Wolf Trap Opera's The Touchstone - Act I

JUNE & JULY 2017 | WOLF TRAP OPERA

This Wolf Trap Opera premiere and new production was presented at The Barns at Wolf Trap in June and July 2017. Special thanks to Dan and Gayle D’Aniello, 2017 Wolf Trap Opera Season Underwriters, and Ed and Andy Smith, 2017 Performance Sponsors.

Please turn on closed captioning to view English subtitles.


THE TOUCHSTONE
La pietra del paragone
Music by Gioacchino Rossini
Libretto by Luigi Romanelli

Touchstone (noun) 1. a piece of fine-grained stone used to test the purity of gold 2. a test or criterion for determining the genuineness of a thing

In this sparkling Rossini comedy, a wealthy man devises a test to separate his true friends from those who love him only for his money.

Although “touchstone” is no longer regularly used in the English language, it is still alive in an Italian proverb that forms the basis of this sparkling comic opera. They say “Men have a touchstone to test gold, but gold is really the touchstone to test men.” (“L’uomo ha la pietra di paragone per saggiare l’oro, ma l’oro è la pietra di paragone per saggiare gli uomini.”)

Rossini and his librettist Romanelli demonstrate that money is indeed a way to find who your true friends are. Along the way in The Touchstone, we encounter all of the things we’ve come to love about opera buffa – acrobatic high-wire vocal feats, comic mistaken identities, a Rossinian storm, love triangles, and larger-than-life personalities. The Touchstone is performed with some regularity in Europe, and there are two commercial DVDs available (of productions in Madrid and Paris), but it has yet to catch on in the U.S. It was the 20-year-old Rossini’s first full-length opera commission, and its success launched his career. Wolf Trap Opera is pleased to present the east coast premiere of this comic gem – its first professional production since 1992.


CAST IN ORDER OF VOCAL APPEARANCE
Pacuvio, a poet – Shea Owens
Fabrizio, a servant – Anthony Schneider
Baroness Aspasia – Megan Mikailovna Samarin
Donna Fulvia – Summer Hassan
Macrobio, a journalist – Kihun Yoon
Giocondo, Asdrubale’s friend – Alasdair Kent
Clarice – Zoie Reams
Count Asdrubale – Richard Ollarsaba
Guests & Servants of the Count* – Ricardo Garcia, Sam Grosby, Cory Gross, Senhica Klee, Jonathan Bryan, Geoffrey Hahn, Michael Hawk, Matthew Fleisher, Andrew Gilstrap
*Studio Artist

CREATIVE TEAM
Conductor – Antony Walker
Director – E. Loren Meeker
Scenic Designer – Erhard Rom
Costume Designer – Erik Teague
Lighting Designer – Robert H. Grimes
Wig & Makeup Designer – Anne Nesmith
Chorusmaster – David Hanlon

MUSIC & PRODUCTION TEAM
Musical Preparation – David Hanlon, Nicolò Sbuelz, Lindsay Woodward
Italian Coach – Nicolò Sbuelz
Assistant Director – Marcus Shields
Production Stage Manager – Michael Janney
Assistant Stage Manager – Madeline Levy
Supertitle Coordinator – K. Annie Brooks

The musicians employed in this production are members of and represented by the D.C. Federation of Musicians, AFM Local 161-710.

Video Production by Blue Land Media
Audio Engineering by Classical 90.9 WETA

Opera streaming video presentations are made possible with support from the Lincoln and Therese Filene Foundation.

For more information on WTO's video streaming initiative, visit http://opera.wolftrap.org/for-audienc...