New York City Opera and Target present a family performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute on Saturday, April 4th at 1pm at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, Queens.
The one hour, semi-staged presentation of the opera will be sung in English, and will feature New York City Opera singers and orchestra conducted by the company's Music Director George Manahan. The performance will be preceded by a 45-minute interactive workshop, led by New York City Opera musicians, singers, and teaching staff, who will introduce audience members to the world of musical drama. Participants will learn an aria, witness how artists get into character and be encouraged to ask questions to gain a better understanding of the plot and music of The Magic Flute. A number of children will also be given the opportunity to join the cast in a walk-on role during the performance.
"The Magic Flute is an ideal introductory opera for children, and through the generous support of our partner Target, we are thrilled to offer this presentation to families in Queens and beyond." said New York City Opera General Manager George Steel. Target's president of community relations Laysha Ward added, "At Target, our local grants are making a difference in the communities we serve. We are proud to partner with New York City Opera as part of our ongoing commitment to give back to the communities where our guests and team members live and work."
The cast for the performance includes tenor Brian Anderson as Tamino, soprano Pamela Jones as First Lady, mezzo-soprano Ariana Chris as Second Lady, mezzo-soprano Krysty Swann as Third Lady, baritone Kyungmook Yum as Papageno, soprano Amy Shoremount-Obra as Queen of the Night, soprano Jennifer Greene as Pamina, tenor Jeffrey Halili as Monostatos, bass Young-Bok Kim as Sarastro, and soprano Lielle Berman as Papagena.
Tickets
The purchase of one (1) adult Target ticket priced at just $20 will entitle up to four (4) children ages 6-14 years old to attend the performance for FREE. Purchase tickets at www.nycOpera.com
Location for April 4 performance
LaGuardia Performing Arts Center at LaGuardia Community College
31-10 Thompson Avenue, Long Island City, Queens, NY
(718) 482-5151
The presentation of The Magic Flute is part of this year's Opera Is Elementary in-school educational program. Preceding the family matinee on April 4, New York City Opera and Target will have presented 6 performances of the specially adapted opera as the culminating point of the program. Opera is Elementary brings opera into the classrooms of nearly 3,000 elementary school children from over 30 schools in all five boroughs, Connecticut and New Jersey. Prior to attending the opera performances, classroom teachers participating in the program will have attended professional development seminars taught by City Opera teaching artists to learn how to incorporate opera and The Magic Flute into their curriculum. Students will have also received workshops with the City Opera teaching artists to introduce them to the plot, characters, themes and music of Mozart's popular opera. At the Target school performances, a handful of students will have the opportunity to perform as "extras" in the production, and all students will be invited to sing along during the musical selections they have learned.
About City Opera School Programs
With over thirty-five years experience in arts-in-education programs, New York City Opera has developed innovative and substantive public and private school arts partnerships. Following the City Opera mission to present opera in an engaging and thought provoking manner, the Education programs provide students of all ages with tools to discover the connections between the opera, the larger world, and their own lives. Supported by intensive teacher training, in-school workshops and online lesson plans, City Opera Education programs introduce students to the world of opera through an array of engaging, age-appropriate works. With the help of teaching artists, many schools choose to create their own unique productions based on their New York City Opera experience. Throughout the years, the company's core programs, Opera is Elementary, The Middle School Opera and Literacy Project, and The High School Partnerships have grown into national models of arts-in-education.
About New York City Opera
Since its founding in 1943, New York City Opera has been recognized as one of America's preeminent cultural institutions, celebrated for its adventurous programming and innovative, risk-taking production style. The company's wide-ranging repertory of 273 works spans five centuries of music and includes 29 world premieres and 61 American and/or New York premieres of such notable works as Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shostakovich's Katerina Ismailova, Busoni's Doktor Faust, Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges and The Flaming Angel, Zimmermann's Die Soldaten, Schoenberg's Moses und Aron, and Glass' Akhnaten. The company has been a leading showcase for young artists, having helped launch the careers of more than 3,000 singers including José Carreras, Phyllis Curtin, David Daniels, Plácido Domingo, Lauren Flanigan, Renée Fleming, Elizabeth Futral, Jerry Hadley, Catherine Malfitano, Bejun Mehta, Sherrill Milnes, Samuel Ramey, Gianna Rolandi, Beverly Sills, Norman Treigle, Tatiana Troyanos, and Carol Vaness. In 1983 City Opera made operatic history when it became the first American opera company to use supertitles, an innovation that has revolutionized the way opera is produced and appreciated worldwide.
New York City Opera and New York City Ballet have undertaken a $200 million capital campaign-the first such joint venture in the companies' histories-to enhance audience amenities and provide a state-of-the-art environment for productions at their shared home, the David H. Koch Theater, renamed in honor of Mr. David H. Koch's $100 million lead gift to the joint capital campaign.
During the renovations, City Opera has taken to the road, bringing live music and provocative cultural conversation to more than fourteen different venues across New York City. In addition to the concert presentations of Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra at Carnegie Hall, highlights of the year include a concert of 20th-century vocal and orchestral music led by Music Director George Manahan, which is being performed citywide. In May City Opera will present the 10th Anniversary edition of VOX: Showcasing American Opera.
In February 2009, George Steel, former Executive Director of the Miller Theatre at Columbia University, began his tenure as the company's new General Manager and Artistic Director. Building on the company's core mission of artistic excellence and accessibility, Mr. Steel's exciting plans for City Opera include a further expansion of the company's wide-ranging repertory, a renewed commitment to mentoring the careers of promising singers, and the continued development of the company's acclaimed education and outreach programs.
About Target
Minneapolis-based Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) serves guests at 1,677 stores in 48 states nationwide and at Target.com. Target is committed to providing a fun and convenient shopping experience with access to unique and highly differentiated products at affordable prices. Since 1946, the corporation has given 5 percent of its income through community grants and programs like Take Charge of Education. Today, that giving equals more than $3 million a week.
New York City Opera Education Sponsors
New York City Opera Education Programs are made possible by leadership support from The Bodman Foundation, Bloomberg, The Buck Family Foundation, Con Edison, Citi Foundation, The Double-R Foundation, Flavia M. Gale, The Gilder Foundation, Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc., New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts (The Honorable David A. Paterson, Governor, Dr. Mary Schmidt, Chairman), Newman's Own Foundation, Target, Agnes Varis, The Walt Disney Company, and contributors to City Opera's Education Appeal
