(Credit: Dario Acosta)

The Portland Opera will present the U.S. professional company premiere of Vivaldi and Piovene’s “Bajazet” starting on March 20, 2020 at the Newmark Theatre in Portland, Oregon.

The production, which will run for five total shows through March 28, will be led by Erin Helyard of Pinchgut Opera, in his United States debut. Helyard also edited the version of the score that will be performed. 

He will work alongside a luxury cast that includes Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen as Tamerlano, Avery Amereau as Irene, Kathleen Kim as Idapse, John Marzano as Andronico, all in their company debuts. Daniel Mobbs returns in the title role alongside Camille Sherman as Asteria. 

“Even as the walls seem to be crumbling around them, the characters of ‘Bajazet’ live in a musical world of unparalleled beauty. As one culture is dismissed and destroyed by another, with a kind of cruelty that is both frightening and yet familiar, the personal and emotional lives of those in power are given a careful kind of examination by Vivaldi,” said Stage Director Chas Rader-Shieber in a press release. “To witness the literal and figurative stripping away of the things that are held most dear, is a terrifying and moving  experience.”