THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 3, 1994 TAG: 9411030412
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARK MOBLEY MUSIC CRITIC
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
Virginia Opera has fired one of the leading men of its next production.
Veteran tenor Richard Kness, who was to perform in Richard Strauss' ``Salome,'' was dismissed after three days of rehearsals and coachings and will be replaced by Quade Winter.
The production opens Nov. 18.
Kness was to have been heard as Herodes, or Herod, in this German-language setting of Oscar Wilde's play. The company informed Kness on Friday that he had violated his contract by arriving Oct. 25 without having memorized his part. He was singing the role for the first time.
Kness claims that he was wrongfully dismissed and was not asked to perform the role from memory. He has also been engaged to sing the part at Palm Beach Opera in Florida in January, in a production featuring the actor and singer Paul Sorvino as Herod on opposite nights.
``It's a question now of my own personal pride and dignity,'' Kness said Tuesday from his home in New York.
Virginia Opera's general director, Peter Mark, declined comment Wednesday.
Kness and his wife, mezzo-soprano Joann Grillo, are directors of The Ambassadors of Opera and Concert Worldwide. Since 1981, the company has presented fully staged and concert opera throughout Asia and the Middle East. In 1985 Kness was called ``heroic'' by London's Opera magazine for his performance in a Hong Kong production of ``Aida.'' He was on the Metropolitan Opera roster from 1978 to 1980 and during the 1981-1982 season.
Winter, a native of Oregon, has sung the role of Herod in Wuerzburg, Germany, and for Minnesota Opera. This season he will also appear as Calaf in ``Turandot'' in Wellington, New Zealand, and as Fatty in ``The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny'' at the Canadian Opera Company.
Virginia Opera is not among the 50 companies of various sizes signed with the American Guild of Musical Artists, the union representing 5,500 opera singers, ballet dancers, stage directors and stage managers. by CNB