working, The Cradle Will Rock, Side
by Side by Sondheim, Cole and Jacques Brel is Alive and Well
and Living in Paris, as Tyrone in O’Neill’s poignant,
A Moon for the Misbegotten, and Escalus in Measure for Measure.
Presently studying with
Cameron Thor Studios and auditioning for film, Bill has worked
locally on Nora Jacobson’s,
Nothing Like Dreaming, and George Woodard’s, The Summer
of Walter Hacks presently in post-production. |
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Mary
JaNe Austin-Reynolds
Mary Jane Austin-Reynolds earned her bachelor's degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Olga Radosavljevich and Vivian Weilerstein. She then pursued her graduate studies in vocal coaching and accompanying, studying both art song and opera at Duquesne University with Warren Jones and Claudia Pinza.
In the field of opera, she has worked as an accompanist and coach for six summers at the EPCASO opera program in Oderzo, Italy, where she worked with mezzo soprano Vivica Genaux and baritones Richard Bernstein and Michael Chioldi, among others.
Closer to home, she co-founded the Sky Meadow Chamber Players in 2003, has worked at the Green Mountain Opera Festival as the pianist for their Young Artist Program, and played with the Mad River Chorale, Onion River Chorus, Vermont Opera Theater and Echo Valley Community Arts. She has also played for several silent films at the Vergennes Opera House. She currently teaches private piano lessons at the Monteverdi Music School in Montpelier.
Mary Jane is married to violist Paul Reynolds. They are the proud parents of their two daughters, Chloe and Mia. |
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Carol
Spradling
Bio to follow |
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Eliza
Thomas
Eliza Thomas studied
piano accompaniment with Margo Garrett at the New England
Conservatory. Since moving
to Montpelier in 2000,
she has worked as an accompanist with a number of organizations,
including Echo Valley Community Arts, Vermont Opera Theater,
the Vermont American Opera Project, and participates regularly
in workshops given by Dalton Baldwin and Lorraine Nubar at
the annual Fall Foliage Art Song Festival, sponsored by the
Vermont
Opera Theater.
She teaches piano at the Monteverdi
Music School in Montpelier and freelances as a writer and
editor. |
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J.D.
Williams
J.D. Williams began
piano lesson at the age of six in his home state of West
Virginia. He
graduated from
Baltimore’s Peabody
Conservatory in 2001 with a Bachelor of Music Performance
degree.
He has participated
in the Banff, Aspen, Tanglewood and Meadowmount Music Festivals
as a
chamber musician and soloist,
as well
as the International Holland Sessions. J.D. lives in Plainfield,
VT and has teaching studios at Montpelier’s Monteverdi
Music School and in Norwich, VT.
When not performing or teaching, he plies his other trade
as a Carpenter. |
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