mar 14-16
Venue: Overture Hall
Friday, Mar. 14, 2025
Free Prelude Discussion: 6:30 p.m.
Concert: 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Mar. 15, 2025
Free Prelude Discussion: 6:30 p.m.
Concert: 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Mar. 16, 2025
Free Prelude Discussion: 1:30 p.m.
Concert: 2:30 p.m.
Tickets: $15-$104
The lasting impact of two composers, Richard Strauss and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is explored through their final works in this concert. After opening with one of Strauss’ great tone poems Don Juan, soprano Amanda Majeski takes the stage with the orchestra for what Strauss himself called his Four Last Songs. Majeski, mezzo-soprano Kirsten Lippart, tenor Martin Luther Clark, bass Matt Boehler, and the Madison Symphony Chorus come together for Mozart’s Requiem, the work he wrote from his death bed and left unfinished. When he passed, his associate Franz Xaver Süssmayr completed the composition. It lives on as one of the most profoundly beautiful works ever created.
John DeMain, Conductor
Amanda Majeski, Soprano
Kirsten Lippart, Mezzo-Soprano
Martin Luther Clark, Tenor
Matt Boehler, Bass
Madison Symphony Chorus, Beverly Taylor, Director
Concert Run Time: Approx. 100 minutes, plus 20 minute intermission
Richard Strauss, Don Juan, Op. 20
Richard Strauss, Four Last Songs
Intermission
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Requiem in D minor, K. 626
Prelude Discussion
Enjoy a 30-minute talk with Beverly Taylor starting one hour before each concert in Overture Hall. Free to ticket-holders.
Take Note: Drinks Allowed in Overture Hall
Please take note that drinks are allowed inside Overture Hall during all Madison Symphony Orchestra concerts. You may pre-order food and drink to be picked up in the lobby, or order at bars and concession stands located around the Overture Hall lobby before each concert and during intermission. Please enjoy food in the lobby and unwrap any candy or cough drops before the performance begins. Thank you!
…when she [Majeski] stepped on stage, she sang with beautifully connected lines each time growing with more clarity and gorgeous tone… – OperaWire
“Mr. Clark’s supple tone and yearning pitches make him a fine choice for Tamino and similar lyrical roles.” – Opera Today
Mozart’s incomplete masterpiece offers us a work of incredible beauty at the end of his life. – John DeMain
Mezzo-soprano Lippart, a native of Denmark, Wis., has dazzled audiences of opera, musical theater, and chamber music alike. – Gardner Webb University
Boehler sang with compelling versatility, his bold bass voice capable of illustrating tender sorrow and excruciating anguish within a single phrase. – Schmopera
Rosemarie and Fred Blancke
Rodney Schreiner and Mark Blank
von Briesen & Roper, s.c.
Internationally renowned American soprano Amanda Majeski is rapidly garnering critical acclaim for a voice of “silvery beauty” (Musical America), with the Financial Times remarking that “Majeski’s well-rounded soprano … is so warm and glorious, the singing so outstanding, that she leaves no emotions unstirred.” Having established herself as a celebrated interpreter of Mozart, Strauss, Wagner and Handel, Majeski added a new dimension to her career with her breakthrough performance as the title role in Janáček Káťa Kabanová at Royal Opera, Covent Garden in 2019, which won Best New Opera Production at that year’s Olivier Awards.
During the 2023/24 season, Majeski returns to the Teatro Real Madrid as Marta The Passenger and performs Katja at the Semperoper Dresden. In 2022/23 she debuted the title role Salome for the Madison Opera and sang Katja in concert with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Other recent performances include: her house debuts at the Dutch National Opera, as Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, and Opéra de Paris, as Vitellia La clemenza di Tito; a return to the Teatro Real Madrid as 3rd Norn and Gutrune Götterdämmerung; Katya in concert at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw; an appearance with the Madison Opera for the return of its wildly popular Opera in the Park concert; and virtual performances with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Harris Theater.
Majeski’s 2019/20 season commenced with her debut with the Nürnberger Symphoniker bringing her Straussian expertise to his Vier letzte Lieder conducted by Kahchun Wong. She then returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago, the company that launched her international career, for her house role debut as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, followed by Hugo Wolf Italienisches Liederbuch at the 92nd Street Y, alongside bass-baritone Philippe Sly and pianist Julius Drake.
Highlights from her previous season include rave reviews for her Royal Opera House Káťa Kabanová, “If there is a more compelling solo performance on the operatic stage this year than Amanda Majeski’s in the title role of Janacek’s opera, I will need a new stock of superlatives. I unhesitatingly say that you are unlikely to encounter a Katya more profoundly acted than by the American soprano, nor more strikingly sung.” The Times. Her 2018/19 season also included her concert debuts with the Sydney Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Music of the Baroque, and her debut at Staatsoper Stuttgart as the title role in Iphigénie en Tauride was praised as “Amanda Majeski in the title role has a voluminous, clean-sounding and beautiful soprano. She is the ideal person for this role” Kultura Extra, as well as a return to Santa Fe Opera as Fiordiligi Così fan tutte in a new production under conductor Harry Bicket and director R. B. Schlather.
Majeski made her Metropolitan Opera debut on the opening night of the 2014/15 season as Countess Almaviva in a new production of Le nozze di Figaro conducted by James Levine, which was broadcast in HD internationally and on PBS across the United States. Since then, she has returned for revivals of Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, both conducted by Fabio Luisi, and a new production of Così fan tutte conducted by David Robertson which was a featured HD broadcast in the 2017/18 season. An alumna of the Ryan Opera Center, she made her mainstage Lyric debut with only a few hours’ notice as Countess Almaviva conducted by Andrew Davis. Named “Best Breakout Star” by Chicago Magazine, she has since continued her relationship with Lyric audiences as Vitellia La clemenza di Tito, Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, the Marschallin Der Rosenkavalier and as Marta The Passenger, hailed as a “shattering, star-making performance” by the Chicago Classical Review.
On the concert stage, Majeski made her debut with the Hong Kong Philharmonic as Guturne Götterdämmerung conducted by Jaap van Zweden which was released commercially on Naxos Records. She has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in Beethoven Symphony No.9 conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and sang her first performances of Strauss Vier letzte Lieder at Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall with the Curtis Orchestra conducted by Karina Canellakis. She debuted with Sinfonieorchester Aachen singing Berg Sieben frühe Lieder and Mozart Requiem, has been heard in concert singing Agathe’s arias from Der Freischütz with conductor Erik Nielsen and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and the soprano solo in Mahler Symphony No.4 with the Quad City Symphony. She also sang Gounod Marguerite in concert with Washington Concert Opera under Antony Walker, Bach Magnificat under Sir Gilbert Levine in Chicago, Mahler Symphony No.4 with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center and the title role in Stanisław Moniuszko Halka at the Bard Music Festival. She made her New York City recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation and returned for her solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 2014.
Majeski holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and Northwestern University. She was a member of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, the Gerdine Young Artist Program at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and the Steans Institute at Ravinia. Awards include the George London Foundation Award, first prize of the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition, and a Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation.
Kirsten Lippart is a lyric mezzo-soprano based in Madison, WI. Recent highlights include performances with Madison Opera as a Studio Artist for their 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons, followed by a mini-recital as part of their Digital 2020-2021 Season.
With a wide range and vocal flexibility, Kirsten has performed a variety of operatic and musical theatre roles.
Opera roles include: Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti), Third Wood Sprite in Rusalka (Dvorak), Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen (Janáček), Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni), Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart), Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), Third Spirit in The Magic Flute (Mozart), Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress (Stravinsky), Meg Page in Falstaff (Verdi), and Flora in La Traviata (Verdi).
Operetta roles include: Cousin Hebe in HMS Pinafore (Gilbert & Sullivan), Venus in Orpheus in the Underworld (Offenbach), and Prince Orlofsky in The Bat (J. Strauss).
Musical Theatre roles include: Ilona Ritter in She Loves Me (Bock & Harnick), Babette in Beauty and the Beast (Menken), Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel (Rodgers & Hammerstein), Mrs. Segstrom in A Little Night Music (Sondheim), and Celeste #1 in Sunday in the Park with George (Sondheim).
Martin Luther Clark is praised by the Chicago Tribune for for bringing “an extra frisson of vocal and dramatic vitality to everything [he] sang.” In the 2023-24 season, he sings his first performances of the title role of Candide with Madison Opera as well as returns to the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Luis Griffith in Champion and joins Dallas Opera as the Orderly in the world premiere of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. He also sings Handel’s Messiah with the Florida Orchestra and South Dakota Symphony and Bruckner’s Te Deum with the Apollo Chorus and Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra. In the summer he joins Wolf Trap Opera for the Brother in Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins and Jonathan Dale in Silent Night. His future engagements include debuts with Houston Grand Opera and Portland Opera. Last season he created the role of CJ in the world premiere of Will Liverman and DJ King Rico’s highly-anticipated new opera, The Factotum. He also sang Tenor 3 in Davis’ X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X with Detroit Opera and Opera Omaha as well as Rapunzel’s Prince in Into the Woods with Tulsa Opera. In the summer, he returned to the Aldeburgh Music Festival to sing Britten’s Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac and Canticle V: The Death of Narcissus in addition to William Croft’s A Hymn of Divine Musick, realized by Britten. He also sang Master Slender in Sir John in Love as well as two concerts the Bard Music Festival.
Previously at the Lyric Opera of Chicago at which he was a member of the Ryan Opera Center, he sang the First Armed Man in Die Zauberflöte and Adult William and the Chicken Plucker in Blanchard’s Fire Shut up in my Bones in addition to covering Malcom in Macbeth. During COVID’s hold on the industry, he also sang on a number of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s digital programs, including Larry Brownlee and Friends, The Next Chapter: Creating the Factotum, Sole e amore—upon which he sang songs of Mascagni and Puccini, Magical Musical Around the World, and the company’s annual Rising Stars in Concert in which he sang excerpts of L’amico Fritz.
He joined Washington National Opera as Man 2 on the recording of Tesori’s Blue. He sang Borsa—whilst covering Duca—in Rigoletto and the Peasant Leader—whilst covering Lensky—in Eugene Onegin as a Resident Artist at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. While a student at the Curtis Institute of Music, he sang Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni and with Russian Opera Workshop, he sang Count Vaudemont in Iolanta and King Charles VII in Pikyovaya Dama. On the concert stage, he joined the Kansas City Symphony as soloist in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy as well as sangHandel’s Messiah at Opera North and Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Highland Park Chorale.
Mr. Clark is a previous young artist of the Britten Pears Young Artist Program, George Solti Academia, and Central City Opera as well as a Resident Artist at Opera North and Studio Artist at Wolf Trap Opera. In addition, he sang numerous outreach performances or Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore with Dallas Opera while obtaining his Bachelor of Music at the University of North Texas, at which his performances included Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette, the Chevalier in Dialogues des Carmélites, Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance, and Mack the Knife in The Threepenny Opera. He holds a Master of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. He is a Richard F. Gold Career Grant recipient from the Shoshana Arts Foundation.
Hailed by The New York Times as “a bass with an attitude and the goods to back it up,” Matt Boehler is a singer known in the worlds of opera and theater for his captivating, dynamic performances and his long-earned reputation as an inventive and truly collaborative artist. He has appeared as a principal artist with The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Dallas Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Minnesota Opera, Spoleto Festival, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Theater St. Gallen, and Canadian Opera Company, as well as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and the New York Festival of Song, among many others. In addition to bringing “power and brilliant tone” (Opera News) to staples of the standard repertoire, Matt is frequently in demand as a new music collaborator and his discography features many world premieres.
A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, he is now based in San Francisco. He trained as an actor at Viterbo College, an opera singer at Juilliard, and as a composer at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.