Dun, dun, dun, dunnnnn!

A regular on the world’s greatest concert and opera stages, Metropolitan Opera star Christine Brewer joins the Eugene Symphony on Thursday, October 18, 2012 at 8 p.m. at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts. Music Director Danail Rachev conducts Brewer in a program that also includes Ravel’s La valse and a work known and loved the world over, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.

 

A global star with a reputation as a “superlative Strauss singer” (The New York Times), Brewer’s range, golden tone, boundless power and control make her a favorite of the stage as well as a sought-after recording artist. With a vocal technique once described “as refreshingly unfussy as her personality” (The Financial Times), Brewer breaks the mold of the traditional opera diva in countless ways. She freely admits to fibbing about her fried chicken, tearing up during Toy Story 3, hosting a boisterous, annual Hootenanny in her small-town Illinois backyard each summer, and entertaining dreams of running for the Senate.

On October 18, Brewer performs Four Last Songs, Strauss’s musical epitaph, which premiered a year after the composer’s death. Three of the songs are based on Herman Hesse poems and set in a mini-cycle from spring to autumn and on to sleep (the initial work opens at twilight).  Though the soaring melodies ruminate on parting and death—Strauss was 83 when he composed the works—the full orchestra’s accompaniment infuses the work with a profound serenity.

The evening concludes with Beethoven's powerful Symphony No. 5. With its universally recognized opening four notes, the work has endured as one of the world's most popular pieces of music since its Vienna premiere (conducted by the composer himself) in 1808.

Beethoven Symphony No. 5 is sponsored by Hilton Eugene and Conference Center.   Tickets are available through the Hult Center box office (541-682-5000) or online at eugenesymphony.org.