The Era of Marie Antoinette, rediscovered
Ryan Brown, Artistic Director
2022 Season
Welcome to the 2022 Season! We are thrilled to be returning to live performances at the Terrace Theater at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC and to be producing our first Spring Festival in New York, NY at the Museo del Barrio. We invite you to step back into the theater with us to experience tales of love, loss, and splendor. The Era of Marie Antoinette, rediscovered: Three unique programs The French pre-revolutionary period of the 1770’s and 80’s had resonance in the Americas. Musician and scholar Pedro Memelsdorff turns a critical eye on the meaning of French music in the colonization of the Caribbean; Artistic Director Ryan Brown and filmmaker Tania Hernandez Velasco find historical precedents for their staging of Grétry’s Silvain in the 19th century American Southwest; and harpist Sandrine Chatron recreates a facet of Marie Antoinette’s own life as musician and patron of musicians, including two composers whose lives were intertwined with the French colonies. At the center of each of these programs are three women, the first historical – Minette, the mixed-race soprano and star of the opera in Port-au-Prince, the second fictional - Hélène, the wife, mother and daughter-in-law in Silvain - and Marie Antoinette.
2022 Season-at-a-Glance
Concert Spirituel aux Caraïbes With music composed by Gossec, Dalayrac, Pergolesi, and more
Thursday, February 10, 2022, 7:30 p.m. Terrace Theater, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC Thursday, June 9, 2022, 7:00 p.m. Museo del Barrio, New York, NY
Gretry’s Silvain
A fully-staged production of this 1770 work, set in the New World Thursday, June 2, and Friday, June 3, 2022, 7:30 p.m. Terrace Theater, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC Tuesday, June 7, 2022, 7:00 p.m. Museo del Barrio, New York, NY
The Musical Salon of Marie Antoinette
Featuring works by Gluck, Chevalier de Saint Georges, Hinner, and others Wednesday, June 8, 2022, 7:00 p.m. Museo del Barrio, New York, NY
Concert Spirituel aux Caraïbes
Concert Spirituel aux Caraïbes — Sung in French with English supertitles —
Samantha Louis-Jean
Marketa Cukrova
Jehú Otero
Pedro Memelsdorff
Pedro Memelsdorff, guest conductor Josh Higgason, projection design Samantha Louis-Jean, soprano Sophia Burgos, soprano Marketa Cukrova, mezzo-soprano Jehú Otero, tenor Victor Sicard, baritone Jonathan Woody, bass-baritone The Opera Lafayette Orchestra Pedro Memelsdorff, a musician scholar whose recent research has focused on music in the French colonies in the Caribbean during the 18th century, conceives and leads a program highlighting French music performed there between 1760 and 1790. The musical life of the colonies involved enslaved, formerly enslaved, and free peoples, and Memelsdorff ’s program addresses the extraordinarily complicated dynamics between the musical culture of imperial France and the people of the Caribbean. Well-known French composers from the 18th century and newly rediscovered works are represented in this orchestral concert with vocal soloists and ensemble. Thursday, February 10, 2022, 7:30 p.m. Terrace Theater at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC Thursday, June 09, 2022, 7:00 p.m. Museo del Barrio, New York, NY Single Tickets: $30- $135 Purchase: operalafayette.org | 202-546-9332 (DC) | 212-634-9388 (NY) — A Pre-Performance Discussion will take place an hour before each performance. —
Grétry’s Silvain
Silvain
— Sung in French, with dialogue in English, and with English supertitles —
Nathan Berg
Sophia Burgos
Victor Sicard
Teresa Castillo
André Grétry, composer | Jean-François Marmontel, librettist Ryan Brown, conductor Tania Hernández Velasco, stage direction and scenic images Missy West, costume design Josh Higgason, projection design CAST (in order of appearance) Sophia Burgos, Hélène Victor Sicard, Dolmon fils ainé, sous le nom de Silvain Samantha Louis-Jean, Pauline Teresa Castillo, Lucette Jehú Otero, Bazile Nathan Berg, Dolmon père The Opera Lafayette Orchestra Silvain, (1770), was both a favorite of Marie-Antoinette in France and the first opera performed in New Orleans in 1796. Surprisingly, the opera’s story of family conflict and reconciliation also upheld the rights of peasants to use land owned by the nobles. In the early 19th century, French entrepreneurs moved to the American southwest and acquired vast tracts of land from the Mexican government. They guaranteed the peasants who settled these lands the same privileges as those at the center of the drama in Grétry and Marmontel’s opera. Conflicts around these rights in the United States have continued to the present day, and this story’s resonance in the New World has inspired Opera Lafayette’s setting of this modern premiere of Silvain. Thursday, June 2, 2022, 7:30 p.m. Terrace Theater at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC Friday, June 3, 2022, 7:30 p.m. Terrace Theater at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC Tuesday, June 7, 2022, 7:00 p.m., Museo del Barrio, NY Single Tickets: $30- $150 Purchase: operalafayette.org | 202-546-9332 (DC) | 212-634-9388 (NY) — A Pre-Performance Discussion will take place an hour before each performance. —
The Musical Salon of Marie Antoinette
The Musical Salon of Marie Antoinette — Sung in French with English supertitles —
Sophia Burgos
Nicolas Phan
Sandrine Chatron
Sandrine Chatron, harp Nicholas Phan, tenor Sophia Burgos, soprano Jacob Ashworth, violin Charles Brink, flute As the daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Marie-Antoinette had an extraordinary education in music and dance. After marrying the French Dauphin in 1770 and becoming Queen of France in 1774, she became a patron of contemporary composers and performed frequently in her own salon as a harpist. This program brings the listener into her salon at Versailles to hear airs and chamber works of Gluck, the Caribbean born Chevalier de Saint Georges, and Phillip Hinner, a survivor of the ill-fated colony Kourou in Guinea, among others. Wednesday, June 8, 2022, 7:00 p.m., Museo del Barrio, NY Single Tickets: $30- $110 Purchase: operalafayette.org | 202-546-9332 (DC) | 212-634-9388 (NY) — A Pre-Performance Discussion will take place an hour before each performance. —
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