ArtSmart – The Met Opera Story of Turandot (Puccini)
Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center ArtSmart -Opera Series is delighted to bring Erik Kroncke to moderate the pre-opera sessions for the 2019-2020 series. The Met Opera in HD film presentations. Erik brings knowledge of opera as both a performer and opera connoisseur to the 45- minute preshow background talk. ArtSmart is free with your ticket to the film.
Turandot
Bring a bag lunch* to enjoy this on stage discussion of Puccini’s Turandot.
Puccini’s final opera is an epic fairy tale set in a China of legend, loosely based on a play by 18th-century Italian dramatist Carlo Gozzi. Featuring a most unusual score with an astounding and innovative use of chorus and orchestra, it is still recognizably Puccini, bursting with instantly appealing melody. The unenviable task of completing the opera’s final scene upon Puccini’s sudden death was left to the composer Franco Alfano.
Erik Kroncke Biography
Erik is a bass soloist, who has sung in many operas including Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra, Philip II in Don Carlo, Enrico VIII in Anna Bolena, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Ramphis in Aida, and Mephistopheles in Faust. He has appeared with Sarasota Opera, Opera San José, Chautauqua Opera, Opera Colorado, New Jersey Verismo Opera, Green Mountain Opera, and Austin Lyric Opera, among others.
He was an award winner of the Gerda Lissner vocal competition in 2010, the American Wagner and St. Bonaventura award winner from the Liederkranz competition in 2008, and a winner of the 2002 and 2003 Friedrich Schorr Vocal Competition. His symphonic and oratorio performances have included engagements with the National Chorale, Sarasota Opera Orchestra, Chautauqua Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Korean Philharmonic, and the American Classical Orchestra, as well as appearances in “The Three Basses” concerts.
In the last year, Erik sang the bass solo in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the National Chorale at Lincoln Center, and the role of Tackleton in the North American premier of Zandonai’s Il Grillo del Focolare with Teatro Grattacielo. He also opened the 27th season of the Capriccio concert series in recital with pianist Mary Jane Austin. He will be performing more recitals with Ms. Austin throughout the United States as well as in the Vermont Virtuosi concert series. He has performed in opera concerts in Oderzo and Feltre, Italy every summer since 2011. Erik is a student of Claudia Pinza.
*Pick up lunch from Edelweiss Mountain Deli on the Mountain Road and enjoy 20% off all prepared foods, including soups, salads and sandwiches. Call ahead (802) 253-4034 and say you are requesting the ArtSmart lunch deal and show your ticket at pick up!