Suchan Kim Joins the Cast of Teatro Grattacielo's DON GIOVANNI for 2022 Festival Season

Teatro Grattacielo announces a casting change in the title role of Don Giovanni as part of the Phoenicia International Festival of The Voice on August 5, 2022 at 8:30pm at Saint Ursula Place, Phoenicia, NY.

Suchan Kim will replace Joe Lodato in the title role of Don Giovanni. In addition to Teatro Grattacielo's production of Don Giovanni, New York City Opera will present their production of La Traviata on August 6, and Hollywood in the Hills on August 7, a special concert event celebrating opera in the movies.

Tickets are each event are $5 for children under 16, $40 general admission, and $95 VIP. Weekend passes that provide access to all three events are $100. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit phoeniciavoicefest.org or call 845-594-8201.

"We wish Joe Lodato well and a speedy recovery and are so pleased that Suchan Kim is able to join on short notice," said Stefanos Koroneos, General and Artistic Director of Teatro Grattacielo.

Don Giovanni

Friday, August 5, 2022 at 8:30pm

The hugely energetic and innovative Teatro Grattacielo - with Camerata Bardi Vocal Academy young artists program - brings its special combination of great young singers, provocative staging and projections to open this season with Mozart's arguably greatest opera, Don Giovanni. Updated as a celebration of Spanish sic-kitsch set in '90s replete with air couches, Chanel clothes, lots of jewels, and a bright white stage made of tiles with bulls, this production is a dedication to Spanish cinematographer Pedro Almodovar and Cuban Bolero singer La Lupe. On the stage will be five neon bull sculptures, a five-piece couch covered with Piet Mondian fabric, and lots of gazpacho. The performers will be driven by their most inner desires and fears, living their lives in a continued state of suspension. A suspension of time. A suspension of senses. In a '90s Spain, where food, sex and pop culture are a way of expression. Conductor: David Bloom, Director: Stefanos Koroneos, Set and Costume Designer: Tasos Protopsaltou, Artist: Lolita Valdeerrama Savage.

Cast: Rick Agster, Christiana, Suchan Kim, Clara Luz Iranzo, Eric Mc Keever, Samuel Ng, Alexandra Razskazoff, Madison Zahorsky.

La Traviata

Saturday, August 6, 2022 at 8:30pm

The storied New York City Opera unites soprano Ekaterina Siurina (MET Opera's Gilda, Rigoletto and Susanna, Le Nozze di Figaro) and tenor Charles Castronovo (MET Opera's Don Ottavio, Don Giovanni; Rodolfo, La Bohème) for Verdi's La Traviata. The production also stars world-renowned baritone Michael Chioldi, who led last summer's Rigoletto, a role he recently stepped into at the MET for a series of critically acclaimed performances, and to which he is returning this November. In what is sure to be another triumph in the Catskills, City Opera Music Director and Principal Conductor Maestro Constantine Orbelian helms this story of a beautiful, Parisian courtesan finally finds true love, only to have her life cut short by a fatal disease. City Opera brings their own, classical touch to La Traviata, which features one of the most iconic, romantic and tragic scores of all time, Verdi's masterpiece contrasts spectacular party scenes with tender, intimate moments.

La Traviata (which means 'one who has lost her way') tells the story of the tragic love be-tween the courtesan Violetta and the romantic Alfredo Germont. Played out against the hypocrisy of upper-class fashionable society, Alfredo and Violetta's love threatens to shame his family. When his father directly appeals to Violetta to relinquish her one chance of happiness, Violetta submits and her act of self-sacrifice leads to her paying the ultimate price.

Director: Michael Capasso, Conductor: Constantine Orbelian Cast: Charles Castronovo, Michael Chioldi, Ekatrina Siurina

Hollywood in the Hills: Opera in the Movies

Sunday, August 7, 2022 at 8:30pm

Alongside these Big Apple giants, experience an innovative concert featuring Opera in the Mo-ies, with a full chorus and orchestra. Enjoy projected vignettes of films enhanced by opera's incredible drama, and performances from world class soloists who've graced the Festival for over a decade. Films include Philadelphia, The Shawshank Redemption, Pretty Woman, The Rabbit of Seville and Fatal Attraction. Presented in collaboration with The Woodstock Film Festival. Cast: Yulan Piao, Ta'u Pupu'a, Kristin Sampson, Matthew Gamble

The Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice Foundation promotes the human voice as an instrument of peace, healing and artistic expression, through presenting a diverse range of world class vocal performances in Phoenicia NY, The Catskills and surroundings areas. Through performances across a range of musical genres, the Festival seeks to expand the audience for the vocal arts and to discover and develop new vocal talent from around the corner and around the world. The Festival also seeks to be an economic engine for the region, adding to the recreational activities, the fine cuisine, and the alluring shops the possibility to perform and experience vocal music in the pure mountain air and exceptional natural beauty of the Catskills.

Since its creation, the festival has welcomed superstars such as Lucas Meachem, John Osborn, Barry Banks, Morris Robinson, Kevin Glavin, Lauren Flanigan, Jacques DeJohnette, Carey Harrison, Ginger Costa-Jackson, Emily Pulley, Lee Roy Reams, Anthony Laciura, Susan Powell, Richard White, Jerry Steichen, Richard Bernstein and Ricky Ian Gordon. The festival over the years has served thousands and thousands of appreciative music lovers, transformed our region, became a renown cultural destination and having created a strong model of interaction between art and communities, will duplicated its efforts in other regions of the US and in the world.

For more information, visit phoeniciavoicefest.org.