The Opera Guild assists local voice students, both undergraduate and graduate, with scholarships, grants, competitive prizes, and opportunities to perform for the community.

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Opera Always! Number 2

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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.

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Opera Always! Number 1

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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.

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TimeContent
0:00Intern Rebeckah Resare introduces herself and discusses the background of the opera.
2:00Rebeckah tells the plot of the opera and introduces the singers.
7:00“Abends, will ich schlafen gehn,” Hänsel and Gretel (Diana Peralta and Rebeckah Resare)
8:54“Der kleine Taumann heiss’ich,” the Dew Fairy (Bethany Pehrson)
10:30“Wo bin Ich,” Gretel (Rebeckah Resare)
13:40“Der Teig ist gar,” the Witch (Chunghee Lee)
16:30Cynthia Stokes, Director of the UA Opera Theater, lets us in on how the upcoming fully staged production of Hänsel und Gretel came to be.
21:00Cast and crew of the preview

 

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

President Rosie Garcia’s Welcome Message

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August 31, 2020

Dear Friends of OGSA,

I am delighted to introduce myself to you as the new president of the Opera Guild. Many of you know me through the UA Music Advisory Board, the Tucson Youth Music Center, the Kino Heritage Society, or other community activities. Also elected by email ballot of the membership are Carol Garrard to a two-year term as 1st Vice President, and Pilar Fabula, who is very active on the Tucson music scene, to a two-year term as Treasurer. Rounding out the current officers, Vera Pavlakovich-Kochi and Zoltan Rosztoczy continue their terms as 2nd and 3rd Vice Presidents, respectively.

I would like to express my appreciation to outgoing president Judi Hasbrouck for her outstanding service to OGSA. Judi’s tenure as president brought many successful events to our community. Also of note is that she chaired Quest for the Best for five years. She is to be commended for her many years of service. Heartfelt thanks also to retiring longtime Board member Patrick Schifano, who was for many years our membership chair. We look forward to his and Patricia’s continued participation in our activities. And a warm welcome back to our Board to Robert and Vivian Weede. They are longtime active supporters of the arts in the Tucson area, and of OGSA in particular.

As you know, the health care crisis in Arizona due to Covid-19 caused the cancellation of the 2020 Quest for the Best and the balance of our 2019-20 opera previews. Your Board of Directors has been monitoring the situation, particularly as it affects our collaborating organizations, the UA Fred Fox School of Music and the Arizona Opera Company, and our host venues. Given the ongoing uncertainties and the need to plan months in advance, we have determined that for the 2020-21 season Quest for the Best and our previews of AZ Opera performances cannot take place in their usual form. But, we do plan to bring you an online student voice competition, online opera previews, and other activities to benefit students financially and give them opportunities to perform. Please read the article below for what we have in mind. Of course, plans may have to change, but we will keep you informed of what’s in progress.

Currently, every single non-profit is facing a crisis due to the pandemic.  However, as noted above, we are not folding our tent and slipping away into the desert darkness.  There is no roadmap of this new terrain marked “Uncertainty,” but we commit that with your continued support OGSA will be here, bringing beautiful music to the community and assisting student singers. Please renew your membership now; if you have already done so, thank you!

Wishing you a safe season, and do keep a song in your heart!

Rosie P. Garcia
President

Documentary on AZ Opera’s Riders on Screen in Tucson February 22

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Arizona Opera Company’s hit Riders of the Purple Sage, which premiered in 2017 to sold-out houses, returns this season. With it comes a new full-length film documenting the creation and production of this instant classic. (Learn more about the film and AZ Opera’s upcoming performances.)

Kristin Atwell Ford of Quantum Leap Productions, Emery Award winning film maker, co-produced this documentary focusing on the collaborative process. The film travels from the untamed frontier that inspired Zane Grey’s iconic novel over a century ago to the intimate workings of the modern artistic process behind this new American opera. 

You can see Riders of the Purple Sage: The Making of a Western Opera on Saturday, February 22, at noon in The Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St., presented by the Arizona Opera League of Tucson. The cost is $15. Get your tickets by writing to Fran Loubet, 6153 N. Pascola Circle, Tucson, AZ 85718, enclosing a check made out to the AZ Opera League of Tucson.

And remember to attend the Opera Guild‘s free previews of the opera on February 28 in Tucson or March 2 in Oro Valley. Yes, there are two distinct organizations promoting opera in Tucson, with similar names. Both are worthy of your support.

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