The theme of the impact of the institutionalized and legislated racism that existed along the Lower Mississippi in the post-Civil War period is central to the earlier episodes in the show. Basso Morris Robinson delivered the great ballad with power, emotion and style.įollowing that was the classic Can’t Help Loving Dat Man of Mine, sung first by Alyson Cambridge’s Julie LaVerne and joined in an ensemble rendtion by Simpson’s Queenie and Brown’s Magnolia. The most obviously operatic number in the score is its most famous song – Joe’s ballad Ol’ Man River. Gunn and Brown made an appealing, thoroughly believable pair, with Gunn particularly dashing as the rakish gambler. Although Ravenal is usually considered a tenor role, there are precedents for baritones singing it. The first is the duet Make Believe between Nathan Gunn’s Gaylord Ravenal and Ashley Brown’s Magnolia Hawks. Within a few minutes three consecutive hit numbers, among the most famous songs from Broadway musicals of the 1920s, are heard. Davison and Costume Designer Paul Tazewell.Īfter a rousing overture, led by John DeMain, which contains many of the best known melodies in the opera, the chorus and dancers, supplemented by tumblers and a juggler, greet the docking of the showboat Cotton Blossom. The creative team that joined Zambello included several persons associated with her highly regarded production of George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward’s “Porgy and Bess” – Conductor John DeMain, set Designer Peter J.
Opera is represented by lyric baritone Nathan Gunn as Gaylord Ravenal, basso Morris Robinson as Joe and sopranos Alyson Cambridge and Angela Renee Simpson respectively as Julie LaVerne amd as Queenie.Īrtists more closely associated with the Broadway musical and legitimate stage include Ashley Brown (who sings the title role of Broadway’s “Mary Poppins”) as Magnolia Hawks, Ross Lehman as Captain Andy Hawks, Cindy Gold as Parthy Ann Hawks, Bernie Yvon as Frank Schultz, and Ericka Mac as Ellie May Chipley. Her formula of merging the live performance talents of both opera and Broadway is even more evident in the “Show Boat” cast.
Production designer, stage director and impresaria Francesca Zambello has proven not only to be a major figure in the world of opera, but also to be comfortable in mounting productions of the type of musical theater that is traditionally considered “Broadway” rather than opera Īt the Glimmerglass (New York) Festival, where she is now General Director, she presented Irving Berlin’s “Annie Get Your Gun” – mixing stars of the opera stage with artists from Broadway, to great success
San Francisco Opera audiences can expect the Show Boat’s arrival in Calendar Year 2014. A co-production of four major American opera companies, the Show Boat sails next to Houston Grand Opera in January 2013, then Washington National Opera in May 2013. Lyric Opera became the first stop of a new production of the venerable 1927 American musical “Show Boat”, whose music is by Jerome Kern and libretto by Roger Hammerstein.