Contact: Katherine E. Johnson
(212) 875-5718; [email protected]
Lincoln Center Contact: Eric Gewirtz
(212) 875-5049; [email protected]
JUNE 2–4, 2016, AT ROSE THEATER AT JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER:
Part of the LINCOLN CENTER–NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC OPERA INITIATIVE
CONTACT! at the Biennial:
U.S. Stage Premiere of Gerald BARRY’s The Importance of Being Earnest
During the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, Ilan Volkov will conduct a chamber orchestra of New York
Philharmonic musicians in the U.S. Stage Premiere of Gerald Barry’s (Ireland, b. 1952) The
Importance of Being Earnest (2010), an operatic take on Oscar Wilde’s comedy, co-presented
with Lincoln Center’s Great Performers as part of CONTACT!, the Philharmonic’s new-music
series, at Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Gerald Barry’s libretto and score for chamber orchestra enhance the ridiculous situations of
Oscar Wilde’s comedy, reflecting what Barry calls the play’s “ruthless ecstasy.” For instance,
Gerald Barry casts Lady Bracknell as a bass and presents familiar tunes in musically unexpected,
untraditional ways, such as an atonal version of “Auld lang syne” and Lady Bracknell’s rendition
of “Ode to Joy.” The recording of the work on NMC received a 2016 Grammy nomination for
Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Gerald Barry studied with Stockhausen and Kagel in
the 1970s, developing a distinct style comprising intense, edgy, and humorous sound worlds.
This production was originally presented at London’s Royal Opera House in June 2013; the
director, Ramin Gray, and many of the cast members from this staging will reassemble for the
NY PHIL BIENNIAL/Great Performers engagement, all in their Philharmonic debuts: bass
Simon Wilding as Lane/Merriman, baritone Benedict Nelson as Algernon Moncrieff, tenor Paul
Curievici as John Worthing, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Marshall as Gwendolen Fairfax, bass
Alan Ewing as Lady Bracknell, contralto Hilary Summers as Miss Prism, soprano Claudia Boyle
as Cecily Cardew, and Kevin West as The Rev. Canon Chasuble, D.D.
Co-commissioned by London’s Barbican Centre and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The
Importance of Being Earnest received its concert premiere by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in
April 2011, led by Thomas Adès, and its first stage performance at the Opéra national de
Lorraine in March 2013, led by Tito Muñoz. It received the 2013 Royal Philharmonic Society
Award for Large-Scale Composition. The Guardian called the work “that rarest of things in
contemporary music, a genuinely comic opera.”
Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest will be the second presentation as part of the
multi-year Lincoln Center–New York Philharmonic Opera Initiative, which presents fully staged
productions of significant modern operas never before seen in New York. The collaboration was
launched with the critically acclaimed U.S. Stage Premiere of George Benjamin’s Written on
Skin, with Alan Gilbert conducting the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at Lincoln Center’s Mostly
Mozart Festival in August 2015.
There will be a pre-performance discussion with composer Gerald Barry and WNYC’s John
Schaefer on Friday, June 3, 2016, at 6:15 p.m. at the Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Studio.
This production is co-presented by the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center’s Great
Performers as part of the Lincoln Center–New York Philharmonic Opera Initiative.
Related Events
 Play Date
All audience members attending the performance on June 4 are invited to the NY PHIL
BIENNIAL Play Date, a meet-up with composers and performers over cocktails, at Rose
Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
 #biennialist
The New York Philharmonic invites audience members to be a #biennialist. The five attendees
who attend the most NY PHIL BIENNIAL events and post about it on social media will win a
free pair of tickets to the final concert, featuring the New York Philharmonic conducted by
Music Director Alan Gilbert, June 11 at 7:00 p.m at David Geffen Hall. Additional prizes and
offerings for #biennialists will be offered; follow the New York Philharmonic on its social
media channels (instagram.com/nyphilharmonic and twitter.com/nyphil) for more information.
 Pre-Performance Discussion
Composer Gerald Barry will speak about The Importance of Being Earnest with WNYC’s
John Schaefer on Friday, June 3, 2016, at 6:15 p.m. at the Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman
Studio.
About the NY PHIL BIENNIAL
A flagship project of the New York Philharmonic, the NY PHIL BIENNIAL is a wide-ranging
exploration of today’s music that brings together an international roster of composers,
performers, and curatorial voices for concerts presented both on the Lincoln Center campus and
with partners in venues throughout the city. The second NY PHIL BIENNIAL, taking place May
23–June 11, 2016, will feature diverse programs — ranging from solo works to a chamber opera
to large scale symphonies — by more than 100 composers, more than half of whom are
American; present some of the country’s top music schools and youth choruses; and expand to
more New York City neighborhoods. A range of events and activities will engender an ongoing
dialogue among artists, composers, and audience members. Partners in the 2016 NY PHIL
BIENNIAL include National Sawdust; 92nd Street Y; Aspen Music Festival and School;
Interlochen Center for the Arts; League of Composers/ISCM; Lincoln Center for the Performing
Arts; LUCERNE FESTIVAL; MetLiveArts; New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival;
Whitney Museum of American Art; WQXR’s Q2 Music; and Yale School of Music. For
complete information about the 2016 NY PHIL BIENNIAL, see press release.
About Lincoln Center’s Great Performers
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Lincoln Center’s Great Performers offers classical and
contemporary music performances from the world’s outstanding symphony orchestras, vocalists,
chamber ensembles, and recitalists. Since its initiation in 1965, the series, presented by Lincoln
Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. (LCPA), has expanded to include significant emerging
artists and premieres of groundbreaking productions, with offerings from October through June
in Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and other performance spaces around
New York City. LCPA maintains a strong commitment to contemporary programming, including
composer commissions and residencies. A presenter of more than 3,000 free and ticketed events,
performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA offers 15 programs, series, and
festivals, which also include American Songbook, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out
of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and White Light Festival, as
well as the Emmy Award–winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS.
Artists
Born in Israel in 1976, Ilan Volkov began his conducting career at the age of 19. Following
studies at London’s Royal College of Music, he held posts including principal conductor of the
London Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra,
and principal conductor and then principal guest conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony
Orchestra. From 2011 to 2014 he was music director and principal conductor of the Iceland
Symphony Orchestra; his arrival coincided with the opening of Harpa, Reykjavík’s new concert
hall, and his tenure included the creation of the Tectonics Festival, which combined classical
modern music improvisation, electronics, rock and other new-music genres and which, since
2014, expanded with residencies in cities like Glasgow, Adelaide, Oslo, New York, Tel Aviv,
and London. A frequent guest with leading orchestras worldwide, Ilan Volkov works regularly
with a wide range of ensembles and appears in many of the foremost festivals of the world,
including Salzburg, Edinburgh, BBC Proms, Lucerne, and Berlin. Highlights include
performances with the BBC Symphony and Stuttgart Opera, as well as City of Birmingham
Symphony, SWR Stuttgart, Atlanta Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, Ensemble
Intercontemporain, WDR Köln, and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras. Equally interested in opera,
He has conducted Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin for San Francisco Opera, Britten’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Glyndebourne Festival, Britten’s Peter Grimes for Washington
National Opera, Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny for Théâtre du Capitole de
Toulouse, and Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle with Israeli Opera. Ilan Volkov is one of the
guiding forces behind Levontin 7, one of the most adventurous venues in Tel Aviv, which brings
together classical, jazz, electronic, rock and other musical genres, reflecting his determination to
keep alive the creative spirit and sense of artistic adventure that shaped so many late 20thcentury works.
Ramin Gray (director) was born in London and grew up in Oxford, Tehran, New York, and
Paris. He studied at Oxford University and trained on the Regional Theatre Young Director
Scheme at Liverpool Playhouse. In the 1990s he directed new plays by playwrights including Jon
Fosse, Paul Godfrey, and Gregory Motton at the Gate Theatre, Odéon Théâtre de l’Europe, and
Théâtre de Gennevilliers. In 2000 he joined the Royal Court as International Associate and went
on to work there until 2009 as associate director, directing World or U.K. Premieres by such
playwrights as Marius von Mayenburg, Mark Ravenhill, Roland Schimmelpfennig, and Simon
Stephens. Other work includes productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Salzburg
Festival, Vienna Schauspielhaus, and Moscow’s Praktika Theatre. He is artistic director of the
Actors Touring Company, for which he has directed David Greig’s The Events (Traverse, Young
Vic, and New York Theatre Workshop) and Marius von Mayenburg’s Martyr (Unicorn Theatre
and tour). His opera directing credits include the European Premiere of Brett Dean’s Bliss and
Death in Venice and the World Premiere of Beat Furrer’s La bianca notte for Hamburg
Staatsoper.
Ben Clark (associate set design) is a freelance set designer based in Berlin. He has designed for
thearres, companies, opera houses, and festivals including the Young Vic, Berliner Ensemble,
Deutsches Theater Berlin, Volksbühne Berlin, Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus, Hamburg
Schauspielhaus, Vienna Burgtheater, Vienna Festival, Salzburg Festival, Zurich Schauspielhaus,
Théâtre de la Ville de Paris, Sydney Theatre Company, Theater an der Wien, Zurich Opera,
Komische Oper Berlin, Opéra national du Rhin, and Florence’s Teatro del Maggio Musicale. He
has worked with directors including Cate Blanchett, Thomas Vinterberg, Jürgen Gosch, Stein
Winge, Benedict Andrews, Roland Schimmelpfennig, Claus Peymann, and Reinhild Hoffmann,
and collaborated with designer Johannes Schütz.
Christina Cunningham’s (costume design) costume designs include People, Places, Things and
As You Like It (National Theatre), The Nether (Royal Court), Chimerica (Almeida and West
End), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (National Actors Theatre, New York), and many
productions for Complicite on international tours and at the Barbican, National Theatre, and
Duchess Theatre, including The Master and Margarita, Shun-kin, Measure for Measure, Strange
Poetry and Mnemonic. she has designed costumes for operas including Rise and Fall of the City
of Mahagonny and The Importance of Being Earnest (The Royal Opera), A Dog’s Heart (English
National Opera, Dutch National Opera, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, and Opéra de Lyon), and
Nabucco (Opéra de Nancy). Her dance designs include Sun (Hofesh Shechter Company), Just for
Show (DV8), and Just Add Water (Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company).
Franz Peter David (lighting design) began his career in several German theaters, and was
lighting designer and head of the lighting department for Berlin Staatsoper, 1994–2005. He has
worked with designers including Hans Schavernoch, Johannes Schütz, and Erich Wonder;
directors including Ruth Berghaus, Luc Bondy, Götz Friedrich, Harry Kupfer, Johannes Schaaf,
and Robert Wilson; and choreographers Patrice Bart, Maurice Béjart, and Vladimir Malakhov.
Last year he lit Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier for Baden-Baden Easter Festival, and has
worked for opera and theater companies in cities including Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt,
Hamburg, Beijing, Glasgow, Paris, Oslo, Tokyo, and Zurich. For The Royal Opera he lit
Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro for Johannes Schaaf, and designed the lighting for Gerald
Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
Leon Baugh (movement director) trained at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance,
and went on to dance for companies and choreographers including Jasmin Vardimon and Frantic
Assembly, and in many television commercials and music videos. He has worked as a dancer
and deputy rehearsal director for Hofesh Shechter, assisting him on projects including Saint Joan
(National Theatre) and Skins (Channel 4). He has worked as a choreographer and movement
director for theaters including the Royal Court, Young Vic, Almeida Theatre, and Boston’s
American Repertory Theatre, and in 2011 he won an Olivier Award for Best Theatre
Choreographer for Sucker Punch (Royal Court). A qualified osteopath and movement coach, he
treats dancers and performers internationally.
Bass Simon Wilding (Lane / Merriman) studied at the Royal National Conservatory of Music.
For The Royal Opera he has most recently appeared as Lane / Merriman in Gerald Barry’s The
Importance of Being Earnest, Sciarrone in Puccini’s Tosca, Lackey in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne
auf Naxos, and Pinellino in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. Other recent appearances include Prince
de Bouillon in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur, Talpa in Puccini’s Il tabarro, and Betto di Signa in
Gianni Schicchi for Opera Holland Park; Athlete in Olga Neuwirth’s American Lulu for The
Opera Group at the Young Vic and the Edinburgh and Bregenz festivals; and Hobson in Britten’s
Peter Grimes for the Beijing Music Festival. He has also sung Zaccaria in Verdi’s Nabucco for
the Macedonian National Opera, Pig in Jonathan Dove’s The Enchanted Pig for New York’s
New Victory Theater, and roles for the Wexford and Batignano Festivals, among others.
Baritone Benedict Nelson (Algernon Moncrieff) was an inaugural Harewood Artist with English
National Opera (ENO). His recent operatic highlights include Algernon (The Royal Opera) in
Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Count Almaviva in Mozart’s The Marriage of
Figaro (ENO), Ned Keene in Britten’s Peter Grimes (Opéra de Lyon and Opera North), Stranger
in Craig Armstrong’s The Lady from the Sea (Edinburgh Festival and Scottish Opera), Aeneas in
Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Verbier Festival, Salzburg Festival, Teatro Regio, and Turin), the
title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Marcello in Puccini’s La bohème, and Tarquinius in
Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia (Angers-Nantes Opéra). Concert highlights include Brahms’s A
German Requiem (Hallé), Weill’s Berliner Requiem (Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio
France), Brander in Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra led by
Charles Dutoit) and Orff’s Carmina burana (Gulbenkian Orchestra). This season he sings
Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and gives recitals
at the Oxford Lieder Festival and the Norfolk and Norwich Chamber Music Festival.
Tenor Paul Curievici (John Worthing) studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and
made his Royal Opera debut as Jack Worthing in Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being
Earnest in 2013, returning as Eames in Matt Rogers’s The Virtues of Things. His other
appearances include Painter in Olga Neuwirth’s American Lulu (The Opera Group at the Young
Vic and the Bregenz and Edinburgh festivals), roles in Philip Glass’s The Trial (Music Theatre
Wales), and Sam Kaplan in Weill’s Street Scene (The Opera Group at Liceu, Barcelona, and
Paris’s Théâtre du Châtelet). He has also worked with Scottish Opera, Northern Ireland Opera,
New Sussex Opera, Clonter Opera, Chelsea Opera Group, and Grange Park Opera.
Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Marshall (Gwendolen Fairfax) studied at the Royal Academy of
Music and was a company principal for English National Opera, where her roles included
Wellgunde in Wagner’s Ring cycle, Sonya in Prokofiev’s War and Peace, Mercédès in Bizet’s
Carmen, Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Annio in Mozart’s La clemenza di
Tito, Offred in Poul Ruders’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and Kasturbai in Philip Glass’s Satyagraha.
She has also sung for Opera North, Pacific Opera, Victoria, and the Classical Opera Company; at
the BBC Proms; for Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society; and for orchestras including the Berlin
Philharmonic, Hallé, Britten Sinfonia, and BBC Symphony Orchestra. For The Royal Opera she
has sung Gwendolen Fairfax in Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Girl in
Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Upcoming appearances include Romeo in
Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi for Buxton Festival.
Bass Alan Ewing (Lady Bracknell) has performed for companies including The Royal Opera (in
roles including Lady Bracknell in Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest), Berlin
Staatsoper, Zurich Opera, Dutch National Opera, and at Theater an der Wien, Amsterdam’s
Royal Concertgebouw, Paris’s Salle Pleyel, and the Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, and Lucerne
festivals. His roles include many Handel bass roles, Osmin in Mozart’s The Abduction from the
Seraglio, Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Sarastro in Mozart’s The Magic Flute,
Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Fafner in Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Siegfried, Baron Ochs
in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, and the title roles in Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and
Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Recent appearances include Archbishop in Szymanowski’s
Król Roger (The Royal Opera), Prince Gremin in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Grange Park
Opera), and Claudio in Handel’s Agrippina (Northern Ireland Opera). Upcoming highlights
include an appearance in Thomas Adès’s Powder Her Face (Bilbao), the role of Bottom in
Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Performing Arts Centre, Hyogo), and a return to The
Royal Opera.
Welsh contralto Hilary Summers (Miss Prism) has created several roles, including Stella in
Elliot Carter’s What Next (Berlin Staatsoper), Irma in Peter Eötvös’s Le Balcon (Aix-enProvence Festival), Miss Prism in the U.K. Stage Premiere of Gerald Barry’s The Importance of
Being Earnest (The Royal Opera), and Mrs. Darling/Tiger Lilly in the U.K. and London
Premieres of Richard Ayres’s Peter Pan (with the welsh National Opera, including at The Royal
Opera House). Her operatic repertory also includes Baroque roles such as Juno in Handel’s
Semele, performances in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, and Medoro in Handel’s Orlando. Other roles
include Baba the Turk in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Mrs. Sedley in Britten’s Peter
Grimes, Geneviève in Debussy’s Pélléas et Melisande, and Mescalina in Ligeti’s Le Grand
Macabre. She has recorded more than 30 CDs, including Boulez’s Grammy Award–winning Le
Marteau sans maître, conducted by the composer.
Soprano Claudia Boyle (Cecily Cardew) studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and
participated in the 2010 Salzburg Festival Young Singers’ Project. She won First Prize and the
Critics’ Prize in the 2012 Maria Callas Grand Prix. Her recent appearances include Konstanze in
Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio (Komische Oper Berlin), Tytania in Britten’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cunegonde in Bernstein’s Candide, Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto
(Rome Opera), the title role in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (Danish National Opera),
Mabel in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance (English National Opera, Caen, and
Luxembourg), Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore (Semperoper Dresden), Jenny in Weill’s
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Dublin’s Opera Theatre Company), and May-Shan in
the World Premiere of Christian Jost’s Rote Laterne (Zurich Opera). Upcoming highlights
include a return to Dresden as Adina in L’elisir d’amore.
Kevin West (The Rev. Canon Chasuble, D.D.) began his career with D’Oyly Carte Opera
Company and studied singing at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. His operatic
engagements include David in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for English National
Opera, Pong in Puccini’s Turandot for The Royal Opera, Schoolmaster in Janáček’s The
Cunning Little Vixen, Don Basilio in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro for Opera North and
Northern Ireland Opera, Snout in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Governor in
Bernstein’s Candide, and Missail in Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov for Turin’s Teatro Regio. He
created the role of Swami Zumzum in Harrison Birtwistle’s The Second Mrs. Kong for
Glyndebourne Festival as well as various roles for Almeida Opera, and sang in the World
Premiere of Judith Weir’s Missa e combattimento for Brussels’s La Monnaie. He has appeared as
an actor and narrator at Richmond Theatre and King’s Head Theatre. Television appearances
include The People’s Passion and King Priam (Channel 4) and Figaro Live (BBC2).
***
Major support for the NY PHIL BIENNIAL is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, and The Francis Goelet Fund.
***
Additional funding is provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation and Honey M. Kurtz.
***
BNY Mellon is Lead Supporter of Lincoln Center’s Great Performers.
Tickets
Tickets for this performance are $40. Tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling
(212) 875-5656, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday; 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Saturday; and noon to 5:00 p.m. Sunday. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic’s
Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656. Ticket prices subject to change.
For press tickets, contact Eric Gewirtz at (212) 875-5049 or [email protected].
For more information about all NY PHIL BIENNIAL events, visit nyphil.org/biennial.
CONTACT! AT THE BIENNIAL:
U.S. STAGE PREMIERE OF GERALD BARRY’S THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
Co-Presented by the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center’s Great Performers as
Part of the Lincoln Center–New York Philharmonic Opera Initiative
Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center
10 Columbus Circle
Thursday, June 2, 2016, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, June 3, 2016, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 4, 2016, 7:30 p.m.
Play Date with Lincoln Center’s Great Performers after the June 4 concert at Rose Theatre at Jazz at
Lincoln Center
Production by the Royal Opera
Ilan Volkov, conductor
Ramin Gray*, director
Ben Clark, associate set design, after an idea by Johannes Schütz
Christina Cunningham, costume design
Franz Peter David, lighting design
Leon Baugh, movement director
New York Philharmonic
Simon Wilding*, bass (Lane/Merriman)
Benedict Nelson*, baritone (Algernon Moncrieff)
Paul Curievici*, tenor (John Worthing)
Stephanie Marshall*, mezzo-soprano (Gwendolen Fairfax)
Alan Ewing*, bass (Lady Bracknell)
Hilary Summers*, contralto (Miss Prism)
Claudia Boyle*, soprano (Cecily Cardew)
Kevin West* (The Rev. Canon Chasuble, D.D.)
Gerald BARRY
The Importance of Being Earnest (U.S. Stage
Premiere–Co-Commissioned by Los
Angeles Philharmonic Association, Gustavo
Dudamel, Music Director, and Barbican
Centre, London)
* denotes New York Philharmonic debut
###
ALL PROGRAMS SUBJECT TO CHANGE
Photography is available for the NY PHIL BIENNIAL at nyphil.org/newsroom/1516/biennial
or by contacting the Communications Department at (212) 875-5700; [email protected].