A Few Clouds and 89° F

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA — The 29th Annual Spoleto Festival USA will open Friday and run through June 12, promising provocative opera, dance, and theater productions, ranging from premieres of new works to rediscovered treasures.

Opera goers without tickets today probably have two of the three major choices left: the American premiere of Walter Braunfels' "Die Vogel," ("The Birds") and Ottorino Respighi's rarely performed "La bella dormente nel bosco" ("Sleeping Beauty in the Woods"). Every performance of "Don Giovanni," the most highly touted event for this festival, has predictably very limited ticket availability at this time, according to Marie L. Jacinto, director of public relations and marketing.

From Lee Breuer's adaptation of Ibsen's "A Doll's House," entitled "Mabou Mines DollHouse" to "Amajuba—Like Doves We Rise," with a cast hailing from South Africa, and the Chinese opera "Kingdom of Desire" by Taiwan's Contemporary Legend Theatre, Spoleto's 2005 theater offerings explore a range of dramatic traditions.

One change has been made in the music offerings. Substituting for renowned vocalist Shirley Horn as the Wachovia Jazz series headliner is another pre-eminent jazz vocalist in the world today, Dianne Reeves. Reeves has won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for each of her last three recordings, which is a Grammy first in any vocal category. Reeves has performed with Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and was the featured soloist with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic.

She has also recorded and performed extensively with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.An Ella Fitzgerald Award recipient, Reeves performed at the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City and appeared and sang on a season-ending episode of Sex and the City.

Other 2005 Festival highlights include Savion Glover's "Improvography;" the Bank of America Chamber Music series; Westminster Choir concerts; the return of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and the Colla Marionettes; the Festival Concert featuring Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" and Rachmaninoff's "Third Piano Concerto;" a triptych of solo shows called "Solo Turns;" the Intermezzi series; the Music in Time series with featured artists So Percussion; and the Spoleto debut of the contemporary dance ensemble Emio Greco|PC.

OPERA

Spoleto's new production of Walter Braunfels' "Die Vogel" will reunite the team of conductor Julius Rudel, director Jonathan Eaton and designer Danila Korogodsky. A popular 1920s opera composer, Braunfels was blacklisted by the Nazis, and the score for his "Die Vogel," considered one of the 20th century's great masterpieces, was subsequently lost and will receive its American premiere during the 2005 Festival.

Braunfels adapted Aristophanes' satirical play "The Birds" to weave a magical web of allegory and poetry in which two old friends, disillusioned with their fellow man, persuade the birds to build a citadel between heaven and earth to trick the gods, with humbling results. The music is a synthesis of Wagner and Strauss.

The celebrated young American director/puppeteer Basil Twist will direct Ottorino Respighi's rarely performed opera "La bella dormente nel bosco" ("Sleeping Beauty in the Woods").

THEATER

Controversial — even revolutionary — when it premiered in 1879, Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll House" traces the awakening of Nora Helmer from her unexamined life of domestic comfort as wife and mother. Directed and adapted from the Ibsen by the ever -inventive Lee Breuer, "Mabou Mines Dollhouse" speaks directly to contemporary audiences, with literal symbols — a dollhouse set, men less than 4-1/2 feet tall and normal-sized women who can't fit inside.

"Amajuba — Like Doves We Rise" will make its American premiere at the Emmett Robinson Theatre during the final Spoleto week. The play tells the story of five members of Africa's "lost generation" growing up during the final days of apartheid in South Africa.

Part of a long and rich tradition in Italy, the Colla Marionettes began with private shows in the home of the Colla family and have since appeared around the world. The travelling troupe returns to Charleston with two programs perfect for adults and children eight and older. Program One is "Sheherazade," the story of Sinbad the Sailor and others from "The Arabian Nights," and "Petruschka," the tragic love triangle by Stravinsky. Program Two is "Gueerrino Detto Il Meschino" ("the Unfortunate"), the chivalrous tale of the adopted son of the Byzantine Emperor's who embarks on a journey to find his birth parents.

Taiwan's Contemporary Legend Theatre will perform its abbreviated adaptation of "Macbeth" entitled "Kingdom of Desire," set during China's Warring States period when rivalries between feudal lords were at their height.

Spoleto will introduce a triptych of solo theater pieces at the Emmett Robinson Theatre called "Solo Turns" by Mike Daisey, Hazelle Goodman and Heather Grayson, each a perspective on identity and the changing face of America.

DANCE

For its Spoleto Festival USA debut, Emio Greco|PC will perform Rimasto Orfano, set to Michael Gordon's music. The powerful piece explores extremes of dark and light, stark stillness and writhing, ecstatic action.

Enthusiastically received in its Spoleto debut in 2002, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, under the artistic direction of Jim Vincent, returns with a dynamic program that will showcase the charm and skill of the dancers. The program will include choreographer Christopher Bruce's ingenious "Rooster," set to Rolling Stones classics; Nacho Duato's newest work "Gnawa" and William Forsythe's "Enemy in the Figure."

Named by The Village Voice "the savior of tap, anointed alike by old masters and the press," Savion Glover brings his ensemble Chapter IV and a live jazz/funk band for "Improvography," a show that alternates improvisation with choreography.

MUSIC

Bank of America Chamber Music — Charles Wadsworth, Spoleto's Artistic Director for Chamber Music, returns with some of the world's greatest chamber musicians for 33 concerts in 17 days. On tap to perform in the intimate Dock Street Theatre are the St. Lawrence String Quartet; clarinetist Todd Palmer; flutists Paula Robison and Tara Helen O'Connor; violinists Chee-Yun and Corey Cerovsek; violist Daniel Phillips; cellists Andres Diaz and Alisa Weilerstein; and pianists Wendy Chen and Jeremy Denk.

Spoleto Festival Orchestra — Emmanuel Villaume, Spoleto's Music Director for Opera & Orchestra, will conduct the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto, his most demanding and opulent work, played by the preternaturally gifted young pianist Andrew von Oeyen; the premiere of a newly commissioned piece by John Kennedy; and Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring." The Festival Concert is sponsored by Santee Cooper, and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra is sponsored by Delta Air Lines.

Westminster Choir — Joseph Flummerfelt, Spoleto' s Artistic Director for Choral Music, will conduct the Westminster Choir, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chorus and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in a performance of Brahms' "German Requiem." Arguably the central accomplishment of Brahms' career, the requiem is the composer's effort to comfort the living through his very personal selection of biblical texts. Maestro Flummerfelt will also conduct the pair of immensely popular Westminster Choir Concerts in the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul with Nancianne Parrella accompanying from the piano.

Music in Time — A series of innovative new music concerts directed by John Kennedy and held in the Recital Hall of the Albert Simons Center, Music in Time will open with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra performing American premieres by Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky of Uzbekistan and The Netherlands' 34-year-old composer Michel van der Aa. Also on the program is a mesmerizing new work by American Ken Ueno.

Featured ensemble So Percussion will perform the devastatingly powerful Pleiades by Iannis Xenakis in a special "Music in Time en plein air" concert at The Cistern and David Lang's "the so-called laws of nature" and a work by Annie Gosfield in the Recital Hall.

The final Music in Time concert will explore this trend in the confrontational "?Corporel" by Vinko Globokar, the American premiere of Bernd Franke's "xfach," and new works composed for flutist/actress Margaret Lancaster by Nick Brooke and Carolyn Yarnell.

Intermezzi— Held in the late afternoon in the lovely Grace Episcopal Church, the Intermezzi series will include Olivier Reboul conducting members of the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Ottorino Respighi's "The Birds" as well as Franz Schreker's Chamber Symphony and Bach's Double Concerto for Violin and Oboe. An acclaimed pianist as well as conductor, Reboul will return later in the series to perform Frederic Chopin's complete Etudes. For the second Intermezzo, Marc D. Williams will conduct two Arnold Schoenberg transcriptions for chamber orchestra.

Philippe Castagner returns with a new program for his latest season, including songs by Franz Schubert and Henry Purcell. For the final intermezzo, Emmanuel Vallaume, Spoleto Music Director in an all-Mozart program.

Wachovia Jazz — Singer Kate McGarry returns to Spoleto with her pure voice and repertory ranging from Irving Berlin and George Gershwin to Joni Mitchell and Peter Gabriel at the Cistern on opening night.

Brazil's pianist and composer Andre Mehmari bring the magic of the "Musica Popular Brasiliera" style to this year's festival at the Cistern.

Renaud Garcia-Fons, the French virtuoso bass player," will make his long-awaited debut in two Cistern performances this opening weekend.

The 2005 Wachovia Jazz Series will conclude with five concerts by acoustic guitarist Guinga accompanied by clarinetist Gabriele Mirabassi in the setting of Recital Hall during the final weekend.

FINALE

The festival will conclude with one last concert by the Spoleto Festival Orchestra at Middleton Place. Patrons can enjoy a picnic on the grounds before settling in for a twilight concert followed by a fireworks display over the Ashley River.

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