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The Cedar Rapids Gazette: Fri., May 23,1986ARTSmm#Met tenor pleasedwea IthIowa talentBy Dee Ann RexroatGazette arts and entertainment writerhen Metropolitan Opera tenor James Atherton was dispatched to Cedar Rapids to conduct auditions for an opera, he wasn’t expecting to find another Simon Estes.And he didn’t. But he was delighted to find interest and talent in opera here that he never dreamed existed.Atherton heard about 50 singers Sunday and Monday evenings at the Paramount Theatre. He is casting Mozart’s ’’The Magic Flute” for the Cedar Rapids Symphony, which will perform the opera in March.I’m amazed at how much fertile ground there is in Cedar Rapids for cultural things — especially opera,’’ he says. It seems very ripe for some kind of situation that would present opera. In a few years maybe there’ll be an opera company. Why shouldn't there be? There seems to be a wealth oftalent around.HE ADDS THAT the 1,956-seat Paramount Theatre, where the production will take place, is the ideal size for opera. The sound would be lost in a bigger theaterAmong the singers he heard were local performers and people from as far away as Ann Arbor, Mich., Bloomington, 111., St. Louis and Chicago. A number of audi-tioners came from the University of Iowa and Maharishi International University in Fairfield.Atherton, who will be one of the stars of the opera, also conducted preliminary auditions in New York%James AthertonCity and at Indiana University in Bloomington.He and orchestra director Chris tian Tiemeyer also were looking for a soprano for Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, to be performed Dec. 6 and 8 in the orchestra’scoming aaaaoo.'ATHERTON, A NATIVE of Alabama, is slowly breaking away from his singing career into a career as artistic advisor and director for regional opera productions. Next fall he will leave the Met to head the opera department at the St. Louis Conservatory, continuing to perform internationally. 1 ;The 43-year-old tenor sang fornine seasons with the Met, per-character roles in more than 20 operas including Boris*•*tiv-'f,-%yJftV-Jr. 5v -y-.A'r-Gazette pooto by Rita ReedJames Atherton, tenor with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, goes over notes with Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra Director Christian Tiemeyer Monday at the Paramount Theatre Atherton was in Cedar Rapids Sunday and Monday conducting auditions for the opera, “The Magic Flute,” which will be presented by the CRSO m March and in which Atherton will starGodunov,” The Magic Flute and Beethoven’s Fidelio” with such luminaries as Luciano Pavarotti, Marilyn Home, Beverly Sills and Placido Domingo.He says some singers settle for character parts only after they don’t get a big part He claims he decided early in his career, I want to do those (character) parts andreally make IlMi food.Atherton was a classmate of Tiemeyer’s at Peabody Conservetory of Music in Baltimore. They were reunited some time ago at an alumni meeting, during which the preliminary plans were set for Atherton to help produce the opera.THE PRODUCTION, scheduled for March 28 and 30, 1987, will be a bit unusual. The down sized Mozartian orchestra will play from one side of the stage while singers perform on the other. Called a staged concert opera, the set andcostumes will not be as elaborateas in a fully-staged opera.Quite frankly, it’s a form that’s taking hold in the United States. Every year there are three to four series of concert operas in New York, Atherton says.Producing a full opera from scratch would be financially prohibitive, costing several hundred thousand dollars, he adds.Atherton will return next year to help stage the opera.
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Cedar Rapids Gazette
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, US
Fri, May 23, 1986
Page 83
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