Season to end on high notes
Staff report
Youngstown
The Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Randall Craig Fleischer, will wrap up its season with concerts Saturday and April 28 that will feature the best of opera and Broadway.
Saturday’s concert will be titled “Opera’s Greatest Hits — Singing with the Stars.” Some of the greatest arias will be sung by guest vocalists soprano Sarah Jane McMahon, tenor Jeffrey Springer, mezzo soprano Susan Shafer and baritone Thomas Scurich. Each vocalist will perform in solo and ensemble during the concert, which will include arias from Puccini’s “La Boheme” and “Turandot,” Verdi’s “La Traviata” and “Rigoletto,” and Bizet’s “Carmen” and “The Pearl Fishers.”
Individually, these guest artists have done extensive work with symphony orchestras, opera companies and as recitalists throughout the U.S.
McMahon is known for her vocal sophistication and stage presence. At the New York City Opera, she performed Mabel in “The Pirates of Penzance” and Galatea in Handel’s “Acis and Galatea.” Selected by Placido Domingo to join the Los Angeles Opera, she sang with the tenor in “Parsifal.”
Dramatic tenor Springer has performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and appeared as Samson in “Samson and Delilah,” Tristan in “Tristan and Isolde” and Turiddu in “Cavalleria Rusticana,” among others.
Shafer has collaborated with world renowned opera stars and conductors in such notable roles as Klytamnestra in “Elektra,” Ulrica in “Un Ballo in Maschera,” Azuccena in “Il Trovatore” and Herodias in “Salome.”
Scurich has appeared with the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra in Bach’s “Magnificat,” the Amadeus Live concert in 2009, and last season in ECHOES. He has performed leading opera roles with the Pittsburgh Opera Theatre.
On April 28, the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra will present The Three Broadway Divas with vocalists Christiane Noll, Jan Horvath and Debbie Gravitte.
Veterans of Broadway shows and the concert state, the Divas will present music from “Gypsy,” “Sweet Charity,” “A Chorus Line,” “Mame,” “My Fair Lady,” “Mamma Mia,” “Jekyll & Hyde,” “Wicked” and “Evita,” to name a few.
Noll came to the attention of the theater community when she made her Broadway debut in “Jekyll & Hyde,” creating the role of Emma. Her national tour appearances include Sandy in “Grease,” which she also performed on Broadway, and as Ellen in the original cast of “Miss Saigon.” She recently won a Tony Award nomination for her performance as Mother in “Ragtime.”
Horvath was a member of the original Broadway company of “The Phantom of the Opera,” where she performed the roles of Christine and Carlotta. Her other Broadway credits include “The Threepenny Opera” with Sting, “Sweet Charity,” “Stardust” and “Oliver.
Gravitte won a Tony Award for her performance in “Jerome Robbins Broadway.” She made her Broadway debut in the original cast of “They’re Playing Our Song,” and went on to appear in “Perfectly Frank,” “Blues in the Night,” “Ain’t Broadway Grand,” “Zorba” with Anthony Quinn, “Les Miserables” and “Chicago.”