Opera News
International opera star picks Fort Worth for rare U.S. concert
See Jonathan Tetelman on October 10.
The Fort Worth Opera is opening its 80th season with a bang. Tenor Jonathan Tetelman, an international star who rarely appears in the U.S., is giving a one-night-only concert October 10 at Van Cliburn Concert Hall on the TCU campus.
To give you a sense of how rare this really is, Tetelman's next two U.S. appearances will be at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.
“In America, it’s hard to put together a cross-country touring schedule as we don’t have that grassroots popularity, where every city and town has an opera house,” Tetelman explains. “But Fort Worth stands apart there. It’s not the biggest city in Texas, but it’s home to the state’s oldest opera company. There’s a real sophistication here — and I’m thrilled we could put this event together with Fort Worth Opera.”
The Chilean-born, New Jersey-bred, and New York-trained tenor now calls Germany his home base, where he is a Deutsche Grammophon recording artist.
Along with his excitement at finding a new audience in North Texas, Tetelman says he’s relishing the chance to explore the close-up power of the recital format.
“This is a new frontier for me — just piano and voice,” he says. “It strips away everything ‘big’ about opera, and leaves poetry, communicated through music with people who really feel it, right there in the room with you.”
The program for Jonathan Tetelman in Concert is built for that intimacy: “We’re going to do a Tosti set — Italian canzoni that need a softness you can lose with full orchestration. Then we’ll do Neapolitan songs, Nino Rota’s ‘Parla più piano’ from The Godfather, Spanish favorites like ‘Granada’ and ‘No puede ser,’ and of course some Puccini arias that people might not have experienced this way before.”
That close-up focus also shaped his choice of partner at the piano. Tetelman appears with celebrated conductor-pianist Michael Recchiuti, a longtime friend and mentor whose collaboration credits range from Renée Fleming to Vanessa Williams.
“Michael and I have done a lot of behind-the-scenes work together — he prepared me for several of the roles I’m touring now,” Tetelman says. “I’ve wanted to collaborate with him in performance for a long time, so when this opportunity came up, he was my first call.”
Immediately following the recital, the launch of Fort Worth Opera’s 80th anniversary season will continue with the separately ticketed Dinner with the Stars.
Headlining the celebration are dramatic tenor Clifton Forbis (frequent Metropolitan Opera guest and Chair of Voice at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts) and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Doche (last season’s sparkling Angelina in the Opera’s critically acclaimed La Cenerentola). They will be joined by the company’s newly announced Hattie Mae Lesley Resident Artists. Director Emeritus Joe Illick emcees the evening, which features highlights from operas the company has presented across the past eight decades.
“If you know Jonathan Tetelman’s recordings or you’ve been lucky to hear him on a grand stage, you understand that any performance he makes is unmissable,” says Fort Worth Opera general and artistic director Angela Turner Wilson. “In recital, he brings that same power and warmth, but with a rare connection to the room. People are going to be talking about this event for a long time — but there are only 700 seats in the theater. This is your chance to be one of the few who can say, ‘I was there.’”
Founded in 1946 by three visionary women — Eloise MacDonald Snyder, Betty Berry Spain, and Jeanne Axtell Walker — Fort Worth Opera is the oldest opera company in Texas, and one of the oldest opera companies in the United States.
For more information and to browse available season ticket packages or purchase single tickets for Jonathan Tetelman in Concert and/or the Dinner with the Stars, visit fwopera.org.
