Columbia University's Collegium Musicum, with OperaRepo, presents: Alcide al bivio by Johann Adolf Hasse.
Music Director, Amber Youell
Cast/Ensemble
Alcide - Amber Youell
Edonide - Brett Umlauf
Aretea - Brooke Bryant
Fronimo - Sean Parr
Dancers - Gloria Makino, Nicole Savery
Chorus - Collegium Musicum
Director, OperaRepo - Annie Holt
Artistic Director - Sarah Meyers
Conductor - Mark Seto
Costume and Set Design - Haley Lieberman
Light Design - Vanessa Poggioli
Choreography - Patricia Weiss
Stage Management - Erin Badillo
Violin
Jacob Ashworth
David Bousso
Suzanne Davies
Amanda Lo
Gabriel Pereira
Juliana Pereira
Viola
David Dunbar
Maryam Parhizkar
Paulo Pereira
Cello
Anneke Schaul-Yoder
Bass
Andrea DeMarcus
Flute
Holly Druckman
Katie Klymko
Oboe
Zoë Hilbert
Kathryn Heideman
Bassoon
Oleksiy Zakharov
Hom
Jesse Garcia
Benn Grobman
Trumpet
Brian Kleve
JP Reed
Timpani
Robert Kistler
Harpsichord/Continuo
Alexandra Snyder Dunbar
Program Notes
In 1760, the renowned librettist Pietro Metastasio and composer Johann Adolf Hasse put pleasure on trial; in spring of 2009, we plan to reopen the case. The Columbia Collegium Musicum and a new opera company on campus, OperaRepo, have joined forces to stage the modern premiere of Hasse's and Metastasio's allegorical opera Alcide al bivio. OperaRepo was founded in July 2008 as a way to bring students, faculty, and professionals together to return opera to the Columbia campus after a forty-year hiatus. An aesthetic battle between Virtue and Pleasure, combining over-the-top musical extravagance with severe morality, Alcide al bivio will be our flagship production. The theater of the Italian Academy is an ideal venue for our production of a work by the most important Italian librettist in history and a German composer (lovingly nicknamed il caro sassone) considered in his time to be the master of the Italian operatic style. The neo-classical design of the theater will literally encompass the audience in the classicizing message of the opera. Metastasian opera is a pillar of Italian culture too often neglected on the stage; through innovative staging, design and performance by professionals and members of the Columbia community, we hope to make this work relevant and exciting to modern audiences.
