`The Barber'
and Bocelli
MOT's fall season features Rossini's comic opera
masterpiece and the North American operatic
debut of an international superstar.
BILL CARROLL
Special to the Jewish News
uoyed by the critical and
financial success of The
Three Tenors concert last
July, Michigan Opera
Theatre (MOT) launches
its fall season at the
Detroit Opera House
Saturday, Oct. 2, with a
perennial favorite,
Rossini's The Barber of
Seville, followed later in the month
by the North American operatic
debut of Italian tenor superstar
Andrea Bocelli.
Bocelli's appearance in the
Massenet tragedy Werther promises a
new version of the opera fan frenzy
that swept the Detroit area when Jose
Carreras, Placid°
Domingo and Luciano
Pavarotti performed
before 37,000 at Tiger
Stadium.
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Bocelli, blind since a childhood
never before seen here, like Turandot
soccer accident, has taken the United
last year and Werther this season. We
States by storm with a tour of sold-out
can better showcase the quality of our
stadium concerts, plus the worldwide
talented singers and musicians."
sale of 25 million opera and pop
Okun began taking trombone
music CDs.
lessons in the sixth grade after "strong
MOT is looking to ticket sales
encouragement" from his father,
from The Barber of Seville and the
Seymour Okun, who is a retired
anticipated sellouts of Bocelli's six
music teacher and band director.
Werther performances to add to coffers
Maury Okun graduated from
refueled by The Three Tenors. The
Southfield-Lathrup High School, then
28-year-old MOT, which rose to
the Eastman School of Music in
worldwide operatic fame with the
Rochester, N.Y.
opening of the exquisitely restored
Playing with 70 to 75 total musi-
Detroit Opera House in 1996, made
cians in an orchestra pit is mostly
514 million from The Three Tenors,
uneventful during operas, but Okun
including ticket revenue and dona-
recalls when a birdcage being used in
tions. Ford Motor Company spon-
the musical Sweeney Todd fell off of
sored the event and also will sponsor
the stage and knocked out a harpist.
the fall season.
Okun, whose daytime job is being
The $14 million will bolster the
the executive director of three area
New Century campaign, including the
chamber music and dance societies,
expansion of the current Opera House
draws a "bye" in The Barber of Seville
for an educational resource center,
because Rossini didn't write trombone
monies toward retiring the construc-
parts into it. "Trombonists often have
tion debt of $25 million left over
to wait a long time between parts in
from funding the S60 million build-
an opera," he said. "You could almost
ing and starting an endowment for
go out for a coffee break ... whereas
the MOT company.
violinists usually play for two of an
"The Three Tenors got the 'millen-
opera's three hours."
nium' celebration off to a good start,
In that category is violinist
and helped our downtown Detroit
Alexander (Sasha) Margolis, 31, of
comeback," said MOT
Ann Arbor, starting his
General Director David
Rossini's "The Barber of third year with the MOT
DiChiera. "Now the excit- Seville" opens the fall
Orchestra, which holds
ing new opera season will
MOT season. Making
five or six rehearsals for a
her MOT debut as
help us continue to evolve
typical opera. He began
Rosina is Vivica
and grow. I planned the
playing the violin at the
`millennium season' with a Genaux, who sang the
age of 7 in his native
role at the New York
lot of thought about our
Minneapolis, before the
Metropolitan Opera.
audiences. They will see
family moved to Oberlin,
and hear some of the fresh-
Ohio.
est young opera singers — rapidly ris-
Margolis came to the Detroit area
ing stars in productions never before
when his wife, viola player Mahoko
staged in Detroit."
Eguchi, joined a string quartet at
DiChiera's sentiments about
Eastern Michigan University. They
Detroit and the Detroit Opera House
had met at a music festival in Italy.
were echoed by Maury Okun, one of
They perform in concerts together,
two Jewish musicians among the 37
and he plays in a string quartet and
core members of the MOT orchestra.
gives private violin lessons.
Okun, 45, of Novi, is a trombone
Margolis sat "very close" on stage
player starting his 20th year with the
to The Three Tenors during the July
group, which also consists of musi-
concert, which he ranked as one of
cians from other area orchestras.
the most "exciting and uplifting"
"Opening the Detroit Opera House
experiences of his career. "When
brought music back to life in
you're that close, you derive a whole
Detroit," he enthused. "We're a
different sound from their singing,"
diverse community, all proud of the
he said. "There are a lot of subtleties
rejuvenation and success of opera
that would be hard to detect from the
music. And there's an excellent rela-
audience. And we all were thrilled to
tionship between MOT management
have James Levine as the conductor ...
and the performers and musicians ...
a genial and cordial man who made
like being on a winning team.
the concert even more pleasant."
"The staging and scenery facilities
The Barber of Seville is one of opera's
of the opera house allowed us to take
better-known lighthearted comedies,
a quantum leap into some operas
typical of the opera style that flourished