Seattle Opera Appoints Michaella Calzaretta Chorus Master & Head of Music Staff

 

Seattle Opera announced today its new chorus master & head of music staff is Michaella Calzaretta, an experienced conductor acclaimed for her high standards and superb preparation skills. Calzaretta will prepare the 36-member Seattle Opera Chorus, which will be featured during the 2022/23 season in The Elixir of Love, Tristan and Isolde, Samson and Delilah in Concert, and La traviata. Additionally, Calzaretta will oversee the company’s musical activities, aiming for the highest standards in musical performance.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Synopsis

Photo by Philip Newton

Music by Sheila Silver
Libretto by Stephen Kitsakos
Adapted from the novel by Khaled Hosseini

Fifteen-year-old Mariam, the cast-off bastard child of a rich father, is forced to leave her rural home after her mother’s suicide and marry a middle-aged shoemaker from Kabul named Rasheed. Alone, scared and forced to wear the burqa, something unfamiliar to her, she tries her best to be a dutiful wife but is unable to conceive a child. Consequently, she lives a loveless existence with a husband who abuses her regularly for her failure to give him a son.

Seattle Opera appoints Dennis Robinson, Jr., Director of Programs and Partnerships

Seattle Opera has selected Dennis Robinson, Jr., a seasoned theater administrator with extensive experience as a stage director, as its next Director of Programs and Partnerships. Robinson brings a keen eye for community partnerships to the department, which reaches over 100,000 patrons every year with its educational and civic programming.