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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

Opera Always! Number 1

October 29, 2020 by Frank Finkenberg

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

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

See and Hear the Arias from 2019’s Quest for the Best!

April 13, 2019 by Frank Finkenberg

Congratulations to all the singers who helped make this year’s Quest for the Best an outstanding success. Thanks to the generosity of donors and attendees we awarded over $8,000 in prizes, with all  singers receiving prize money. The top award winners are noted below; click on their names to go directly to videos of their arias. Or view (and download) all the  graduate and undergraduate arias.

Graduate Singers and Top Awards

2019 Graduate Singers

Left to right: Shainy Manuel, Crystal Kachevas, Erika Burkhart, Frannie Barrows, Chunghee Lee, Diana Peralta, Yuchen Luo, Kristen Lucas. (photo: Howard Weiss)

RankAmountDonorWinner
First (tie)$1250OGSA in honor of Patrick and Patricia SchifanoChunghee Lee
First (tie)$1250OGSA in memory of Stokes TolbertDiana Peralta
Third$750Mary Casady in memory of Richard L CasadyYuchen Luo

All Graduate Videos

Undergraduate Singers and Top Awards

2019 Undergraduates

Left to right: Simon Faddoul, Lylah Field, David Ingram, Bridget Marlowe, Jinzhou Jia, Kelsie Grimsley, Ezra Zurita, Emma Petersen. (Photo: Howard Weiss)

RankAmountDonorWinner
First$800AnonymousEmma Petersen
Second$600Carolyn & Russ RussoEzra Zurita
Third$500Patrick and Patricia SchifanoKelsie Grimsley

All Undergraduate Videos

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

2019 Quest for the Best Graduate Student Arias

April 12, 2019 by Frank Finkenberg

The Fred Fox School of Music technical staff captured all the arias on video. The top undergraduate student prize winners are:

RankAmountDonorWinner
First (tie)$1250OGSA in honor of Patrick and Patricia SchifanoChunghee Lee
First (tie)$1250OGSA in memory of Stokes TolbertDiana Peralta
Third$750Mary Casady in memory of Richard L CasadyYuchen Luo

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.
Uncompressed audio files are also available upon request to the webmaster.

Go to Undergraduate Arias

First Place ribbon
First Place ribbon
Third Place ribbon

Go to Graduate Arias

Filed Under: Keep Off Homepage, Listen, Quest for the Best, Watch

2019 Quest for the Best Undergraduate Student Arias

April 10, 2019 by Frank Finkenberg

The Fred Fox School of Music technical staff captured all the arias on video. The top undergraduate student prize winners are:

RankAmountDonorWinner
First$800AnonymousEmma Petersen
Second$600Carolyn & Russ RussoEzra Zurita
Third$500Patrick and Patricia SchifanoKelsie Grimsley

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.
Uncompressed audio files are also available upon request to the webmaster.

Go to Graduate Arias

Third Place ribbon
Second Place ribbon
First Place ribbon

Go to Graduate Arias

Filed Under: Keep Off Homepage, Listen, Quest for the Best, Watch

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