Puccini’s Turandot is a classic example of the height of the Italian romantic style – through-composed opera with lush orchestral textures, demanding larger voices to declaim highly emotional themes. Most of Puccini’s operas are truly verismo operas in their conception, like La bohème and Tosca, recounting in ‘real time’ tales of love and sometimes violence rather than the mythological and real kings and queens or counts and countesses of the earlier operas. Turandot breaks the mold and is based on a Persian myth which Puccini sets in China. Here Puccini fits the ancient tale of the Princess Turandot in the operatic sound-world that he helped propel. Join pianist Derrick Goff and tenor Cameron Schutza as we explore how to listen to this changing operatic style.
Please join us for the Season Opener Breakfast Reception at 11:30am in the Wasserstein Gallery prior to the lecture-recital at 12pm.
-
Derrick Goff
Derrick Goff is an alumnus of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and has returned as member of the MET music staff. He has enjoyed many years of collaboration at Teatro Nuovo, a continuation of the young artist program of Bel Canto at Caramoor, where he is resident as a coach, chorusmaster, and Italian teacher. In addition to his work as a pianist, coach, and conductor, Derrick holds degrees in organ and voice from Westminster Choir College, and is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music.
Photo: Jiyang Chen
-
Cameron Schutza Tenor
Praised by Opera for his “ringing high notes” and “clarity of tone,” Cameron Schutza recently made both a role and company debut as Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with Baltimore Concert Opera. Mr. Schutza also made a company and role debut singing the challenging role of Chairman Mao in The Princeton Festival’s production of Adams’s Nixon in China, was described as having “endless power” and “the Heldentenor Adams imagined for Chairman Mao.” He sang excerpts from the title role of Siegfried for The Metropolitan Opera Guild’s Wagner Ring Showcase at Lincoln Center’s Bruno Walter Auditorium, and made his company debut as Pollione in Norma with Sarasota Opera and joined the New Jersey Festival Orchestra for a concert of arias and holiday favorites in the 2017-18 season. He is the third place winner of the 2017 Lauritz Melchior International Singing Competition in Denmark, having performed excerpts of Wagner’s heroic tenor leads with the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, as well as the 2016 recipient of the top award, the Robert Lauch Memorial Fund Endowment Award, from the Wagner Society of New York. Recent highlights for the tenor include the role of Narraboth in Salome with the Orquesta Sinfònica Nacional at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City with Carlos Prieto conducting, Manrico in Il trovatore with both Portland Summerfest and the Astoria Music Festival alongside soprano Angela Meade, Don José in Carmen with the Walla Walla Symphony, and previous performances of Pollione in Norma with Opera in the Heights.
In recent seasons, the tenor has joined the MetropolitanOpera roster for its productions of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Tannhäuser, and Salome and joined the Caramoor International Music Festival as the First Prisoner in Fidelio – while also responsible for the role of Florestan, Danieli in Les vêpres Siciliennes, Rustighello in Lucrezia Borgia, and for the cover of the title role of Don Carlos and the Duca in Rigoletto. His other credits include Jaquino in Fidelio with Michigan Opera Theatre and, on the concert stage, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony at Carnegie Hall, Verdi’s Requiem with Houston Masterworks, and Mozart’s Requiem with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic. He joined Rockport Music and soprano Elizabeth Blancke-Biggs for a recital entitled Strauss: Celebrating 150 years.
The Texas native is an alumnus of the young artist programs of Santa Fe Opera, Arizona Opera, and Palm Beach Opera and a two-time winner of the Arizona District of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.