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 Newport Symphony
Liberty Theater Presents Season 5
Newport Symphony
Sunday, January 29, 2012, 3:00 p.m.
Conductors: Adam Flatt and David Ogden Stiers
David Ogden Stiers, Narrator
Mendelssohn Music from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Kellogg Pyramus and Thisbe
Beethoven Symphony No. 2
Daniel Kellogg's work for a comic Shakespearean actor and orchestra, with part of the fifth act of A Midsummer Night's Dream, has been a huge hit with audiences since its premiere with the National Symphony in Washington. That fantastic play also inspired young Felix Mendelssohn to compose some of the world's most magical music. Our own David Ogden Stiers brings his gifts as a Shakespearean actor to the Kellogg, and as a conductor to Mendelssohn's music. Beethoven's joyous Second Symphony rounds out the program.
'The course of true love never did run smooth'
Act I, Scene I A Midsummer Night’s Dream
BIOS
David Ogden Stiers, Associate Conductor
Although best known as an actor, David Ogden Stiers has had an active secondary career as a conductor. He has guest conducted over thirty American orchestras in such cities as San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Honolulu, and Chicago. Stiers’ acting credits include Broadway appearances in Ulysses, and Magic Town and toured in The Three Sisters, Measure for Measure, and The Beggar’s Opera. His film credits include Oh God!, The Accidental Tourist, Beauty and the Beast, and Mighty Aphrodite. On television he has played major roles in MASH, The Innocents Abroad, and Murder She Wrote. He narrated the PBS miniseries on Ronald Reagan and New York City. He has been nominated three times for Emmy awards.
Maestro Adam Flatt, Music Director
Adam Flatt is now in his third season at the helm of the Newport Symphony where he is leading the NSO in exciting, sold-out performances at home in the Performing Arts Center, and is widely credited with bringing the orchestra to new artistic heights. He first led the NSO as a guest conductor in 1998. After returning in 2006 he was invited to succeed Sylvain Fremaux as the orchestra’s Music Director.
Adam Flatt is a versatile conductor who excels in many kinds of music making. Whether in a formal symphonic concert, an informal performance for families or children, a performance with talented student musicians, or in the opera or ballet theater, Adam’s warm musical style and affable stage presence connects audiences to great music all over the United States. Adam also serves as Music Director of the Colorado Ballet in Denver and is principal conductor of Emerald City Opera, a summer festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
His professional career began as Apprentice Conductor of the Oregon Symphony. Mr. Flatt has guest conducted the orchestras of Alabama, Cheyenne, Dallas, Delaware, Houston, Lubbock, Midland, Missoula, Monterey, Oregon, Sacramento, Saint Louis, San Juan, Santa Rosa, South Carolina, and many others. He has led performances with the major ballet companies of Portland and Salt Lake City as well as that of Denver. Mr. Flatt returns each summer to conduct a production for Emerald City Opera, a festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. In addition, he has led productions for Colorado Light Opera, Eugene Opera, and Colorado Symphony collaborations with Central City Opera and Opera Colorado, including the wildly popular Opera on the Rocks at Red Rocks.
Adam Flatt has his bachelor’s degree with honors in music from the University of California at Berkeley, and his master’s degree in conducting from the Indiana University School of Music. He studied music for two years in Austria and Germany, and studied at the Aspen Music Festival.
PLAY SYNOPSIS:
Athens, Greece. The main plot of Midsummer is a complex farce that involves two sets of couples (Hermia & Lysander and Helena & Demetrius) whose romantic intrigues are confused and complicated still further by entering the forest where Oberon, the King of the Fairies and his Queen, Titania, preside. Puck (or Robin Goodfellow) is a major character who is full of mischief and tricks. Other visitors to the enchanted forest include Bottom the weaver and his friends Snug, Snout, Quince and Flute who want to rehearse their dire but hilarious rendering of the play Pyramus and Thisbe. The themes illustrated in the play are that Love triumphs in the end and the pleasure of Dreaming the Impossible Dream.
History of A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's was first performed between 1595 and 1596. In the Elizabethan era there was a huge demand for new entertainment and A Midsummer Night's Dream would have been produced immediately following the completion of the play. It is believed that the script was first printed in 1600. As William Shakespeare clearly did not want his work published details of the play would have therefore been noted, and often pirated without his consent, following a performance.
Unlike many of his other plays it does not include any historical figures. The feast of John the Baptist was celebrated as an English festival on June 24 (Midsummer Day). It was believed that on Midsummer Night that the fairies and witches held their festival. To dream about Midsummer Night was to conjure up images of fairies and witches and other similar creatures and supernatural events.
All characters and the plot are purely fictitious but Shakespeare may have based parts of the play on The Knight's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 - 1400)
Sunday, January 29th, 2012
Show Begins at 3:00 PM
This event is presented by the Liberty Theater
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