Thursday & Saturday, October 22 & 24 2015 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, October 25 at 2:00 pm
Meany Studio Theater, UW Seattle

$40 general; $20 senior; $10 students
Williamson.D.Headshot

Dean Williamson, Guest Conductor
Julia Benzinger, Soprano
Clayton Brainerd, Bass-Baritone
Nerys Jones, Mezzo-Soprano
Eric Neuville, Tenor

Philharmonia Northwest partners with Vespertine Opera and UW School. of Music to present Gabriel Fauré’s rarely performed opera Pénélope (1913). Fauré’s elegant lyricism and refined expression shine through this original treatment of Homer’s timeless Odyssey. The production, directed by Dan Miller and conducted by Dean Williamson, features a cast of veteran professionals.
Dean Williamson is widely known throughout the United States for his perceptive and commanding conducting. His ambitious and versatile career in standard and contemporary repertoire earns the conductor worldwide acclaim. The Washington Post says “a brilliantly directed, beautifully sung and endlessly funny Barber of Seville…the orchestra, which played the sparkling overture and the vivid storm music with grace and color under the expert baton of Dean Williamson.” The Seattle Times says ”Williamson keeps a sure, steady hand on the singers and the orchestra…realizing the shimmering and otherworldly textures of the score.”Recent engagements include Die Zauberflöte with Opera Colorado; a return to the Seattle Opera main-stage for Les Contes d’Hoffmann, I Pagliacci, Turn of the Screw and Le Nozze di Figaro; II Barbiere di Siviglia and Carmen at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis; L’ltaliana in Algeri for Boston Lyric Opera; Lucia di Lammermoor with Minnesota Opera; Roméo et Juliette and Samson et Dalila with Nashville Opera; Summer and Smoke with the New England Conservatory; Don Pasquale and La Cenerentola at Wolf Trap Opera; II Trovatore, Madama Butterfly and Cavalleria Rusticana/I Pagliacci at the Chautauqua Opera Festival; Don Pasquale and the Grand Finale concert with the San Francisco Opera Merola young artists; and Opera Cleveland’s productions of Don Giovanni, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Bohème, Hänsel und Gretel, Le Nozze di Figaro, II Barbiere di Siviglia and Falstaff.