The Collegiate Chorale, led by Music Director Robert Bass, concludes its 66th season with the United States premiere of Handel’s Jupiter in Argos. The performance will also feature the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. The all-star cast includes sopranos Elizabeth Futral and Heidi Grant Murphy, as Calisto and Diana, respectively, tenor Rufus Müller, as Jupiter, and bass Valerian Ruminski, as Licaone.

Among the 39 Italian operas that Handel composed for the London stage were three pasticci, consisting primarily of music drawn from his own earlier works, Oreste (1734), Alessandro Severo (1738), and Jupiter in Argos (1739). The original conducting scores of Oreste and Alessandro Severo are preserved, but for Jupiter only assorted manuscript fragments and a printed libretto exist. For many years people assumed that the opera could not be plausibly reconstructed because two of the arias in the libretto appeared to be irretrievably lost. However, in 200l, the arias were discovered in a manuscript in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, though they are not, after all, by Handel but by his younger Italian contemporary Francesco Araia. It thus became possible for the first time, with the composition of a certain amount of missing secco recitative, to create a performable version of one of Handel’s last operas.

ARTISTS

Robert Bass, Music Director of The Collegiate Chorale since 1980, has established himself as a significant force in the musical life of New York. He conducts a wide repertoire including choral works and operas, and has initiated numerous commissions during his tenure.  Mr. Bass made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut at the age of 26, and has since presented several operatic gems at Carnegie Hall including the New York premieres of Richard Strauss’s Friedenstag, Schubert’s Fierrabras, Respighi’s La fiamma, and the American premiere of Dvorak's Dmitri, as well as Verdi's Nabucco, Giovanna D'Arco (Joan of Arc), Macbeth, La forza del destion, Un ballo in maschera, Ponchielli's La Gioconda, Beethoven's Fidelio, and Puccini's Le Villi and Turandot Act III, featuring the NY premiere of the Luciano Berio ending.  His discography includes the world premiere recording of Richard Strauss’s opera Friedenstag and Beethoven cantatas with Deborah Voigt and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

Elizabeth Futral is an American  coloratura soprano who has won acclaim throughout the United States as well as in Europe, South America, and Japan. Ms. Futral sang the title role in the 1994 New York City Opera production of Delibes’ Lakme, about which The New York Times wrote, “Ms Futral’s performance was crucial to the success of the evening.... Ms Futral was refined and accurate, hitting her high notes without strain or artifice, giving her vocal acrobatics warmth without ever succumbing to egoism. She was not out to prove anything; the song ['The Bell Song'] was not laden with excessive emotion or elaborate musical gestures: it had the virtues of her performance throughout the evening, offering simplicity, grace and directness.”  In January 1999, Ms. Futral made her debut with The Metropolitan Opera, in the title role of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. Subsequent performances at the Met have included the role of Princess Eudoxie in 2003 in the opera company’s first performances of Halévy’s La Juive since 1936 and the 2006 world premiere of Tan Dun's The First Emperor opposite Plácido Domingo and Paul Groves.

Soprano Heidi Grant Murphy has appeared with many of the world's finest opera companies and symphony orchestras, notably The Metropolitan Opera, Salzburg Festival, Frankfurt Opera, Netherlands Opera and Opera National de Paris. She has been engaged as soloist with the Vienna, New York and Los Angeles philharmonics; Cleveland, Philadelphia and Minnesota orchestras; and Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, and St. Louis symphonies.

Ms. Murphy's summers have brought her to the Ravinia and Tanglewood Festivals, Rome Chamber Music Festival, Hollywood Bowl, and La Jolla Music Society's SummerFest. She has worked with such esteemed conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Christoph Von Dohnányi, Pinchas Zukerman, and the late Robert Shaw. Her 2007-2008 performance season displays her orchestral, operatic and chamber music vocal talents throughout the United States. She began her season with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, opening the Tanglewood Music Festival in Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, conducted by James Levine, and appeared at the Munich Festival as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, with recital and chamber music appearances at Music@Menlo and the La Jolla Summer Fest.

Tenor Rufus Müller made his debut as Bastien in Mozart’s Bastien un Bastienne at the Kent Opera in 1984 and received the first prize at the English Song Award in Brighton during the following year. He has worked under such conductors as Gustav Leonhardt, Frans Brüggen, Ivan Fischer, René Jacobs, and many others. His performances in song recitals and oratorios have taken him to numerous European countries and to Puerto Rico, the United States, and Japan. Mr. Müller’s numerous CD recordings include performances in Bach’s St. John Passion under John Eliot Gardiner, as well as in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy under Roger Norrington.

Bass Valerian Ruminski is a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and SUNY-Buffalo. He has performed with The Metropolitan, New York City, Dallas, Santa Fe, and Minnesota operas, Opera de Montreal, Michigan Opera Theatre, and Opera Ireland, as well as debuting at Carnegie Hall in a concert version of La Juive, and on PBS for the 25th Annual Richard Tucker Gala. Mr. Ruminski is the recipient of many grants and awards, including the Lincoln Center Martin Segal Award, the William Mattheus Sullivan Foundation Grant, a 2004 Gerda Lissner Foundation Grant, First Prize in both the 2000 MacAllister Vocal Competition in Indianapolis and New Jersey Verismo Competition. Mr. Ruminski has also been a winner of the Marcella Sembrich Vocal Competition in New York City.

Lauded by the Chicago Sun-Times for his “rich, dark tone and beautiful legato,” bass-baritone Wayne Tigges maintains an extensive opera and concert schedule. He recently sang Nielsen's Symphony No 3 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and joined the Teatro Regio in Parma for Haydn’s Creation and the Apollo Chorus and Orchestra for Elijah. Other performances have included his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut in Mozart’s Mass in C minor, Stravinsky’s Les Noces with the Cleveland Orchestra, Britten's Serenade under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis, as well as Zemlinsky's Psalm 83 under James Conlon at the Cincinnati May Festival. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in the 2006-07 Season as Achilla in Giulio Cesare. Mr. Tigges enjoys a strong relationship with the Lyric Opera of Chicago where he sang the title role in Le nozze di Figaro to great critical acclaim while still a member of the prestigious Ryan Opera Center (formerly Lyric Opera Center for American Artists). Other roles with the company have included Snook in the world premiere of Bolcom’s A Wedding, Angelotti in Tosca, Sam in Un ballo in maschera, the Servant in Thais, and Bonze in Madama Butterfly, among others.

One of America's foremost chamber orchestras, The Orchestra of St. Luke’s commands a mastery of a diverse repertoire spanning from the Baroque to the contemporary.  First organized at the Caramoor International Music Festival in the summer of 1979, the Orchestra evolved from the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, established in 1974, whose members formed the Orchestra’s artistic core as principal players.  The Orchestra has worked with the finest conductors, including former music directors Sir Charles Mackerras (1998-2001) and Sir Roger Norrington (1990-94).  In 2001, it continued this tradition by appointing Donald Runnicles as Principal Conductor.