The Northern Lights Music Festival announces its 9th season of professional and student chamber music, opera and symphonic music, to take place on the Iron Range from July 2 through July 20, 2012. The festival, based in Aurora, will also present events in Virginia, Ely, Chisholm and Duluth’s College of St. Scholastica.
The Iron Range is blessed with wonderful performance facilities in the historic schools built at the beginning of the 20th century. Aurora’s intimate and charming Mesabi East Auditorium hosts chamber music and opera throughout the season; Leoncavallo’s verismo opera, “Pagliacci will be performed in Aurora on July 12 and 13. Chisholm’s magnificent auditorium will be the site of “Pagliacci” on Sunday, July 15th. The opera travels to Ely’s Washington Auditorium on Monday, July 16. Starring in Pagliacci will be internationally renowned Russian/Israeli tenor Yevgeny Shapovalov in the role of Canio; Armenian soprano, Hasmik Torosyan will sing Nedda; and Minnesota’s Noah Dahlien will sing the role of Nedda’s lover, Silvio. The production, directed by Maxim Mikhailov and conducted by the Mariinsky Theatre’s Gavriel Heine, will be a new production, set on the Iron Range circa 1915. The sets, designed by Phillip Graneto, will portray the main street of an Iron Range town, which will be an amalgam of Range towns at that point in time. Store fronts will display historically accurate signage of local businesses of that time period, especially those with Italian names. This popular opera, filled with jealousy, passion and murder, has thrilled opera lovers for generations; English subtitles will be projected above the stage. Ticket prices for Pagliacci are $15.
This year the Northern Lights Music Festival brings students and artist faculty from Poland, Great Britain, Canada, Brazil, Russia, Japan and China to perform chamber music and orchestral programs. It will celebrate the birthday of Debussy on July 10 in Aurora with a special chamber music concert featuring pianist Larisa Dedova, who has recently recorded the complete piano music of Debussy. A U.S. premiere of the Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion by the hugely popular Russian classical/jazz composer Nikolai Kapustin will be featured on the Festive Fourth Concert in Aurora on July 4 at 4:00; and at the College of St. Scholastica on July 5th at 7:00. Pianists Alexei Ivanchenko and Veda Zuponcic, together with St. Scholastica faculty member Jeremy Craycraft will perform the exciting and complex work.Tickets are required for Pagliacci and for events in Duluth and Ely; all other events are free to the public.
The festival is funded, in part, by the Minnesota State Arts Board through the arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the Legacy Amendment vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.
Generous funding has also been received from the Iron Range Resources Board; Minnesota Power; AT&T Foundation; Deutschebank Matching Gifts; Arrowhead Regional Arts Board; Pepsico Foundation; Cliffs Foundation; Mesabi East School District and gifts from numerous private individuals.