MARCELLO GIORDANI, TENOR, AND MEAGAN MILLER, SOPRANO, PRESENTED BY THE GEORGE LONDON FOUNDATION RECITAL SERIES AT THE MORGAN LIBRARY & MUSEUM ON SUNDAY, MARCH 4, 2012, AT 5:00 PM.“Scores of important singers have been discovered by the [George London Foundation] competition over the years,” wrote Peter G. Davis in The New York Times on February 12. One of these, 2008 George London Award-winning soprano Meagan Miller, joins star tenor Marcello Giordani to make the latest pair of singers presented by the George London Foundation Recital Series, which often features a recent winner of the foundation’s competition and an established opera star.
On Sunday, March 4, 2012, at 5:00 PM, with Howard Watkins at the piano, Mr. Giordani performs Puccini’s “Ch’ella mi creda libero” from La Fanciulla del Westand “Donna non vidi mai” from Manon Lescaut as well as Neapolitan songs by Tosti; and Ms. Miller sings songs by Brahms and Fauré, and “Tu che le vanita” from Verdi’s Don Carlo (further program details below). The program will conclude with the pair singing a duet from Verdi’s Otello.
In February and March, Marcello Giordani sings three roles at the Metropolitan Opera: the title role in Ernani, Radames in Aida (a role in which he made his debut just last season with the San Francisco Opera), and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. This past December, he sang the role of Don José in a production of Carmen at the Royal Opera House in Muscat, the capital of Oman. The Times of Oman praised “his strength as an actor. His Don José was weak and incapable of resisting a captivating woman. ...Giordani seemed tormented and frustrated, a perfect Don José!”
In 2008, Meagan Miller won both a George London Award and the London Foundation’s Vienna Prize, a two-week residency in Austria where the prize-winner receives an audition with the Vienna Opera and intensive musical coaching in German repertoire and language. This past December, she made her debut in the title role of Daphneat the Vienna State Opera. The Vienna daily Die Presse described her as“floating, powerful in a gleaming debut ... In the center stands a new Daphne, who can do justice to the eminent demands: to grow from many lightning-clean coloratura-decorated flower greetings to appropriate mythic greatness.” Coming up later this spring are her role debut as Elisabetta in Don Carlo, and Desdemona in Otello, both with Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Upcoming events in 2011-2012
The George London Foundation for Singers season at the Morgan also features the annual awards competition and the final event in the season’s recital series:
- The 41st annual George London Foundation Awards Competition begins with three days of preliminary auditions and culminates with the final round and award ceremony open to the public. The 2012 competition takes place February 13-17, and the public is invited to attend the competition finals and awards announcement on Friday, February 17, 2012.
- Lisette Oropesa, soprano, and Brian Mulligan, baritone, perform in recital with Ken Noda, piano, on Sunday, April 1, 2012, at 5:00 PM. Ms. Oropesa, a 2008 George London Award winner; and Mr. Mulligan, who won the award in 2003, perform their only New York recitals.
The Legacy of George London
The goal of the George London Foundation, the support and nurturing of young singers, was an abiding interest of the great American bass-baritone George London, who devoted a great part of the time and energy of his later years to this purpose. “Remembering his difficult road to success, George wanted to devise a way to make the road a little easier for future generations of singers,” said George London Foundation President Nora London. Initially created under the auspices of the National Opera Institute, the George London Awards program has been administered since 1990 directly by the Foundation as a living legacy to George London’s own exceptional talent and generosity.
“I have never forgotten how George accepted my performance of Donna Anna with himself as [Don Giovanni] in Vancouver in 1958. His belief in my ability gave a huge boost to my confidence, something he did for so many young singers during his spectacular career.”
-Dame Joan Sutherland
Meagan Miller (www.meaganmillersoprano.com) is making celebrated debuts on important stages all over the world, interpreting the leading ladies of Mozart, Strauss, Verdi, and Wagner. Ms. Miller’s 2011-2012 season includes a series of role debuts: the title role in Richard Strauss’ Daphne at the Vienna State Opera, Elisabetta in Verdi’s Don Carlo and roles in Wagner’s Ring cycle at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She will also sing Desdemona in Verdi’s Otellowith the Deutsche Opera Berlin at Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, Sieglinde in a concert of Act 1 of Wagner’s Die Walkyre with the Melbourne Symphony, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Cleveland Orchestra, and two recitals with Lyric Fest in Philadelphia.
Meagan Miller’s future engagements beyond the 2011-2012 season include debuts at the Washington National Opera, Opera Monte Carlo, Tokyo’s New National Theater, and the Lucerne Festival; plus returns to the Hamburg State Opera and the Vienna State Opera. The roles for these appearances include Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes, the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos, Sieglinde in Die Walküre, Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg, Marie/Marietta in Die Tote Stadt,Minnie in La Fanciulla del West, Elsa in Lohengrin, and Elisabeth in Tannhäuser.
An accomplished recitalist and noted interpreter of new music, Meagan Miller has premiered many works written specifically for her voice, including Libby Larsen’s Try Me Good King: The Last Words of the Wives of Henry VIII and Robert Beaser’s Four Poems of Emily Dickinson. Ms. Miller has also premiered significant works by Thomas Cipullo, Christopher Berg, Niccolo Athens, and Russell Platt, among others.
Marcello Giordani (www.marcellogiordani.com) has been hailed by the international press as one of the most important tenors on the opera stage today; Opera News called him in 2008 “arguably, the greatest leading tenor of his generation.” Giordani’s schedule for the 2011-2012 opera season includes Toscaat the Deutsche Oper Berlin; Trovatoreand Carmen at the Teatro Massimo Bellini of Catania; and Carmen again at the new Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman. He began 2012 with Aida at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and performs in Ernani, Aida, and Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera, Cavalleria Rusticana at the Opéra National de Paris, and Tosca at the Wiener Staatsoper. Verdi’s Ernani will be transmitted live in HD from the stage of the Metropolitan to participating cinemas throughout the world on February 25, 2012. On the concert stage, he appeared with soprano Ildikó Komlósi at the Palace of the Arts in Budapest in September 2011, and in October was joined by soprano Angela Meade and young singers from the Marcello Giordani Vocal Competition for an evening of opera arias to benefit the Marcello Giordani Foundation. In December, he traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia, to participate as a guest artist in Dimitri Hvorostovsky’s “Dimitri and Friends.”
Pianist Howard Watkinsis a frequent associate of some of the world’s leading musicians both on the concert stage and as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. He has performed in numerous recitals and concerts throughout North and South America, Europe, Russia, Israel, and the Far East. In recent seasons, he has appeared in concert and on television with Kathleen Battle, Grace Bumbry, Mariusz Kwiecien, Michelle DeYoung, Natalie Dessay, Diana Damrau, Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazón, Elizabeth Futral, Anthony Dean Griffey, and violinist Sarah Chang. Under the aegis of the Marilyn Horne Foundation, Mr. Watkins has performed in recitals and educational residencies in the U.S., and has also appeared in the Horne Foundation gala New York recital.
Sunday, March 4, 2012, at 5:00 PM
Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York City
The George London Foundation Recital Series presents
MARCELLO GIORDANI, Tenor
MEAGAN MILLER, Soprano
Howard Watkins, Piano
Program order to be announced
FAURÉ “Les Roses d’Ispahan”
“Les Berceaux”
“En sourdine”
“Nell”
(Ms. Miller & Mr. Watkins)
BRAHMS Songs to be announced (Ms. Miller & Mr. Watkins)
VERDI “Tu che le vanita” from Don Carlo (Ms. Miller & Mr Watkins)
PUCCINI “Ch’ella mi creda libero” from La Fanciulla del West
“Donna non vidi mai” from Manon Lescaut
(Mr. Giordani & Mr. Watkins)
TOSTI Neapolitan songs to be announced (Mr. Giordani & Mr. Watkins)
VERDI A duet from Otello (Ms. Miller, Mr. Giordani, Mr. Watkins)
Tickets: $45
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