Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Getty and LA Opera united for "Illuminating German Art and Opera"

Fill your day with looking, listening, and learning about German manuscripts and opera. The J. Paul Getty Museum, in collaboration with the LA Opera, offers Illuminating German Art and Opera, bringing together scholars of art and music to explore the connections between the Getty exhibition German and Central European Manuscript Illumination and LA Opera's production of two Richard Wagner masterpieces, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, the first two installments of the Ring cycle.

The day includes lectures by LA Opera’s music director James Conlon, Getty scholar Henrike Manuwald, and UCLA professor Mitchell Morris, guided gallery tours with museum educators, and a recital with pianist Catherine Miller, soprano Kathleen Roland, and tenor Robert MacNeil.
The program will take place on Saturday, March 21 from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. in the Museum Lecture Hall at the Getty Center. The course fee is $60; $30 for students/seniors.

Schedule

9:30–10:00 a.m. Coffee and Registration

10:00–10:15 a.m. Welcome
Clare Kunny, Manager, Public Education and Teaching, J. Paul Getty Museum

10:15–10:45 a.m. History and Myth: Richard Wagner and the German Middle Ages
Henrike Manuwald, Department of Manuscripts, J. Paul Getty Museum

10:45–11:30 a.m. Politics, Religion, and Identity in The Ring
Mitchell Morris, Associate Professor, University of California, Los Angeles

11:30–11:40 a.m. Break

11:40 a.m.–12:25 p.m. A Conversation with James Conlon
James Conlon, Richard Seaver Music Director of LA Opera

12:25–1:15 p.m. Lunch (box lunch included in course fee)

1:15–2:15 p.m. Guided Gallery Tours

2:15–3:30 p.m. Religion and Mythology in Music
Introduction by Jennifer Babcock, Associate Director of Education and Community Programs, LA Opera
Catherine Miller, Piano
Robert MacNeil, Tenor
Kathleen Roland, Soprano

3:30–4:00 p.m. Questions and Closing Remarks

About the Speakers

Henrike Manuwald received her PhD in history of art and German literature from Cologne University and is a fellow of Trinity College London (violin). After completing her current internship in the Department of Manuscripts of the J. Paul Getty Museum, she will take up an assistant professorship in medieval German literature at Freiburg University.

Mitchell Morris is associate professor in the Department of Musicology at UCLA. He has written and spoken on a plethora of topics, including 19th- and 20th-century opera, gender and sexuality in music, American popular song, problems of musical ethics, and the songs of humpback whales.

James Conlon, one of today's preeminent conductors, is music director of the LA Opera. This season he is conducting the first two installments of Wagner's Ring cycle, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre. He has conducted to acclaim across Europe and North America and received numerous awards, including the Crystal Globe Award from the Anti-Defamation League for his efforts in championing the works of composers silenced by the Nazi regime.

About the Performers

Kathleen Roland
Soprano Kathleen Roland is an active soloist in the realms of both opera and orchestral music. A featured singer with many music festivals, including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Britten-Pears Institute in England and the Tanglewood Music Festival. She has sung, to critical acclaim, with the Grammy award-winning Southwest Chamber Music Society, Pacific Serenades, the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and The Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella series. Ms. Roland holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in vocal performance from the University of Southern California, and is a Fulbright scholar. She is currently on the faculty as Visiting Assistant Professor at Scripps College in Claremont.

Robert MacNeil
Tenor Robert MacNeil has been praised by the Los Angeles Times for possessing a voice that is “clarion” and “clear.” He regularly performs at Los Angeles Opera, most recently in that company’s productions of Tannhäuser, Der Rosenkavalier, Il Trovatore, Fidelio and La Bohème; he returns this 2008-2009 season for Il Tabarro. The tenor made his debut with the famed Ojai Festival under Kent Nagano in Orff’s Die Kluge and recorded the role of Martin in Copland’s opera The Tender Land, which was released on the Koch International Label.

Catherine Miller
Accompanist Catherine Miller, a native Californian, is currently a pianist and prompter for Los Angeles Opera and the artistic consultant for the Pasadena Opera Guild. Internationally, she has worked in Italy at the Opera Festival of Lucca and the Spoleto Festival, and also at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile. She has worked with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Opera Pacific, the Santa Fe Opera, the San Diego Opera Ensemble. In addition to her work as an operatic vocal coach and piano teacher, Ms. Miller is also an organist. A graduate of the U.S.C. School of Music and the Juilliard School, she was a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary.

Visiting the Getty Center:
The Getty Center is open Tuesday through Friday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. It is closed Monday and major holidays. Admission to the Getty Center is always free. Parking is $10. No reservation is required for parking or general admission. Reservations are required for event seating and groups of 15 or more. Please call 310-440-7300 (English or Spanish) for reservations and information. The TTY line for callers who are deaf or hearing impaired is 310-440-7305.

Additional information is available at www.getty.edu.

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