Mark Russell Smith knew he was working with a budding talent the first time he worked with Sarah Shafer at the Curtis Institute in 2007. Sarah had been given the small but important part of Barbarina in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. "She made an immediate impression as an innately musical singer and had a radiant presence on stage," explained Mark Russell Smith. Smith invited her to perform with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra as one of the four vocalists for Mozart's Requiem during the 2010-11 season, and later as one of three soloists for Strauss' Suite from Der Rosenkavalier in 2011-12 season. In the mean time, Shafer's professional career has blossomed.
Shafer recently made her professional operatic debut in the role of Barbarina and the cover role of Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Glyndebourne Festival and at the BBC Proms in London's Royal Albert Hall. Roles for the 2012-13 season included her American debut with Opera Memphis singing Adina in L'Elisir d'Amore, Mary Lennox in the world premiere of San Francisco Opera's newly commissioned work The Secret Garden, and Papagena in Opera Philadelphia's Die Zauberflöte. And now Shafer returns to the Quad Cities from these lead operatic roles to lend her "luminous voice" (New York Times) to Samuel Barber's deeply personal Knoxville, Summer of 1915.
Shafer will also make an appearance on the second half of the program to perform Mozart's "Ch'io mi scordi di te?" with celebrated pianist Joel Fan. Joel Fan has been described as a "versatile and sensitive pianist" (Washington Post) and praised for his "vivid imagination" (New York Times). This impromptu recital for soprano and piano will be followed by Richard Strauss' "Morgen!" for soprano and orchestra and performed in the midst of Strauss' Suite of incidental music from Le bourgeois gentilhomme, enacting a portion of the original stage play. You are sure to be smiling at the end of this delightful production.
Masterworks II
Saturday, October 26, at 7:30 p.m.
Adler Theatre, Davenport
Sunday, October 27, at 2:00 p.m.
Centennial Hall, Rock Island
Masterworks II is sponsored by Margaret Burrows-Getz and Tom Getz, MD, in memory of Meg Burrows LeGrand
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