Area schools perform youth opera in Bristol

Enjoy the opera as performed by students from Vergennes, Middlebury and Mount Abraham union high schools in a pair of performances this weekend at the Mount Abe auditorium.

On Nov. 15 and 16, the world premiere of “Truman and Nancy,” a captivating and poignant one-act opera by renowned New York City composer William Zeffiro, will take the stage at the Barn Opera House in Brandon.

Young singers from the Opera Company of Middlebury’s Youth Opera Company will present free concerts at senior residences and community centers around the state.

Gymnasts and ballerinas can go world-class in their teens, but an opera singer is a different kind of athlete. According to Sarah Cullins, Opera Company of Middlebury (OCM) director of Young Artist Programs, it’s all about the vocal cords. 

It begins the way all rom-coms do: Two single people “meet cute.” Picking flowers on a mountainside in the Tyrolean Alps, Marie topples off a cliff, but has the good luck to fall safely into the arms of Tonio, a local peasant.

On Wednesday, Jan. 31, catch the next Live in HD METOpera broadcast. “Carmen” will show on the big screen at the Town Hall Theater in Middlebury, at 11 a.m.

The Opera Company of Middlebury is introducing Filippo Ciabatti as its resident music director.

Going forward, the program will now be known as the Youth Opera Company of OCM.

Standouts among this superflux of gods and action are Jupiter, lustily sung by the redoubtable Joshua Jeremiah, who also brings his assured vocalism and physicality to the role, commanding, as Jupiter should, the stage and attention.

The exhilarating soprano Lise Davidsen makes her Live in HD debut in one of her signature roles, the mythological Greek heroine of Richard Strauss’ enchanting masterpiece “Ariadne auf Naxos,” which will screen at the Town Hall Theater on Saturday, March 1 … (read more)

Heartened as I was to hear that the production is happening, I was even more pleased to learn about the sensitivity to race and gender demonstrated by director Josh Collier’s casting decisions.

Josh Collier has just what we need to spice up our holiday traditions. He’s bringing “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” a 40-minute opera to the Salisbury Congregational Church on Dec. 17 and 18.  

On Sunday, Nov. 7, Town Hall Theater and Opera Company of Middlebury present a preview showcase performance of “Aliceheimer’s,” the new chamber opera by composer Erik Nielsen and artist, writer and anthropologist Dana Walrath.

Opera Company of Middlebury mastered the genre in last week’s production of Tchaikovsky’s “Maid of Orleans,” with spectacle, soaring melodies and powerhouse voices.

MIDDLEBURY — After wowing audiences with his astounding production of “Lulu” in 2015, South African artist William Kentridge now focuses his extraordinary visual imagination on on Australian composer Alban Berg’s other operatic masterpiece, which comes to … (read more)