Composer Richard Danielpour Richard Danielpour has received such prestigious honors as a Lifetime Achievement Award and Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, a Guggenheim Award, Bearns Prize from Columbia University, and grants and residencies from the Barlow Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Copland House, and the American Academy in Rome. In Fall 2002, he became one of the first recipients of a coveted Alberto Vilar Fellowship and Residency at the American Academy in Berlin. One of the most recorded composers of his generation, his music can be heard on SONY, Reference Recordings, Delos, Koch, Harmonia Mundi, and New World. Librettist Toni Morrison Toni Morrison is a founding member of the Academie Universelle Des Culture, a trustee of the New York Public Library, member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and The International Parliament of Writers and Author’s Guild. She served on the National Council of the Arts, and is a member of the Africa Watch and Helsinki Watch Committees on Human Rights. Toni Morrison was appointed Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University in the Spring of 1989. Mezzo-Soprano Denyce Graves Mezzo-Soprano Tracie Luck
Ms. Luck made her New York City Opera debut in 2007 in the title role of Margaret Garner. She covered for Ms. Graves for the world premiere and for subsequent performances with Cincinnati Opera, the Opera Company of Philadelphia and Opera Carolina. She also performed Margaret Garner in workshops designed to musically hone and promote the new opera, including performances at New York City Opera's VOX 2004 Festival and in Cincinnati Opera and Opera Company of Philadelphia's outreach tours. She was the mezzo soloist in the world premiere of Triptych (from Margaret Garner) with Maestro André Raphel Smith and the Wheeling Symphony. Other roles include Maddalena in Rigoletto with Cincinnati Opera and Michigan Opera Theatre. Flora in La traviata, Virginelle in La Périchole, Annie and Lily in Porgy and Bess with the Opera Company of Philadelphia; Third Lady in The Magic Flute, Fricka and Grimgerde in Die Walküre, and Maddalena, Giovanna, Countess di Ceprano, and the Page in Rigoletto with Virginia Opera. Conductor Stefan Lano During the 2005 season, Lano premiered two new operas in the United States: Mark Adamo's Lysistrata at the Houston Grand Opera and Richard Danielpour's Margaret Garner in co-productions with the Michigan Opera Theater, Cincinnati Opera and The Opera Company of Philadelphia. Besides continuing as Music Director at the Teatro Colón in 2007, he will make his conducting debut at the Semper Oper Dresden and the Dortmunder Philharmoniker in addition to return appearances at the Opera Company of Philadelphia and Cincinnati Opera. Director Kenny Leon Prior to founding True Colors, Leon served as artistic director of the Atlanta-based Alliance Theatre Company for over adecade and has directed nationally at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, San Jose Repertory Theatre, NYSF/Public Theater, GoodmanTheatre, Hartford Stage Company, Arena Stage and theHuntington Theatre Company among others. The Design Team Michigan Opera Theatre and General Director David DiChiera |
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Grammy Award-winning composer Richard Danielpour is one of the most gifted and sought-after composers of his generation. His music has attracted an illustrious array of champions and, as a devoted mentor and educator, he has also had a significant impact on the younger generation of composers. His music has been commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia and Stuttgart Radio Orchestras, Orchestre National de France, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and San Francisco, Pittsburgh, National, and Baltimore Symphonies. His work has been championed by Yo-Yo Ma, Jessye Norman, Dawn Upshaw, Emanuel Ax, Frederica von Stade, Thomas Hampson, Gary Graffman, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, the Guarneri, Emerson, and American String Quartets, and the New York City and Pacific Northwest Ballets. Margaret Garner is his first opera.
One of the most honored writers of our time, Toni Morrison has received the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (Paris) among many other awards. A Nobel Laureate, Toni Morrison’s seven novels, The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Beloved, Jazz, and Paradise,have received extensive critical acclaim. She has edited several books of essays on a wide variety of subjects. Ms. Morrison has written lyrics for Kathleen Battle, (commissioned by Carnegie Hall), Sylvia McNair, and Jessye Norman. She was a senior editor at Random House for twenty years.
Recognized worldwide as one of today's most exciting vocal stars, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves continues to gather unparalleled popular and critical acclaim in performances on four continents. She is particularly well known to operatic audiences for her portrayals of the title roles in Carmen and Samson et Dalila, which have brought her to the world’s great opera houses and concert halls, incuding the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, Royal Opera – Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Washington Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Arena di Verona, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opernhaus Zürich, Teatro Real in Madrid, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Los Angeles Opera, and the Festival Maggio Musicale in Florence. The combination of her expressive, rich vocalism, elegant stage presence and exciting theatrical abilities allows her to pursue a wide breadth of operatic portrayals as well as delight audiences in concert and recital appearances. Graves has been the recipient of many awards, including the Grand Prix du Concours International de Chant de Paris, the Eleanor Steber Music Award in the Opera Columbus Vocal Competition, and a Jacobson Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. In 1991, she received the Grand Prix Lyrique, awarded once every three years by the Association des amis de l'opéra de Monte-Carlo, and the Marian Anderson Award, presented to her by Miss Anderson.
Music Director of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Argentina since 2005, Stefan Lano began conducting through his work as composer and after an extensive tenure on the music staff of the Vienna State Opera. After completing degrees in Composition at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Biology at Oberlin College, he was awarded a full scholarship for study at Harvard University, from which he holds a PhD in Composition. Among his awards as a composer are a BMI Award in Composition for his Sinfonie Nr. 1, the National Society of Arts and Letters First Prize for his Concerto for Piano and Wind Orchestra and an American Music Center (Rockefeller Foundation) Composition Grant.
In 2005-06, Kenny Leon directed the world premiere of Toni Morrison’s Margaret Garner at Michigan Opera Theatre, Cincinnati Opera and Opera Company of Philadelphia. Broadway directing credits include Radio Golf (four Tony nominations), Gem of the Ocean (five Tony nominations), and the Tony Award-winning A Raisin in the Sun. He recently directed the film version of A Raisin in the Sun, airing on ABC in February 2008. Leon is the Artistic Director of August Wilson’s 20th Century festival at D.C.’s Kennedy Center, March 2008. Leon, who heads True Colors Theatre Company, has directed extensively throughout the country and garnered numerous awards for his artistry and entrepreneurial spirit.
Since 1971, when Dr. David DiChiera founded Michigan Opera Theatre, the Company has had a special commitment to American opera and musical theater. In its first decade it presented some of the first revivals of Regina, The Emperor Jones, Tender Land (then televised on PBS with Aaron Copland conducting) and the World Premiere of Pasatieri's Washington Square. In the 1980s, Michigan Opera Theatre was the first opera company to offer productions of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, and Follies, and The Most Happy Fella, which went on to enjoy a successful run on Broadway. The Company has a long and distinguished history of presenting works relevant to the large ethnic groups that make up its community. By presenting a series of nationalist operas, including the North American premiere performances of Anoush (Armenian), The Haunted Castle, and King Roger (Polish), Michigan Opera Theatre has received international recognition for building important bridges within the community it serves. Despite its history, the Company hadn’t presented a new work or world premiere on the stage of its new home, the Detroit Opera House (Est. 1996), until David DiChiera embarked upon the development of Richard Danielpour’s Margaret Garner, which premiered at the Detroit Opera House in 2005. Margaret Garner furthered the Company's mandate to encourage the growth of American opera. Michigan Opera Theatre will present the world premiere of David DiChiera’s own opera, Cyrano, in October 2007.