Astoria Performing Arts celebrates 250 years of Mozart

Published 5:37 am Thursday, December 22, 2005

Celebrating the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s birth, Astoria Performing Arts will present a series of events throughout the year in quarterly operatic and orchestral productions, regularly scheduled chamber music and recitals and a major Astoria summer festival in June.

This will be conductor Keith Clark’s and artistic director Ruth Dobson’s sixth year of performances in Astoria, and the 2006 season will be their most ambitious yet. They, along with Executive Director Larry Taylor, were cofounders of the Astoria Music Festival in 2003, which was sponsored by the River Theater. The newest addition to the team is General Manager Dorene Schmitz, who has worked on previous Astoria Music Festivals.

The opening event will be a semi-staged performance of Mozart’s comic masterpiece, “Cosi Fan Tutte,” which will feature a full orchestra and cast of young professional singers including Katherine Swigert, Amy Hansen, Anna Jablonski, Daniel Paget, Sean Anderson and Konstantin Kvach. Clark will conduct the Astoria Festival orchestra and chorus of Pacific University, directed by Scott Tuomi. Rodney Menn will perform as harpsichord continuo soloist. The opera will be performed in Italian with brief English narration.

The 2006 music festival at the Liberty Theater has been moved from July to June. The festival will span 10 days, beginning with Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony” and ending with a performance of Peter Brooks’ “Le Tragedie du Carmen,” based on Bizet’s opera, “Carmen.” The festival will include the fourth edition of “The Sopranos,” which will again feature many of the premiere sopranos of the Pacific Northwest. Something new this year will be a marathon day devoted to performances of all 23 Mozart string quartets in different venues across town, culminating in a performance at the Liberty Theater.

Other productions planned for 2006 include the American premiere of the recently rediscovered fairy tale opera, “Der Stein der Weisen” (“The Philosopher’s Stone”), composed in 1790 by W.A. Mozart and his Viennese circle of friends. Composed just prior to “The Magic Flute,” this opera features a nearly identical cast and magic story set in a mysterious eastern kingdom. The production will be sung in German with English narration.

The Astoria performance of “Cosi Fan Tutte” will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28. Reserved and general seating tickets are available in advance at www.AstoriaPerformingArts.com. Tickets will also be available at the door one hour prior to the performance.