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.

November 2020: Simply Scenes and Arias

If you have trouble playing the video, play it on Google Drive.

After seeing and hearing the student performances, please give us your thoughts and reactions, and please consider a donation toward honoraria for these young artists.

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, has produced two videos this semester featuring some of the most talented voice students at UA’s Fred Fox School of Music. These will remain on our website for all to enjoy.

The first video, which we shared with you in October 2020, contains selections from Hänsel und Gretel, developed in Professor Cynthia Stokes’s Opera Workshop class. Now we are delighted to offer our second student project, “Simply Scenes and Arias,” with two more scenes from Professor Stokes’s Opera Workshop, and arias performed by the first-place winners of the Marguerite Ough and Larry Day competitions.

Premiere Edition: October 2020
We Preview UA Opera Theater’s Hänsel und Gretel

If you have trouble playing the video, play it on Google Drive.

A message from Susan Lane Stokes, OGSA Previews Chair

With the cooperation of UA’s Fred Fox School of Music faculty, we are proud to present Opera Always!, an accessible and COVID-safe format for our traditional free opera previews. The project is produced under my supervision by a student intern, DMA candidate Rebeckah Resare. We introduced this position two seasons ago in connection with our live previews. This semester the job entails producing a video preview of each of two presentations of UA Opera Theater. Each requires selecting representative musical numbers, engaging and supervising singers and accompaniment, preparing a narrative about the opera, and melding it all into a polished video. This is a lot of work, and frees up a good amount of scarce OGSA volunteer time. Of course OGSA gives a stipend to the intern and the singers, they gain valuable production and performing experience, and the community receives an entertaining and informative introduction to the opera. So everyone wins!

Our first Opera Always! presents the fall project of Professor Cynthia Stokes’s Opera Workshop class, scenes from Hänsel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck (1854–1921). Our cast of student artists features Diana Peralta as Hänsel and Rebeckah Resare as Gretel. You will also hear and see the Dew Fairy (Bethany Pehrson) and the Witch (Chunghee Lee). You are sure to enjoy their performances, filmed in a wooded outdoor setting.

As you know, our live previews in past seasons have depended on your generous contributions to our donation baskets. It’s even easier with Opera Always! Just click here, or on the donate button, which you will find  on the side menu of our web pages, and just below the video on this page. Thank you for your ongoing support. We hope you enjoy this project; please let us know. Send Email