Two For The Road Seattle Symphony, Western Opera Theater Make Separate Stops In Regional Tours
Rock musicians and pop groups are on the road most of the time. But symphony orchestras and opera companies tend to stay at home.
This week the Seattle Symphony and San Francisco’s Western Opera Theater will find themselves living out of suitcases, staying in a different hotel every night, and learning - like the gods and goddesses of rock - what it’s like to sit on buses for long stretches of Washington and Idaho highways.
Western Opera Theater will perform Johann Strauss’ classic operetta “Die Fledermaus” in Lewiston on Monday, Sandpoint on Tuesday and Moses Lake on Wednesday. Eighteen singers will alternate in the operetta’s 10 solo roles, and form the chorus on nights they are not singing a solo part.
The singers are selected from the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Training Program, whose members are young professionals in the early stages of their careers.
Thirty-two players from the Seattle Symphony will begin a four-city tour of Eastern and Central Washington with a concert in Pullman on Wednesday, moving on to Walla Walla on Thursday and Sunnyside on Friday before ending the tour in Ellensburg on Saturday.
While these players are on tour performing 18th-century music with guest conductor Christopher Warren-Green, the remainder of the 90-piece Seattle Symphony will stay at home to play a Beethoven festival under the baton of music director Gerard Schwarz.
The symphony’s tour program includes works by Handel and Pachelbel, along with Haydn’s Symphony No. 44 and “The Four Seasons” by Vivaldi with Warren-Green as soloist.
Western Opera Theater tours annually, and the company has performed in Eastern Washington and North Idaho for nearly 20 years. A number of now-famous opera stars had their start in WOT, including soprano Deborah Voigt, mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick, tenor Craig Estep and bass Monte Pederson.
Jennifer Reil, WOT’s publicity and marketing director, says this year’s tour will take the company to more than 30 performances from California to Florida. “We’ve gone to China and Japan, and next year there’s talk of going to Hawaii,” she says.
The Seattle Symphony has played in various Eastern Washington locations now and then, but its last tour of the eastern part of the state was in 1984. Since the 1998 opening of Beneroya Hall, the orchestra’s Seattle home, the symphony has looked to further its outreach programs.
“Each of the cities where the orchestra is playing this season was chosen because the presenters there provided an opportunity for collaboration,” says Rosalie Contraras, the symphony’s publicity manager.
Orchestra members will give master classes for high school and university students as well as concert performances at each of the four stops.
Touring is not easy. Even with the 31-member chamber orchestra from the Seattle Symphony, it involves moving the musicians, conductor and a staff of 10 by plane and bus. Then there is the equipment - everything from instruments to music stands - which travels in a 28-foot, climate-controlled trailer.
An opera company, even a small one such as the Western Opera Theater, requires sets and costumes. The sets have to be flexible enough to fit small stages, such as the Panida Theatre in Sandpoint, all the way to a 7,000-seat hall at Purdue University. For some of the performances on WOT’s tour, a 30-piece orchestra will be bused from San Francisco along with their instruments. In Washington and Idaho, though, the only accompaniment is two pianos.
Touring, obviously, costs money, and lots of it. “Our direct funding comes from corporate and foundation support,” says the WOT’s Reil. “We have a major grant from the Bank of America Foundation and large gifts from a half dozen other sources.”
The Seattle Symphony tour received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and support from U.S. Bank.
This sidebar appeared with the story: PREVIEWS Western Opera Theater and the Seattle Symphony
Western Opera Theater presents “Die Fledermaus” Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Lewiston High School Auditorium (tickets $20; call 208-799-2243); Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Panida Theater in Sandpoint (tickets $24-$12; call 208-263-6139), and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Wallenstien Theater at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake (tickets $24-$12; call 509-762-6244). The Seattle Symphony performs Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in Bryan Hall at Washington State University in Pullman. Tickets are $22.50 for adults, $14.50 for students, through G&B (325-SEAT, 1-800-325-SEAT or www.ticketswest.com).