Julia Migenes: Diva on the Verge

Drawing on her experiences in opera, the irrepressible soprano Julia Migenes invites us to look afresh at the genre she loves, with her irreverent 75-minute one-woman show Diva on the Verge. Mingling monologue and opera – and often mocking its rigid world – this show reveals Julia’s daring wit and sense of humor. She can turn Tosca into Betty Boop and get into the face of her stoic and skilled pianist, Victoria Kirsch. Punctuated with some of the greatest arias in the soprano repertoire, she sketches out the life of an opera singer with audacious anecdotes from behind the scenes. Aimed at “those who would not go and those who would not go back”, Migenes’ iconoclastic and earthy humor throws open the gates to the world of opera in all its splendor and preposterousness.

A world-class opera singer and a graceful dancer, Julia Migenes studied at the New York School of Performing Arts and then joined the New York Metropolitan Opera. She worked with renowned French choreographer Maurice Béjart and starred as Carmen with Placido Domingo in Grammy Award winning Francesco Rosi’s eponymous motion picture, that has since become a reference in the filmed opera genre. To this day, Julia Migenes has recorded more than 20 albums, has embodied many of the grand operatic roles (Carmen, La Boheme, Madame Butterfly) and played in more recent compositions (from Berg to Peter Eötvös) as well as music-hall shows and writes her own one-woman shows. She also created La Argentina, a tribute to tango inspired by Astor Piazzola’s work and released a new jazz album, Alter Ego, in the spring of 2006.

SCHEDULE:

Saturday, September 16, 2006:
Pre-show reception at 6:30 PM; Show at 8:00 PM
Opening night with Champagne & hors-d’oeuvres
Tickets: $50.00 (includes pre-show reception)
Cocktail Attire. No Host Valet Parking available. No children under 13.

Saturday, September 23, 2006
Doors open at 7:00 PM; Show at 8:00 PM
No host bar & Show
Tickets: $30.00
No children under 6.

FEATURED ARIAS:

La scène de la folie
Lucia di Lammermoor (Gaetano Donizetti)

Air du Poison
Roméo et Juliette (Charles Gounod)

Acte IV, scènes 1 & 2
Otello (Giuseppe Verdi)

Air de Violetta
La Traviata (Giuseppe Verdi)

Muerte Cruel
(Granados)

Liebestod
Tristan und Isolde (Richard Wagner)

And excerpts from…

Madame Butterfly
(Giacomo Puccini)

Salomé
(Richard Strauss)

La Bohème
(Giacomo Puccini)

Manon
(Jules Massenet)

Die Walkyrie
(Richard Wagner)