news & reviews

For Immediate Release
12 January 2012
Opera Roanoke seeks a Company Manager

Job Summary
Opera Roanoke seeks a Company Manager to manage administrative operations of the Opera Roanoke office.

The Company Manager reports to the General and Artistic Director, and works closely with the Development Director and the Board of Trustees. The Company Manager manages the Opera Roanoke box office, and acts as the controller for daily operations.

In addition to front line office support to patrons, trustees and business partners, the Company Manager assists with artistic administration for all Opera Roanoke productions.

The Company Manager must possess strong interpersonal skills, be attentive to detail and be able to multi-task while providing outstanding customer service to patrons and working closely with professional colleagues, guest artists, and volunteers. Computer literacy is required, including experience with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Access. Familiarity with Raiser's Edge software is preferred.

The Company Manager is a full-time position with commensurate salary and benefits. Opera Roanoke is an equal opportunity employer.

Interested applicants should send a cover letter and resume / C.V. to:
Scott Williamson,
General and Artistic Director
Opera Roanoke
mahlerseven@yahoo.com

Electronic submissions are preferred.
Please cc:
Teresa Carpentieri
Director of Development
tcarpentieri@operaroanoke.org

Opera Roanoke Bravos!

PERFORMANCES

Madama Butterfly Review, The Roanoke Times, March 19, 2011, Seth Williamson

"Grand opera - complete with staging, sympathetic characters and great tunes - was back Friday night before a sold-out house at Shaftman Performance Hall in Jefferson Center. After several concert productions minus the bling, Opera Roanoke revived colorful sets and costumes, not to mention acting, for its spring production of Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly." There'll be one more performance Sunday at 2:30 p.m., although it, too, is sold out.

Mother's Day Serenade, May 8th, 2011

I hope the people of Roanoke know how blessed we are to have such talent perform for us! Thank you! - Cam, OR Friend, May 2011

Congratulations! What a fantastic afternoon of music and opera. Throughout, I had to pinch myself to remember that such innovative and challenging music was being done in Roanoke. Thanks, - Bruce, OR patron, May 2011

ARTISTIC STAFF

Monday, May 02, 2011 - Concert review: Conductor Steven White, RSO members were in fine form, By Seth Williamson, Special to The Roanoke Times

After the massive opening chords, guest conductor Steven White maintained a pulse that kept straining forward. ...White always seems to get the best efforts of these players. This was a richly detailed performance, with deftly controlled dynamics and a sure architectural conception of the work from beginning to end... Especially fine was the soulful "Andante," overflowing with heart-on-the-sleeve lyricism, its melodic stream skillfully shaped by White. The entire woodwind section sounded as if it were kidnapped from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, especially the clarinets.

Friday, May 20, 2011 - AMADEUS Review, Chrysler Hall, Norfolk, By M.D. Ridge

"The sextet of soloists was equally remarkable, most notably Scott Williamson (Tamino's impassioned aria) and Amy Cofield Williamson's impeccable brilliance..."

YOUNG APPRENTICE ARTISTS

Congratulations on a magnificent show! I thought the entire opera [Madama Butterfly] was just wonderful and moving and I just wanted to thank you for giving me the opportunity to be a part of it! I had so much fun and I loved working with everyone. I learned so much in such a short period of time. Thank you so much for taking a special interest in helping one of your young artists "learn the ropes." I loved being up on stage and I cannot wait for the next time I get the opportunity to do it again! - Brooke, OR Young Apprentice Artist, Radford University Student, March 2011

OPERA AROUND ROANOKE

The Roanoke Times, Letter to the Editor, Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Free Taubman event had a great show, Anyone who did not attend the Taubman Museum's Spectacular Saturday's event (which is free, by the way) on Saturday afternoon missed a truly spectacular performance featuring Scott Williamson, general and artistic director of Opera Roanoke. Not only did we hear his lyric and expressive tenor voice singing American and British folk ballads inspired by paintings in the museum's American and Contemporary art galleries, we were also highly entertained by Williamson's extensive knowledge, appreciation for and understanding of the artists and their works. Congratulations to the Taubman's Cindy Petersen for presenting this most innovative and exhilarating melding of music and art. We look to this important Roanoke Valley artistic resource for more programs of this kind in the future. Sage Bassett, Daleville [commenting on "Listening to Paintings"].

MORE REVIEWS & NEWS

March 13, 2011
Opera Roanoke performance of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" to be steeped in passion, star power

Amid the chaos in rehearsals for Opera Roanoke's "Madama Butterfly," the artists never fail to impress.
By Mike Allen
Read the full article at roanoke.com

To fully understand how good professional opera singers have to be, perhaps you have to see them in rehearsal.

Opera Roanoke Executive Director Scott Williamson calls opera "the most expensive form of art." He's overseeing a new production of Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" that happens to be the financially beleaguered nonprofit's first fully staged opera in more than two years.

It comes at a steep price, $150,000 to $200,000, according to Williamson -- with expenses trimmed to the bare bones.

What does that money buy? Elaborate rented sets and costumes. And cast members in key roles who already know their parts, backward, forward and sideways. Before you assume that's just a figure of speech, picture this.

The afternoon of March 2 in Jefferson Center's rehearsal hall, yellow tape on the floor outlines the dimensions of a set that hasn't yet arrived. The cast is working through the opening scene, in which U.S. Navy officer B.F. Pinkerton inspects a house he has purchased in Japan. The man who arranged the deal, Goro, has also arranged a marriage for the American, with 15-year-old Cio-Cio San, known as "Butterfly."

Virginia Chorale member Scott Crissman plays the conniving Goro, while New York tenor Christian Reinert, tall and square-jawed, brings enigmatic, narcissistic Pinkerton to life.

On the second day of rehearsals -- less than three weeks before the first show -- the singers are starting to work with blocking. They move inside a taped-off rectangle that simulates the approximate dimensions of the paper-walled Japanese house, occasionally walking down smaller rectangles that represent front steps. Symmetrically arranged music stands represent the walls and doors.

Just a few minutes of rehearsal provide evidence of the singers' remarkable powers of concentration. As they practice their parts and Williamson accompanies by either playing the music on piano or singing the notes, director Cynthia Oxberry interrupts constantly.

Oxberry, who holds assistant director positions with both the Washington National Opera and the LA Opera, has arrived with strong ideas as to how these characters should behave, and what that means in terms of what they do where on the set.

Every change in the music cues actions onstage. Oxberry stops the actors, shows them what she wants them to do, has them start over from just seconds earlier. Time and again, stopped after intervals of minutes or even a few seconds, the players are able to start singing perfectly from whatever place they're told to begin, and quickly memorize Oxberry's instructions while they're doing it.

Many of the players aren't just veterans of "Madama Butterfly," but veterans of Opera Roanoke's 2002 performance of the Puccini favorite. Yunah Lee played Butterfly in that production, too, and mezzo soprano Eunjoo Lee (no relation) is reprising her role as the maid servant Suzuki. Williamson himself played Goro.

...

Read the full article at roanoke.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Met Broadcasts Coming to Roanoke

Roanoke, VA, August 13, 2010 - The Metropolitan Opera HD broadcasts are coming to Roanoke this season! Hosted by Virginia Western Community College, these live broadcasts will be shown in vivid HD quality and brilliant surround sound with VWCC's new state-of-the-art technology in Whitman Theater. Even better, Opera Roanoke will receive a portion of the proceeds! Check out this Virginia Western Community College web page for more information.

Tickets will be available online from www.virginiawestern.edu and as a special Broadcast Pass to Opera Roanoke Subscribers. Tickets are also sold at the door prior to each broadcast.

ON SALE NOW:
BUY MET OPERA BROADCAST SUBSCRIPTION

BUY MET OPERA BROADCAST INDIVIDUAL TICKETS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Opera Roanoke Announces Changes in Leadership

Roanoke, VA, May 27, 2010 - Opera Roanoke has announced that Scott Williamson will become the company's general and artistic director, beginning in June. Steven White, who has served as artistic director for the last several years, will remain as artistic advisor and principal guest conductor.

An experienced conductor and operatic tenor, Scott Williamson is a familiar figure to Opera Roanoke audiences. For more than a decade he has served in a variety of important artistic capacities, including associate conductor, chorusmaster and production manager. As a singer he has appeared in more than a dozen Opera Roanoke productions.

Roger Dalton, president of the board of trustees of Opera Roanoke, explained that this move was a recognition of Maestro Steven White's increasingly busy schedule away from Roanoke, including twenty-five weeks next season at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. "Scott Williamson is the obvious and ideal choice to maintain artistic continuity and provide dynamic leadership as we move into the future," Dalton said.

"I could not be more enthusiastic about the company's decision to bring Scott Williamson to Roanoke," said Steven White. "While Scott's artistic prowess speaks for itself, his on-the-ground leadership will be a big boost to the company. I know of nobody who can more persuasively make the case for the necessity of opera in Southwest Virginia. And I believe the community will respond."

Scott Williamson has a doctor of musical arts degree from the University of Maryland, as well as degrees from Westminster Choir College and James Madison University. He has taught on the faculty of Washington and Lee University. He also serves as the artistic director of the Virginia Chorale in Norfolk.

As general and artistic Director, Scott Williamson will be responsible for all aspects of Opera Roanoke's operations. The announcement comes as the company prepares for the 2010-2011 season, featuring a fully staged and costumed production of Madama Butterfly.