Hawai‘i Diva Returns Home for Mozart Premiere at The MACC

Audrey Luna will perform with the Maui Chamber Orchestra, the Maui Masterworks Chorale, members of the Fingers Lakes Choral Festival along with three other soloists on Aug. 2 at the Castle Theater of the Maui Arts & Cultural Center in the Maui premiere of Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor. Photo by Brian Kuhlmann.

By Maui Now Staff

The Maui Chamber Orchestra and the Maui Masterworks Choral will present the island premiere of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartʻs Great Mass in C Minor at the Maui Arts & Cultural Centerʻs Castle Theater on Aug. 2 at 3 p.m.

Under the direction of Maestro Robert E. Wills, the performance will feature of two choirs totaling 120 voices, a 42-piece chamber orchestra and four soloists.

Soloist Audrey Luna from Eva Beach on O‘ahu ranks among the best coloratura sopranos in the world. Her A flat above high C is the highest vocal note ever heard at the Metropolitan Opera.

“[Luna] has power and a blazing coloratura facility that most lyric sopranos can only dream of,” Opera News said.

Luna won a Grammy in 2013 (Best Opera Recording) in her Metropolitan Opera debut as the puckish sprite Ariel in Thomas Adesʻ The Tempest.

Recently, the New York Times wrote a glowing critique about her performance as Olympia in Offfenbach’s Tales of Hoffman. “The brilliant coloratura soprano Audrey Luna is sensational as Olympia, deftly dispatching passagework and tossing off jet-propulsion high notes.”

When she comes to Maui, she will be coming fresh from her debut at the Vienna State Opera in Austria, where she will be reprising her award-winning role as Ariel in Ades’ The Tempest.

According to Maestro Wills, this work requires two exceptional sopranos.

The other soprano is Dr. LaDonna Manternach Ph.D., who is the chair of the Music Department at Clarke University and a member of the Sisters of Charity Blessed Virgin Mary as well as a regular soloist with choirs in Iowa and Wisconsin.

The tenor in the performance will be Jim Price, fondly remembered as Jean Valjean in Maui Academy of Performing Arts’ production of Les Miserables in 2013. He just finished a run as Count Gustav von Pottenstein in the Hong Kong premiere of The Land of Smiles, Franz Lehar’s operetta, at the Grand Theater of the Hong Kong Cultural Center, produced by the Opera Hong Kong and Theater Erfurt.

Bass vocalist Eric Trumpowsky of Rochester, N.Y., is a highly sought-after oratorio and concert vocalist who has performed with The Eastman School of Music Eastman-Rochester Chorus, among others.

The work is written for double chorus. The Maui Masterworks Chorale will be joined by 60 members of the Finger Lakes Choral Festival. This is an annual gathering of choral singers from throughout upstate New York, and throughout the US. They appeared in Davies Hall in San Francisco in 2012 and in the Berlioz Requiem with 220 voices and a 100-plus member orchestra.

Maestro Wills has recruited two luminaries to bolster the Maui Chamber Orchestra.

John Scanlon has played the viola for television, recordings, motion pictures and live awards shows. His credits include The Simpsons, Star Trek, Barbara Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Titanic, The Lion King and Oscars, Emmys and Grammys.

Cellist Richard Treat has also performed in the Lion King as well as Mission Impossible, Austin Powers and Thin Red Line. His recording career includes many television programs, commercials and recordings, and he has appeared several times on The Tonight Show.

Tickets are available at The MACC Box Office by calling 242-7469 Monday to Saturday between 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. or online 24/7.

Tickets may also be purchased through the Maui Chamber Orchestra website.

Audrey Luna, who makes her home in Eva Beach on O‘ahu, is among the hottest coloratura sopranos in the world.

Maestro Robert E. Wills will conduct a 120-member combined chorus with the Maui Chamber Orchestra and four soloists in the Maui premiere of Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor on Aug. 2 at 3 p.m. in the Maui Arts and Cultural Center’s Castle Theater. Photo by Sun Dancer.

Audrey Luna won a Grammy in 2013 (Best Opera Recording) in her Metropolitan Opera debut as the puckish sprite Ariel in Thomas Adesʻ The Tempest.

Jim Price. Courtesy photo.

Maui Chamber Orchestra and Maui Masterworks Chorale will be joined by members from the Finger Lakes Choral Festival and four soloists, including Grammy winner Audrey Luna, one of the world’s most in demand coloratura sopranos on Aug. 2 at 3 p.m. in the Maui Arts and Cultural Center’s Castle Theater in the Maui premiere of Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor. Photo by Sun Dancer.

John Scanlon. Courtesy photo.