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Live Opera Previews Return!

February 27, 2022 by Frank Finkenberg

After a long hiatus, OGSA’s Opera Previews are returning live!  We will be presenting previews of the final two productions of Arizona Opera’s 2021-22 season, A Little Night Music and  Cosí fan tutte. New this season is a larger venue for our previews, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church’s Fellowship Hall, which provides the space needed for best Covid practices for live performances.

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.

St. Andrew’s is located at 7650 N Paseo Del Norte, Tucson 85704. The site is located on the east side of Paseo del Norte, north of Tohono Chul Park and not far from the intersection of Oracle and Ina. View a map and get directions.

Coming Soon: We preview A Little Night Music March 4

Our first live preview of 2022 takes place at St. Andrew’s at 2:30pm on March 4. Arizona Opera Company will present A Little Night Music in Tucson on March 12 and 13. A special draw is Metropolitan Opera soprano Patricia Racette. We’ll give you an advance peek, featuring student singers.

Here’s what Arizona Opera Co. has to say about this modern classic:

Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film, Smiles of a Summer Night, A Little Night Music focuses on a deliciously tangled web of affairs, all ripe with the possibility of new love and second chances. A comedy of manners with rapturous music, it is moving, witty, heartbreaking, and—most of all—a celebration of love. Among the songs in this groundbreaking theatrical piece is Send in the Clowns, one of the most recorded songs of all time.

Our presenter will be Darnell T. Roulhac, Assistant Professor of Practice in Musical Theatre Voice at the University of Arizona’s School of Theatre, Film and Television. Musical selections will be performed by four talented student singers, Hanna Hufford, Danny Bass, Lillie Langston, and Erin McDaniel; the accompanist will be Kyungsun Choi. Don’t miss this romp through the glorious music of America’s treasured composer Stephen Sondheim.

Mozart Gem Cosí  Rounds Out the Season

Our preview season concludes with Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte at St. Andrew’s on April 8 at 2:30 pm. As Arizona Opera puts it, Cosí “tells the story of two sisters who are falsely led to believe that their fiancés have been called to war. In truth, their lovers were only out to test their fidelity; they swiftly return home in disguise to seek the truth.” Oh, the perils of operatic love! We’ll give you further details as they are available.

Filed Under: Free Opera Previews, News

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.

Filed Under: Free Opera Previews, News

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

Yue Huang
Yiyan Ji
MyeongJu Kang
Suyoung Lee
Yongjae Lee
Bethany Pehrson
Diana Peralta
Rebeckah Resare

All Graduate Videos

Undergraduates — $400 Awards

Rachel Alvord
Nannette Avendano Rodriguez
Arianna Campbell
Topher Esguerra
Lylah Field
Nadari Hockenhull
Abigail Juganaru
Timothy Simon

All Undergraduate Videos

Filed Under: Listen, News, Quest for the Best, Watch

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.

Filed Under: Free Opera Previews, Listen, News, Watch

Opera Always! Number 2

November 27, 2020 by Frank Finkenberg

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.

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TimeContent
0:00Introduction: Graduate Student Intern Rebeckah Resare
0:56Background and plot of Cavalleria Rusticana: Suyoung Lee
1:54Cavalleria Rusticana scene “O! il Signore vi manda”: Josianne Dal Pozzo Zuliani and Suyoung Lee
6:52Introduction to Le nozze di Figaro: Lylah Field and Yongjae Lee
7:39Le nozze di Figaro scene “Crudel! Perche finora”: Lylah Field and Yongjae Lee
10:02“Je suis encore” from Massenet’s Manon: Yue Huang, 2020 Marguerite Ough Competition winner
14:37“Votre toast je vous le render” from Carmen, by Bizet: Zhong Liu, 2020 Larry Day Competition winner
19:15Cast and crew of the video

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.

Continue reading

Filed Under: Free Opera Previews, Listen, News, Watch

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  • Home
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  • Quest for the Best
  • Listen to our Singers
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