Art and opera will join forces in “Art and Opera: From Monarchy to Modernity,” which will explore the French Revolution’s impact on the social and political landscape of France during the late eighteenth century and how it paved the way for nineteenth-century Impressionism. Enjoy an evening of performances by some of the high caliber international artists who will be performing in Nashville Opera’s Andrea Chénier along with a sneak preview of The Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from Musée d’Orsay, which opens at the Frist Center in October.

The reception will include food donated by Chef’s Market and a cash bar. The program will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m.

Visit http://www.nashvilleopera.org/Calendar.html to register for this event. 



About the opera:
Andrea Chénier

The best Puccini opera Puccini never wrote! Set against the roiling backdrop of the French Revolution, Umberto Giordano’s sweeping love story of an opera was even bigger than La Bohème at its premiere. This pot-boiler spins a fictitious story about a very real poet, André Chénier, and his dangerous ideas. Poignant vignettes paint the heartrending story of the revolutionary (whose name is Italianized to Andrea) and his dear Maddalena, whose tender hopes for love in a better world are extinguished at the guillotine. Acclaimed set designer Kris Stone, who wowed Nashville with her Don Giovanni, is creating a new production for this opera. Performed in Italian with projected English translations.

Andrea Chénier will be performed in the Andrew Jackson Hall at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center on the following dates:

Thursday, October 7, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 9, 2010, 8:00 p.m.

The Patricia and Rodes Hart Production

Andrea Chénier: Roy Cornelius Smith
Maddalena di Coigny: Lori Phillips
Carlo Gérard: Luis Ledesma
L’Incredibile/ The Abbé: Jeffrey Halili
Roucher/Fléville: Eric Dubin
Bersi/Madelon: Dawn Pierce
Mathieu/Schmidt: Matthew Treviño
Countess di Coigny: Jennifer Coleman
 

About the exhibition:
The Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay includes approximately 100 masterpieces of mid-to-late 19th-century French painting from the Musée d’Orsay, a museum in Paris dedicated to the art of the early modern period (1840s through the early 20th century). The exhibition provides a broad context for understanding the roots of Modernism by combining seminal works by innovators such as Courbet, Manet, Cézanne, Monet, and Renoir; Salon painters such as Bouguereau; and artists who moved easily between convention and innovation such as Degas, Fantin-Latour, and Whistler.

This exhibition is organized by the Frist Center for Visual Arts with gratitude for exceptional loans from the collection of the Musée d’Orsay.

This event is free and open to the public; registration is strongly suggested.

Visit http://www.nashvilleopera.org/Calendar.html to register for this event. 


Image (bottom, right): Edouard Manet. Berthe Morisot With a Bouquet of Violets, 1872. Oil on canvas, 21 5/8 x 15 3/4 in. © RMN (Musée d'Orsay), Hervé Lewandowski