Opera Guild of Southern Arizona

December 3: Live Highlights of UA Opera’s The Tender Land

November 20, 2021 by Frank Finkenberg

scene from UA's production of The Tender Land — UA’s Opera Theater’s production of The Tender Land

Say Hello to Opera! returns in a new venue, Friendship Hall of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. (See address in the box below.)

After a long hiatus due to COVID19, our very popular live presentations of opera highlights return with an American classic, Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land, at 2:30 p.m.on December 3. As noted in our previous Presto! the opera has already been performed by UA Opera Theater in Crowder Hall. If you missed it, here is your chance to learn about the opera and enjoy some of the arias. Future presentations of Say Hello to Opera! will take place before each UA production. (See operas and dates below.)

Please note our new location: St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church Friendship Hall, 7650 N. Paseo del Norte. UA Opera Theater Director Cynthia Stokes will narrate and UA opera students will sing arias. As always, there is no charge for these community events, but donations of $5 or more per person are much appreciated, and go toward honoraria for our students.

Also owing to the pandemic, no food is allowed in the church hall and masks are required. For the same reason, our Brown Bag Opera previews cannot be held this season.

Say Hello to Opera! 2021-22

(All events begin at 2:30 p.m.)

The Tender Land December 3, 2021
Carmen  January 28, 2022
A Little Night Music  March 4, 2022
Cosí fan tutte  April 8, 2022

Location:

St. Andrews Presbyterian Church Friendship Hall
7650 N. Paseo del Norte

The hall is located in the church complex on the east side of Paseo del Norte, which runs north from Ina Road to Magee Road just west of Tohono Chul Park. See a map.

Here is the 2021 Student Vocal Showcase

June 6, 2021 by Frank Finkenberg

During this unusual time, the Opera Guild Board of Directors has worked hard, in close cooperation with the Fred Fox School of Music faculty and staff, to continue to aid local students of opera and bring the joys of opera to the community. Although it was not possible to hold our annual festive Quest for the Best! this year, thanks to the generosity of our members and other donors we were still able to award over $8,000 to a great crop of current students. They recorded their arias in a COVID-safe environment at school or in their homes.

As an online audience-judged competition would have faced insurmountable technical and artistic hurdles, prizes for the Showcase are equal in each division—$700 for graduate students and $400 for undergraduates. But just as in Quest, a limited number of singers were nominated, and their choice of aria approved, by their primary voice teacher.

Please visit our website to view (and download) all the graduate and undergraduate arias. The successful nominees are listed below in alphabetical order, with direct links to their arias.

Graduate Students — $700 Awards

Undergraduates — $400 Awards

Rachel Alvord

Nannette Avendano Rodriguez

All Undergraduate Videos

2021 Student Vocal Showcase Graduate Student Arias

June 6, 2021 by Frank Finkenberg

To download any aria in a choice of video resolutions, click on its title. This takes you to the Vimeo website; then simply click on the Download button.

Go to Undergraduate Arias

Yue Huang, soprano: Je suis encore tout étourdie, from Manon, by Jules Massenet

Yiyan Ji, mezzo: When I am laid in earth, from Dido and Aeneas, by Henry Purcell

MyeongJu Kang, soprano: Je suis Titania, from Mignon, by Ambroise Thomas

Suyoung Lee, baritone: Largo al factotum , from Il barbiere di Siviglia, by Rossini

Yongjae Lee, baritone: Io morrò ma lieto in core, from Don Carlo, by Giuseppe Verdi

Bethany Pehrson, soprano: Crudele?…Non mi dir, from Don Giovanni, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Diana Peralta, mezzo: ¿Qué te importa que no venga?, from Los Claveles, zarzuela by José Serrano (1873-1941)

Rebeckah Resare, soprano: Ah! Je veux vivre dans le rêve, from Roméo et Juliette, by Charles Gounod

Go to Undergraduate Arias

2021 Student Vocal Showcase Undergraduate Students

June 5, 2021 by Frank Finkenberg

To download any aria in a choice of video resolutions, click on its title. This takes you to the Vimeo website; then simply click on the Download button.

Go to Graduate Arias

Rachel Alvord, soprano: O mio babbino caro, from Gianni Schicchi, by Giacomo Puccini

Nannette Avendano Rodriguez, soprano: Non so più cosa son, cosa faccio, from Le nozze di Figaro, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Arianna Campbell , soprano: Tornami a vagheggiar, from Alcina, by George Frideric Handel

Topher Esguerra , tenor: Is there not one maiden breast, from The Pirates of Penzance, by Arthur Sullivan

Lylah Field , soprano: Deh vieni, non tardar, from Le Nozze di Figaro, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Nadari Hockenhull, soprano: Obéissons quand leur voix appelle, from Manon, by Jules Massenet

Abigail Juganaru, soprano: Batti, batti o bel Masetto, from Don Giovanni, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Timothy Simon, soprano: Vainement, ma bien-aimée, from Le roi d’Ys, by Édouard Lalo

Go to Graduate Arias

Opera Always! Number 3: Birth of a COVID Opera

May 14, 2021 by Frank Finkenberg

View our latest Opera Always! video: Birth of a COVID Opera

As readers of The Guild Voice will recall, during the 2020–2021 academic year we are supporting local opera students and bringing opera to the community in a different and COVID-safe way, since we cannot present our usual live previews of Arizona Opera Co. productions. Our student intern, DMA candidate Rebeckah Resare, under the direction of OGSA Previews Chair Susan Lane Stokes, presents her third video of this academic year, again featuring some of the most talented voice students at UA’s Fred Fox School of Music.

The newest project comes in the form of a mini-documentary. On top of all her other DMA requirements, Rebeckah is writing an opera! She is the librettist and the composer is her fellow student Zach Bramble. Theater professor Claire Mannle is supervising the project, and the co-Artistic Director is Marie Teemant. Through interviews and musical numbers you will have a front seat on the creative process in the evolution of a new opera. The work is tentatively titled, “Notes on a Pandemic, Masked with Hope.”

Rebeckah describes the opera as follows:

We follow the life of five different people and their experiences during the pandemic. They talk about going to school, teaching and furloughs, the joys and mishaps of online dating, being separated from family and a little of what we’ve seen in hospitals. They express fear, anxiety, stress, hopelessness, and then hopefulness. They express a need for compassion and love, inclusion, prayer, patience and peace to endure together.

The preview video contains an introduction by Rebeckah, interviews with her and Zach conducted by UA Opera Theater Director Cynthia Stokes, and selections from the opera performed by baritone Suyoung Lee, mezzo Diana Peralta, and tenor TJ Simon. The accompanist is Bonnie Bird.

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December 3: Live Highlights of UA Opera’s The Tender Land