Oakland East Bay Symphony, Conducted by Michael Morgan, Opens 25th Anniversary Season Friday, Nov. 8, 8 PM With Soprano Othalie Graham

Michael Morgan

Othalie Graham

Oakland East Bay Symphony
Michael Morgan, Music Director

GIUSSEPE VERDI

Overture from La Forza del Destino (1962)

MASON BATES 

Mothership (2010)

GIUSSEPE VERDI 

"Ritorna vincitor!" from Aida (1871) with Othalie Graham, soprano 

RICHARD WAGNER

Immolation Scene, Gotterdammerung (1876) with Othalie Graham, soprano

"The Canadian soprano's timbre and power were thrilling." 

~ Boston Globe

Our 25th Season opening celebrates two composer bicentennials – Verdi and Wagner – and two bright lights on the international music scene: innovative and energetic composer Mason Bates and the OEBS debut of radiant soprano Othalie Graham. The concert opens with the brooding and lyrical overture to Verdi’s opera about star-crossed lovers. American composer, composer-in-residence at the Chicago and San Francisco Symphonies and YouTube Symphony phenom Mason Bates’ exhilarating blend of large-scale symphonic writing, electronic elements and improvisation are driven by a heart-pounding beat in Mothership. Glamorous and powerful, Canadian soprano Othalie Graham joins Maestro Morgan and the orchestra for two of opera’s most heroic moments. “Ritorna vincitor!” from Aida captures the title heroine’s anguish at being torn between loyalty to her father, lover and homeland. The immolation scene from the final opera of Wagner’s Ring Cycle is a musical and dramatic tour-de-force as Brunhilde rides into the flames of Siegfried’s funeral pyre at the apocalyptic end of the opera.