Orchestra Lists 1997-98 Performances

The premiere of a symphony by Pacific Symphony composer-in-residence Frank Ticheli and Metropolitan Opera baritone Thomas Hampson’s first appearance with the orchestra will highlight its 1997-98 subscription series at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

Ticheli’s “Symphony No. 1: An American Dream” will be scored for soprano and orchestra and will last about 25 minutes. The text is by Philip Littell, librettist for Conrad Susa’s “The Dangerous Liaisons” and Andre Previn’s “Streetcar Named Desire,” both for the San Francisco Opera. It is Ticheli’s fourth work commissioned by the Pacific, after “On Time’s Stream,” “Postcard” and “Radiant Voices.”

Camellia Johnson is to sing the soprano role. She was a soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with the orchestra last May and, for Opera Pacific, sang the title role of Verdi’s “Aida” in 1994 and Santuzza in Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” in 1991.

Hampson sang Riccardo in Bellini’s “I Puritani” at the Met this season (a performance was broadcast Feb. 1) and will sing Schubert’s “Winterreise” Sunday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. His program with the Pacific will include songs by Mahler.

Other soloists will include violinists Gil Shaham and Silvia Marcovici; and pianists Horacio Gutierrez, Eduardus Halim, Anne-Marie McDermott and Stephen Prutsman. Other soloists will include soprano Bridgett Hooks and baritone Christopher Schaldenbrand.

Guest conductors will include Sergiu Comissiona, music director of the Vancouver Symphony; Bernard Klee, former chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester; and Jaime Laredo, who will appear as violin soloist as well as conductor.

The annual nonsubscription performance of Handel’s “Messiah” will be conducted by David Lockington.

“Classical Connections,” a separate series of informal, 70-minute Saturday afternoon programs led by Pacific music director Carl St.Clair, will continue for the third year, on Nov. 22, March 7 and May 9.

The orchestra’s Thursday concerts, for the sixth year, will be aired on KUSC-FM (91.5).

The budget for the new season will be about $7 million, according to executive director Louis G. Spisto.

In related news, the orchestra expects by season’s end to name a concertmaster to replace Sheryl Stapes, who left in 1995 to move to the Cleveland Orchestra. “The search has taken longer because there have been fewer candidates at the level, experience and artistic ability than we thought there would have been,” Spisto said Tuesday. “We hope the new concertmaster will start in the 1997-98 season.”