Hartt Presents New England Premiere of
Thomas Pasatieri's Opera, The Hotel Casablanca
HARTFORD, CT:
The Hartt School presents the New England
premiere of Thomas Pasatieri’s The Hotel Casablanca Thursday, February 2,
through Saturday, February 4, at 7:30 PM, and Sunday, February 5, at 3:00 PM, in
Millard Auditorium, University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West
Hartford. Admission is $20, with discounts for seniors, students, and groups.
Admission is free for University of Hartford students, faculty, and staff with
current University ID. For tickets and information, contact the University of
Hartford Box Office at 860.768.4228 or 1.800.274.8587, or visit
www.hartford.edu/hartt.
The Hotel Casablanca is a comic tale of love, guns, and mistaken identity deep
in the heart of 1940s Texas. One critic recently wrote that The Hotel Casablanca
has just enough opera majesty to satiate grand opera adherents and enough
silliness to keep most audiences entertained. The New England premiere will be
conducted by Doris Lang Kosloff and directed by Ron Luchsinger.
Known as one of America’s most respected and performed vocal and opera composers
as well as one of Hollywood’s most successful film orchestrators, Thomas
Pasatieri will be in residence at The Hartt School throughout the week of the
production, when he will hold master classes and coach students in preparation
for the performances.
In addition, Mr. Pasatieri will discuss his life, career, and work during an
interview and Q&A session on Thursday, February 2, at 12:00 PM, in Millard
Auditorium. Free and open to the public, this discussion will take place on The
Hotel Casablanca set and be lead by Hartt faculty member Doris Lang Kosloff, the
production’s conductor.
Undergraduate vocal students headlining alternating casts are: Matthew Cramer of
Nyack, NY, and Alex Hunt of Coventry, CT, as Burton; Daniel Fortine of Elkins
Park, PA, and George Mason of Farmington, CT, as Charles; Sydney Anderson of
Gasport, NY, and Maria Cook of Scarborough, ME, as Tallulah; Erica Jeski of West
Hartford, CT, and Sara Lobdell of Marlboro NY, as Lucy; Gregory Flower of Keene,
NH, and Miguel Vasquez of Waterbury, CT, as Tom; Joseph Baker of Greenbelt, MD,
and Michael Spaziani of Nashua, NH, as Raul; Marlon McWilliams of Capitol
Heights, MD, and Dean Murphy of Maynard, MA, as Tobias; Emily Dalessio of
Ridgefield, CT, and Dana Kephart of Flemington, NJ, as Bluebell Pooder; Angela
Joy Lamb of Ledyard Center, CT, and Erica Maas of Manchester, CT, as Veronique.
Composer Thomas Pasatieri was born October 20, 1945 in New York. By the age of
ten Pasatieri had established himself as an accomplished performing pianist, and
at fifteen he began his work as a composer. As a teenager, he studied with the
renowned French teacher Nadia Boulanger. He entered The Juilliard School at age
sixteen and went on to become the school's first recipient of a doctoral degree.
Mr. Pasatieri composed and wrote the libretto for his first opera, The Trysting
Place, while an undergraduate at Juilliard. His first staged opera was The
Women, a one-act work based on an original story. It premiered at the 1965 Aspen
Festival and won the composition contest for that year. Among his 19 operas are
La Divina (1966), Padrevia (1967), Black Widow (1972), The Trial of Mary Lincoln
(1972), Signor Deluso (1974), Washington Square (1976), Before Breakfast (1980),
Three Sisters (1986), and his best known work, The Seagull (1972), which
received its world premiere recording in 2003 (Albany Records).
In 2007, Mr. Pasatieri made his highly anticipated return to opera with the
premieres of two new works. Frau Margot, an opera in three acts, was
commissioned by the Fort Worth Opera and premiered in June, with Joseph Illick
conducting and librettist Frank Corsaro directing. August 2007 saw the premiere
of Mr. Pasatieri’s new two-act comic opera, The Hotel Casablanca, with a
libretto by the composer. The Hotel Casablanca was premiered by the San
Francisco Opera Center Merola Singers, also under the baton of Joseph Illick,
with direction by Richard Kagey. Both operas were well received by audience
members and critics alike. In the words of Georgia Rowe (Contra Costa Times),
"The Hotel Casablanca is one of those rarer-than-hen’s-teeth works:
contemporary, well-crafted, richly musical and riotously funny…" And Frau
Margot, replete with "a score of a voluptuous splendor that suggests Klimt’s
gilded paintings set to music… has all the markings of a masterpiece" (Wes
Blomster, operatoday.com).
In addition to his sizeable opera catalogue, Mr. Pasatieri has composed hundreds
of songs, which have been performed and recorded by such artists as Janet Baker,
Jane Eaglen, Sheri Greenawald, Thomas Hampson, Evelyn Lear, Catherine Malfitano,
Ashley Putnam, Frederica von Stade, Thomas Stewart, and Shirley Verrett. These
works include Heloïse and Abelard (1971), Rites of Passage (1974), Three Poems
of James Agee (1974), Canciones del barrio (1983), Three Sonnets from the
Portuguese (1984), Sieben Lehmannlieder (Seven Lehmann Songs to texts by Lotte
Lehmann) (1988), Three Poems of Oscar Wilde (1998), and the orchestral song
cycle, with chorus, Letter to Warsaw (2003).
A prolific composer for chorus, Mr. Pasatieri's works for this genre include
Permit Me Voyage (1974), The Harvest Frost (1993), Bang the Drum Loudly (1994),
and Mornings Innocent (1995), which was premiered and recorded by the Los
Angeles Gay Men's Chorus. Among his instrumental works are: Invocation,
commissioned and premiered by Leonard Slatkin and the New York Youth Symphony
(1968); Theatrepieces, for Clarinet, Violin and Piano (1987); Concerto for Piano
and Strings (1994); Sonata for Viola and Piano (1995); Quartet for Flute and
Strings (1995); Sonata for Flute and Piano (1997); Windsong, premiered and
recorded by Trio Ariana (2001); and three piano sonatas.
Recent works include Lady Macbeth and The Daughter of Capulet, two concert
monodramas taken from the Shakespeare plays, and two instrumental works:
Rhapsody for Double bass and Piano and Concerto for Harpsichord.
Mr. Pasatieri has taught composition at Juilliard, the Manhattan School of
Music, and Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. From 1980 through 1984, he
held the post of Artistic Director at Atlanta Opera. In 1984, he moved to Los
Angeles, where he formed his film music production company, Topaz Productions.
His film orchestrations can be heard in Road to Perdition, American Beauty, The
Little Mermaid, The Shawshank Redemption, Fried Green Tomatoes, Legends of the
Fall, Scent of a Woman, and Angels in America, among many others.
The Hartt School is the comprehensive performing arts school of the University
of Hartford that offers innovative degree programs in music, dance, and theatre.
Founded in 1920, Hartt has been an integral part of the University of Hartford
since its charter merged the then Hartt School of Music, the Hartford Art
School, and Hillyer College to create the University in 1957. 2010 marked
Hartt’s 90th year of providing world class performing arts education to students
in Greater-Hartford and around the world. With more than 400 concerts, recitals,
plays, master classes, dance performances, and musical theatre productions a
year, performance is central to Hartt’s curriculum. For more information about
The Hartt School, visit
www.hartford.edu/hartt.
