David Devan (photo ChrisCrisman)
Since becoming Opera Philadelphia's General Director four years ago, David Devan has so successfully rebranded the company's image that he keeps upping the opera ante. The always OQ ready Devan talked to colleagues, city officials and board members Oct 20 at a packed press conference in the Kimmel Center to announce the launch of an annual 12 day opera festival starting in September 2017.
Devan believes that the old model of sustaining a core subscription opera audience is no longer viable. He has been aggressively building new audiences with a slate of productions that fosters artistic diversity that reflects the city's multi-generational, multi-cultural demographics.
Marc A. Scorca, President /CEO Marc Scorca of Opera America, an organization that represents 120 companies, told the press crowd that Divan's vision for the company is in fact "the new model for opera."
The festival will be an annual event that will launch OP's forthcoming seasons. The inaugural festival will feature 25 performances and opera happenings and fan out to six venues including The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Wilma Theater, The Barnes Foundation Museum, The National Mall, along with the company's regular houses at the Perelman Theater and The Academy of Music.
Devan noted that the reason they were announcing the festival now was because the company has "met our bench march of $10 million. This is a critical amount, so we can enter into all of the contracts...into 019." Devan explained."
Highlights of the 2017 season were also unveiled in a video presentation with interviews with opera stars, composers and directors weighing in on their upcoming collaborations with Opera Philadelphia. A centerpiece highlighted by Devan will be the German-American co-production Mozart's The Magic Flute, conceived and directed by Barrie Kosky as a surreal animated/live opera with high concept animated/live production design ala German expressionist silent films.
Closer to home, the company has been developing a 'Hip- Opera' series, a collaboration with African-American master choreographer Bill T. Jones who will direct "We Shall Not Be Moved" a fusion of hip-hop music and dance, by composer Daniell Bernand Roumain and librettist Marc Bamuthl Joseph. Jones will also be working on outreach projects with students from area schools in the production. Joseph is an acclaimed poet, playwright and choreographer. Also premiering is Elizabeth Cree, by Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell, creators of Silent Night, the Pultizer Prize winning co-production of Opera Philadelphia and Santa-Fe Opera that premiered in 2012-13.
'War Stories' is a double opera bill to be performed in the grand stone stairwell entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Monteverdi's "Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda" will be followed by a new opera "I Have No Stories To Tell" You by Lembit Beecher and librettist Hannah Moscovitch, written in response to Monteverdi's piece.
The company is building on a solid string of successes including the premiere of Charlie Parker's Yardbird, with opera superstars Lawrence Brownlee and Angela Brown, part of the Aurora Chamber opera series in the Perelman Theater with over 30 percent coming in from more that 70 miles away. The dress rehearsal simulcast on social media was also a huge hit.
Also a sell out this summer was the much anticipated premiere of "ANDY: A Popera" a collaboration with the Philly cabaret group The Bearded Ladies, proved one of the hottest tickets in this year's Philly Fringe Festival. A 'happening' staged at a Northern Liberties industrial art gallery ala The Factory.
Two weeks later they opened at the Academy of Music with a new production of Verdi's " La Traviata" set the Verdi classic in 50s France. It framed a breakthrough performance by soprano Lisette Oropesa. The opening night was recorded on HD video for a screening on Independence Mall, but the event had to be delayed because of rain, more than 6,000 people camped out on a chilly mid-Oct night to see it.
The Opera on the Mall series has proven to be one of OP's most successful ventures. And Devan has devised pop up performance previews of by singers around the city in unexpected places public places. Eat your heart out Met, what could be better than being serenaded with arias during lunch at the Reading Terminal Market with arias. Devan's ongoing mission, he says, is "to bring opera to the people."
For information about Opera Philadelphia's current season visit www.operaphila.org