FULL NOTES ON VIARDOT (Michael Ching) Vermillion SD 2024 Marlise Ahuna, Denisse Balandran, Ellie Holdhusen, Juan Carlos Mendoza

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: NOTES ON VIARDOT  
• Composer: Ching Michael   
• Libretto: Michael Ching    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Aalfs Auditorium, Vermillion, South Dakota, USD University of South Dakota  
• Recorded: April 27, 2024
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Marlise Ahuna, Denisse Balandran, Ellie Holdhusen, Juan Carlos Mendoza, Alma Sejmenović, Abigail Beckler, Shea Lueninghoener, Deanne Ekstrand, Josh Styskal, Taya Bult, Thor Gesteland, Paul Hindemith, Brian Shirley
• Conductor: Michael Ching  
• Orchestra:
• Chorus: USD Chamber Singers  
• Chorus Master: David Holdhusen  
• Stage Director: Tracelyn Gesteland  
• Stage Designer: Brian Adams  
• Costume Designer: Rachel Mathews-Landis  
• Lighting Designer: Jonathan Allender-Zivic  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Michael Ching  
• Date Published: 2024  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs, gensubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  “Notes on Viardot” is based on the intriguing life of opera diva Pauline Viardot. Viardot was an internationally famed singer, highly respected voice teacher, exemplary pianist and gifted composer who came from a prominent, high-powered musical family living in Paris, France, in the 19th Century.

  The opera takes a behind-the-scenes look at Viardot’s professional and personal life, including her rumored affair with Russian poet Ivan Turgenev all while married to Louis Viardot, a man 21 years her senior. Along the journey of her life, audience members will meet an array of Viardot’s famous friends, family and colleagues, including George Sand, Clara Schumann, Maria Malibran and more.

  Michael Ching (born September 29, 1958) is an American composer, conductor, and music administrator. A prolific and eclectic composer, he is best known nationally as the composer of innovative operas, including his a cappella adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2011). His other major operas include Buoso’s Ghost (1996), Corps of Discovery (2003), Slaying the Dragon (2012), Speed Dating Tonight! (2013), and Alice Ryley (2015). He has written the librettos of many of his own operas, and has done so for all of his operas composed after 2012.

  He is on the board of directors of the National Opera Association.

  Selected works
  Leo: Opera in One Cat (1985)
  Cue 67 (1992)
  King of the Clouds (1993)
  Buoso’s Ghost (1996)
  Out of the Rain (1998)
  Faith (1999)
  Corps of Discovery (2003)
  Three Pigs Remix (2006)
  A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2011)
  Slaying the Dragon (2012)
  Speed Dating Tonight! (2013)
  Alice Ryley (2015)
  Anna Hunter, the Spirit of Savannah (2017)
  Thriver (2019)
  Seven Woods and a Van (2019)

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