More about the Artists

As guest conductor of the world's major and most recorded orchestras, he appears annually with the Vienna Philharmonic, London Symphony, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Pittsburgh Symphony, to name a few. In 1993, he became the Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra, renewing his relationship with the orchestra of which he was principal conductor for 11 years. Over the past 25 years, Previn has also held chief artistic posts with such renowned orchestras as the Pittsburgh Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, and Houston Symphony. As a pianist, he enjoys performing and recording chamber music and has maintained an active concert career performing with colleagues such as Emanuel Ax, Young Uck Kim, Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham, and the Emerson Quartet. Previn recently returned to one of his first loves -- jazz -- and has begun to record and perform again with jazz artists such as Ray Brown, Mundell Lowe, Grady Tate, and David Finck. The Andre Previn Jazz Trio has now toured Japan, North America, and Europe. He has an extensive discography from more than 30 years of recording for all of the major labels in the symphonic repertoire, chamber music, and jazz. His many compositions include a piano concerto for Vladimir Ashkenazy; a violin sonata for Young Uck Kim; a cello sonata for Yo-Yo Ma; a violin work, "Tango, Song and Dance," for Anne-Sophie Mutter; "Honey and Rue" for Kathleen Battle; and song cycles for Barbara Bonney, Janet Baker, and Sylvia McNair. He is currently writing an orchestral piece for the Vienna Philharmonic on commission from the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 1996, Maestro Previn was awarded a Knighthood (KBE) by her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. This December, he will be honored as a recipient of the 1998 Kennedy Center's annual award for lifetime achievement in the performing arts. Previn teaches annually at the Tanglewood Music Center and at the Curtis Institute of Music.
 

Susa and Littell's "Liaisons" received its premiere at the San Francisco Opera in 1994, was broadcast on PBS later that year, and recently received its second staging at the Washington Opera. Their church opera "The Wise Women," commissioned by the American Guild of Organists in 1995, is also frequently performed. "The Dreamers," an opera by David Conte, followed in 1996, for the Sonoma City Opera. That year also saw Heggie's song cycle "Eve-song," Hartke's cantata "Sons of Noah," and, for the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, Seeley's successful "Naked Man," which has since been performed by choruses throughout the country. Littell and Seeley are currently engaged on two new commissions, one for the Women's Chorus of Dallas and the other for the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington. A native of New York City, Littell has lived in Los Angeles since 1976, where his first career as an actor led him to work in Shakespeare, avant-garde plays, cabaret, rock bands, and performance art. His work as an actor also led him directly to opera when he was cast as the Dancing Master in the Long Beach Opera's staging of "Ariadne auf Naxos/ Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme." He has his own theater company, Red Tie, where he performs, writes, and directs cabaret and musicals with his collaborator, composer Eliot Douglass.
 

Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams (1911-1983) was born in Columbus, Mississippi, and lived there until the age of 12, when his family moved to St. Louis. His education at the University of Missouri was interrupted for financial reasons, but he later earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa. His first recognition came in 1940, when he received a Rockefeller fellowship and his first play, "Battle of Angels," was produced by the Theatre Guild in Boston. His first financial break, which enabled him to give full attention to writing, came with an offer from Metro Goldwyn Mayer. After a short time in Hollywood, he devoted his time to writing "The Glass Menagerie," whose initial success established him as one of the leading playwrights in America. Since then, his plays -- "A Streetcar Named Desire" (ballet), "Summer and Smoke," "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof," "The Glass Menagerie," and "The Night Of The Iguana," to name a few -- have been made into movies, produced on TV, and adapted into operas and ballets. In May of 1969, Tennessee Williams was awarded the Gold Medal for Literature by the American Academy of Art and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He is author of numerous works, including the following: the plays "27 Wagons Full of Cotton," "Camino Real," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (winner of the Pulitzer Prize and Drama Critics' Award), "The Eccentricities of a Nightingale," "In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel," "The Night of the Iguana" (winner of the Drama Critics' Award), "Orpheus Descending," "Period of Adjustment," "The Rose Tattoo," "Small Craft Warnings," "A Streetcar Named Desire" (winner of the Pulitzer Prize and Drama Critics' Award), "Suddenly Last Summer," "Summer and Smoke," "Sweet Bird of Youth," and "The Two-Character Play"; the novels MOISE AND THE WORLD OF REASON and THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE; the collections EIGHT MORTAL LADIES POSSESSED and THE KNIGHTLY QUEST (stories) and IN THE WINTER OF CITIES (poems); and an autobiography, MEMOIRS.
 

Fleming made her San Francisco Opera debut in 1991 as the Countess in "Le Nozze di Figaro," and was seen with the Company in 1994 as Madame de Tourvel in the world premiere of "The Dangerous Liaisons" (which was nationally telecast) and Salome in Massenet's "Herodiade" (which was recorded live for release on CD). She sang one of her celebrated roles at the San Francisco Opera in 1995 -- the title part of "Rusalka." An artist with an ever-increasing number of invitations from the great opera houses of the world, Fleming has performed on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, Milan's La Scala, Bayreuth, the Vienna State Opera, Royal Opera at Covent Garden, the Paris Opera/Bastille and Palais Garnier, Grand Theatre de Geneve, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Rossini Festival in Pesaro, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and at Glyndebourne, among others. She has performed in the standard repertoire, new productions, and world premieres. In addition to "Liaisons," the artist has appeared in the world premiere of Corigliano's "The Ghosts Of Versailles" at the Met and now creates the role of Blanche DuBois in "A Streetcar Named Desire." In addition, the soprano has been featured in concert with most of the major orchestras of the world led by many eminent conductors, and is a renowned recitalist worldwide. Recent operatic highlights include "Manon" at the Met; "Der Rosenkavalier" at the Paris Opera/Bastille; "Le Nozze di Figaro" at the Lyric Opera of Chicago; her first performances of "Arabella" at the Houston Grand Opera; and a return to La Scala for a new staging of "Lucrezia Borgia." Her growing discography, which includes complete operas, opera scenes, song recitals, lieder and operatic arias, is now enhanced with her most recent recording, a disk of American opera arias led by James Levine entitled "I Want Magic!," which features one of Blanche's solos from "Streetcar."
 

But it is the Zurich Opera and Los Angeles Music Center Opera with which he has been most closely associated. His repertoire runs the gamut from Mozart's Count in "Le Nozze di Figaro" to Rossini's Figaro in "Il Barbiere di Siviglia"; from Verdi's Ford in "Falstaff" and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin to Richard Strauss's Olivier in "Capriccio"; and from Donizetti's Ashton in "Lucia di Lammermoor" and Bizet's Zurga in "Les Pecheurs de Perles" to Johann Strauss's Eisenstein in "Die Fledermaus" and Lehar's Count Danilo in "The Merry Widow." The baritone has also been lauded in more contemporary works. In addition to Britten's Billy Budd and Demetrius in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," he has performed Daniel Catan's Riobolo in "Florencia en el Amazonas," the title role of Wolfgang Rihm's "Oedipus," concert works by Penderecki and Orff, in addition to the world premiere of Ancelin's "Filius Hominis" in Dunkirk and at the Vatican. He is an acclaimed recitalist in America and abroad and has collaborated with many of today's foremost conductors in symphonic as well as operatic works. Among his recordings are the Mozart-Da Ponte trilogy, the Brahms Requiem, and Rossini's "L'Inganno Felice." He and his wife, Tina, are the proud parents of three children, Marc, Erica, and Carin.

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