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Listen to an excerpt from
Part II – The Dressing Ritual:…Wife for a hat
Michael NYMAN (b. 1944)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
Libretto by Oliver Sacks, Christopher Rawlence
and Michael Morris
Matthew Treviño, Dr. P (Bass)
Rebecca Sjöwall, Mrs. P (Soprano)
Ryan MacPherson, Neurologist (Tenor)
Nashville Opera
John Hoomes, Stage Director
Dean Williamson, Music Director
Michael Nyman’s one-act chamber opera The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat takes as its subject Dr P, a man suffering from visual agnosia, or ‘mental blindness’, and is adapted from the neurological study in the book of the same name by Oliver Sacks. For Nyman, Dr P ‘requires music as a lifeline, cue, clue, cure’, living as he does in a world lacking visual meaning. It is through his musical gifts that Dr P reclaims meaning from chaos, Nyman’s tautly conceived masterpiece providing a perfect medium through which the moving drama can be explored.
Dean Williamson| Nashville Opera Orchestra
Matthew Treviño| Rebecca Sjöwall| Ryan MacPherson
© Kevin Clark
About Dean Williamson
Dean Williamson has a versatile career in standard and contemporary repertoire, and is earning worldwide acclaim for his perceptive and commanding conducting. He currently serves as Music Director of Nashville Opera where select conducting credits include Hydrogen Jukebox, Così fan tutte, Florencia en el Amazonas, Romulus Hunt, La fanciulla del West, The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, Michael Nyman’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, Roméo et Juliette, and Samson and Delilah. Other career highlights include Pagliacci, The Turn of the Screw, and Le nozze di Figaro at Seattle Opera; The Rake’s Progress, Don Pasquale, Falstaff, and La cenerentola at Wolf Trap Opera; Il barbiere di Siviglia and Carmen at Opera Theatre of St. Louis; and Lucia di Lammermoor and Sondheim’s Passion with Minnesota Opera. The production of Le Comte Ory he conducted at Des Moines Metro Opera was nominated for an Emmy Award.
© Reed Hummell
About the Nashville Opera Orchestra
Under the leadership of Nashville Opera’s Music Director, Dean Williamson, the Nashville Opera Orchestra is an extraordinary group of instrumentalists consisting of some of the finest musicians in the city of Nashville. Masters of style – from Aldridge’s gospel tinged Elmer Gantry to sweeping orchestrations of Puccini’s Turandot – the players of the Nashville Opera Orchestra are as comfortable playing operatic scores as they are working with the biggest stars on Nashville’s legendary Music Row. In addition to their work with the opera, many players have advanced solo or small group careers including recordings, GRAMMY® nominations, and awards for a wide range of classical, contemporary or newly composed pieces. The musicians of the Nashville Opera Orchestra elevate opera to new heights with highly polished technique, inspired playing, and an indelible connection to each work they perform.
© teneightcreative
About Matthew Treviño
Recipient of the 2011 Austin Critics’ Table “Best Singer Award” for his performance in The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, Matthew Treviño is one today’s most sought-after young basses. Recent operatic credits include Sparafucile in Rigoletto (English National Opera, Vancouver Opera, Opera Memphis, Hawaii Opera Theatre); Colline in La bohème (Florentine Opera, Opera Carolina); Hobson in Peter Grimes (English National Opera); Leporello in Don Giovanni (Opera Colorado); and Ashby in La fanciulla del West (Opera Omaha.). Highly regarded for his acting and keen musicianship, Matthew Treviño is well suited to new works, recently performing the rôle of The Ghost in Gordon Getty’s new opera The Canterville Ghost in Leipzig and returning to Nashville Opera as Eddie in Carly Simon’s Romulus Hunt. He was a finalist in the Loren L. Zachary Foundation Competition, Dallas Opera Guild Competition, Fort Worth Opera’s McCammon Voice Competition, and the recipient of the Thomas Stewart Award for Vocal Excellence at Baylor University.
© Kirsten Koromilas
About Rebecca Sjöwall
Born and raised in Wisconsin, soprano Rebecca Sjöwall studied political science at Luther College and music at UCLA. Lauded for her powerful, flexible and clear voice, as well as her dramatic commitment to each work, she has performed a wide variety of rôles, such as the Governess in The Turn of the Screw, Mimì in La bohème, Alice Ford in Falstaff, the Williamson girl in The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, and Violetta in La traviata. She has collaborated with many composers including Garry Schyman, Craig Bohmler, Christina Thomas, Stephen Edwards and Mark Carlson, and has appeared as Anna Roosevelt in the world première performances of The First Lady by Kenneth Wells. On record, she sings the “Rapture Anthem” for the award-winning video game BioShock and is the voice of the Hollywood Starlet on The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman by Sparks.
© Rebecca Fay
About Ryan MacPherson
Ryan MacPherson is one of the most highly sought-after young tenors of his generation. With a vast and growing repertoire, he is well-known for his captivating stage presence, as well as his expertise in modern and contemporary music. He has performed with New York City Opera (Anatol in Barber’s Vanessa and Iff, the Water Genie in the world première of Wuorinen’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories), at the Buxton Festival (Horace in Gounod’s La colombe and Kornélis in Saint-Saëns’ La princesse jaune), Chicago Opera Theater (title rôles in Mozart’s Lucio Silla and Glass’ The Fall of the House of Usher), Central City Opera (Alfredo in La traviata), Lyric Opera Dublin (Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly) and at Nashville Opera (Duke in Rigoletto). He can be heard on the CD release of Glass’ Orphée in the rôle of Heurtebise (Orange Mountain label), and on the DVD of the world première production of Wuorinen’s Brokeback Mountain, as Jack’s Father (Teatro Real, Madrid).
8.660306-07
“Music certainly worth hearing for the sheer enjoyment they give
to the listeners.”
– American Record Guide
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“All three cast members excel, taking Maxwell Davies’s liking for passages of falsetto yowling in their stride; and the instrumental playing is incisively superb.”
BBC Music Magazine ★★★★★
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“Musically expressive, dramatically engaging, and emotionally moving”
– Fanfare
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“This is a great performance of a
great work.”
– International
Record Review