The News & Observer — Raleigh

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Photographed by Matt Sesow from his press packets, October 18, 2026; text transcribed from the photos by Claude.

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THE NEWS & OBSERVER — newsobserver.com
Published: Sep 24, 2006 12:30 AM Modified: Sep 24, 2006 09:50 AM

Wolfgang wired
The Opera Company of North Carolina kicks off an ambitious season with a reality TV spin on 'Don Giovanni'

CRAIG JARVIS, Staff Writer

RALEIGH - A closed-circuit TV cameraman roves the audience and then the stage, mingling with the cast of "Don Giovanni" as the performers scamper over scaffolding and chrome towers. As Mozart's arias flow, the singers' images appear on TV screens placed on the stage.

This is a new take on "Don Giovanni," a multimedia production that considers the Don Juan legend in the era of TV and YouTube. Presented in the year of Mozart's 250th birthday, the production also reimagines Opera Company of North Carolina in its 10th anniversary season.

"Our company is about to change very dramatically," said Frank Grebowski, the company's new general director. "Our presence in the community is about to increase several-fold."

"Don Giovanni" opens the first season in which the company is staging three full productions. Rehearsals began last week with an invitation to the public to drop by Cameron Village and watch the stars work.

Grebowski and artistic director Robert Galbraith, who founded the company with his wife, Margaret Poyner Galbraith, brainstormed a flood of ideas for reaching beyond opera's traditional audience -- performing scenes from "La Boheme" in shopping malls, starting discussion groups for "The Crucible" in schools, libraries and retirement homes, sending singers out with carols at Christmas.

The vision for "Don Giovanni" responds artistically to the goal of reaching people who perceive opera as overly refined and irrelevant to modern life. And it's the company's first attempt at original interpretation.

"It's the project I'm most excited about," Galbraith said. "It's a contemporary look that has never been seen in Raleigh before."

The singers will wear clothes from their own closets instead of lavish costumes. The stage will be strewn with what Galbraith calls "technical gadgets" -- scaffolding, kits, hanging

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DETAILS
WHAT "Don Giovanni."
WHEN 7:30 p.m. Oct. 5-6.
WHERE Meymandi Concert Hall, Progress Energy Center, Raleigh.
COST $20-$75.
CONTACT 783-0098, www.operanc.com; 834-4000, www.ticketmaster.com.

The cast
HERBERT PERRY (DON GIOVANNI): The bass-baritone has garnered rave reviews for his portrayal of Don Giovanni. His career has spanned all of the major U.S. opera houses and has included several national telecasts and recording projects. Perry has an outstanding reputation as an interpreter of contemporary music, most notably in his work with American composer Phillip Glass.

TIMOTHY NOLEN (LEPORELLO): The Broadway and Metropolitan Opera star won a critic's award as Judge Turpin in "Sweeney Todd," and he played the title role in Broadway's "Phantom of the Opera." He has been a guest star on TV's "The Sopranos" and "Guiding Light" and is a respected director and narrator.

HERBERT ECKHOFF (COMMENDATORE): The bass-baritone is well known to international opera, symphony and oratorio audiences. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in "La Traviata" in 1987 and performed in "Billy Budd" in 1989-90. Eckhoff has appeared on opera stages nationally and internationally, receiving rave reviews in symphonic and oratorio performances.

KELLY CAE HOGAN (DONNA ANNA): The soprano returns to the Opera Company of North Carolina after her company debut last season as Salome. She will return to the Metropolitan Opera for performances of "Jenufa" and "La Boheme," as well as making her debut with Opera Tampa as Leonora in "Il Trovatore." Hogan has worked with companies throughout the U.S. and is praised as a concert artist.

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sculpture, chrome towers and TV sets. With the roving camera and projected images, he said, he's contrasting reality television with the fiction of opera.

"There's a stronger, more profound reality in our storytelling, in our pretending, than what we're getting as our daily dose of reality on television," he said.

[circled in green:] As an added element of interest, an artist will create two large paintings about the opera during each of the two performances. Matt Sesow of Washington, D.C., who paints in the outsider or contemporary folk style, will begin the first picture 15 minutes before the curtain rises and finish it before the overture. He'll also paint the second during intermission.

Along with the new comes something old: The orchestra will be on the stage rather than in a pit, which Galbraith said is true to Mozart's time.

Tapping resources

This departure from past productions reflects differences behind the scenes. Galbraith sees this as a pivotal time, and he wants the company to run more like a business. His newly shaved head is a radical switch from the ponytail he wore just a couple of years ago, but the changes he has in mind are more than cosmetic.

Up to now, Galbraith has stayed closely involved in running the company, even when he had a managing director on staff.

"It's time for me to get into the nuts and bolts of the artistic element and leave it to someone like Frank to guide the business," he said.

The company has a stellar track record artistically, but its history is written in red ink. Income from ticket sales and donations has increased in recent years, and Grebowski said he thinks the market is strong enough to double or triple the company's budget, which hovers just under $1 million. Yet the company, which has relied heavily on financing from the Gailbraiths, still operated at a loss last year, partly because it staged two operas for the first time since 1999.

The company is working with a consultant on how to recruit board members from a broader segment of the community who have access to money and other resources that haven't been tapped. And the company is paying attention to the Triangle's geography. Last season, it staged "Salome" in the newly refurbished Memorial Hall at UNC-Chapel Hill. Now Galbraith and Grebowski are surveying Durham's Brightleaf Square, where Triangle Opera staged shows in the open air for years. Opera Company of North Carolina absorbed Triangle Opera four years ago, and a return to Brightleaf seems fitting.

Galbraith has been talking for a long time about staging three operas in a season, and to him and Grebowski the time seems right. They chose works with an eye to younger audiences -- Robert Ward's "The Crucible" and Puccini's "La Boheme" follow "Don Giovanni" -- and hope to bring students into the opera fold.

"This is doing something more than saying 'opera is neat,' " Grebowski said. "This speaks to the kids: 'La Boheme' is popular with teens, they've read 'The Crucible,' everyone knows a Giovanni."

The company is also thinking of inviting students to rehearsals, visiting schools to talk about the issues and sing selections, and offering student discounts.

Losses ... and wins

The school outreach plan didn't materialize for "Don Giovanni." But that hasn't muted Galbraith's enthusiasm.

Nor did the loss of Lucas Meachem in the lead role. Galbraith thought he had talked the young

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