Don Giovanni rehearsal with Maestro Dean Williamson in the pit.
Don Giovanni Features Guest Maestro Dean Williamson and Two Talented Casts
The Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music presents Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni, conducted by guest maestro Dean Williamson and directed by Benjamin Wayne Smith, Wednesday, February 1 through Saturday, February 4 at 7:30 p.m., with a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. on February 5. The opera, featuring two fantastic student casts and members of the BW Symphony Orchestra, will take place in the Kleist Center for Art and Drama, 95 E. Bagley Rd., Berea. Tickets are $15 for adults, with a discounted senior and student ticket price of $10.
Don Juan has fascinated authors, composers and audiences since he was first introduced to the world almost four hundred years ago. Mozart's spectacular operatic retelling Don Giovanni is considered by many to be his best opera. It tells the story of Giovanni's final day on earth, a day driven by obsession, murder and revenge. Mozart's genius coupled with this timeless story gives us an evening you won't want to miss.
Dean Williamson, guest conductor for Don Giovanni, is widely known throughout the United States for his perceptive and commanding conducting. The Washington Post says "a brilliantly directed, beautifully sung and endlessly funny Barber of Seville...the orchestra, which played the sparkling overture and the vivid storm music with grace and color under the expert baton of Dean Williamson." The Seattle Times says "Williamson keeps a sure, steady hand on the singers and the orchestra...realizing the shimmering and otherworldly textures of the score."
Williamson's engagements this season include La Fanciulla del West at the Nashville Opera, La Boheme with Opera Santa Barbara, and the World Premiere of Lori Laitman's The Scarlet Letter with Opera Colorado.
Benjamin Wayne Smith, director of opera at BW, brings a balance of practical experience and innovative storytelling to his productions. Opera News has hailed his work as "full of comic inventiveness." Smith has led fourteen new productions since 1999, ranging from Mozart's Cosi fan tutte to Conrad Susa's modern treatment of The Dangerous Liaisons. He has worked with Seattle Opera, Washington National Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, among others and holds a Masters degree in opera stage directing from the University of Cincinnati.
For tickets and information, please call 440-826-2240. To verify dates and times of all Conservatory events and for driving directions, visit www.bw.edu/academics/conservatory/events.