[FAC] CAL OPERA FINALE WEEKEND (AUGUST 1-3)

[Diane Nixon]

IT'S THE FINALE WEEKEND (August 1-3) OF THE 

2008 CALIFORNIA OPERA ARTS & EDUCATION FESTIVAL

 

THIS FINALE WEEKEND IS THE ONE NOT TO MISS!

These are FREE events aimed to promote more interest in and attendance of opera in Fresno, supported, in part, by the Community Enrichment Program of the Fresno Arts Council.  

 

CALIFORNIA OPERA Presents 'GREEK NIGHT'

AUGUST 1st * Friday at 7 PM * FRESNO ART MUSEUM 

2233 North 1st Street Between Clinton & McKinley

Sponsored by St. George Greek Orthodox Church, 'Greek Night' features Ioanna Karvelas, from the National Conservatory of Athens, a Greek-American dramatic soprano who has become an ambassador of Greek Classical Music joined by COA youth led by Constantine, Chrysanthe & Evangelia Pappas in this annual tribute to Greek music and culture. 

 

CALIFORNIA OPERA Presents 'THE ARTISTS SHOWCASE' 

AUGUST 2nd * Saturday at 7 PM * ST. THERESE CATHOLIC CHURCH

1410 North Wishon Avenue Across from Tower Theatre

The Festival Artist Showcase features singers from around the world, highlighting a range of traditional classic and international styles, celebrating the singers' contributions and accomplishments and honoring the visiting Taiwanese professors and outstanding vocal artists attending this summer's festival events.

 

CALIFORNIA OPERA Presents 'IL TABARRO' 

AUGUST 3rd  2:30 PM SUNDAY 

TOWER THEATRE at 815 East Olive Avenue at Wishon 

 

Stage Director Michael Philip Davis 

Maestro Leonard Ingrande * Pianist, Ludmila Filatova

Technical-Lighting by Steve Wall * Set Design by Rick Adamson

Supertitles by Jonathan Khuner * Presented by Samantha Knjoi

Michele, Baritone Nickolaus Schiffman

Giorgetta, Soprano Stephanie Hower

Luigi, Tenor Zachary Sheely

Tinca, Tenor Chi-Chung Lin 

Talpa, Bass I-Sheng Huang

La Frugola, Mezzo-Soprano Roberta Wain-Becker

Organ Grinder, Constantine Pappas * Song Vendor, Christian Duran

 

Supported by Festival Artists & Faculty: Lane  Baxter, Kelsey Barsamian, Katherine Bourne, Chu-Chun Chang, Yin-Han Chen, Ayelet Cohen, Dr. Harvey & Alexandra Edmonds,  Susana & Graciela Esquivel, Sandra Gostanian, Chia-ling Ho, Yi-Sheng Hsu, Fang Rei Hsu, Yu-Ting Huang, Hsiao-Han Huang, Tzu-Ham Hung, Ioanna Karvelas, April Koyejo, Natalia Malcolm, Melissa Lee Marsh, Paul & Cindy Martzen, Nanette Miginess, Chrysanthe & Evangelia Pappas, Jill Prince, Gerry Anne Prody, Paul Raheb, A.J.  Ramirez, Sharon Rogers, Jhih-Yuan Tseng, Roy & Annalisa Stevens, and Richard Woods featuring Choreographer Hannah Ozeran with Dancers Anne Cartwright, Danielle Banuelos & Aubree Cliff. 

 

Il Tabarro (The Cloak) of Giacomo Puccini's Il Trittico with Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on Didier Gold's La Houppelande, was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in 1918. In this fully staged opera, performed in Italian with English supertitles, Michele wonders if his wife Giorgetta is still faithful as Luigi arranges a secret rendezvous with her. Michele reminisces with Giorgetta of the days before their child died, how all three would fit under his cloak. He knows she is straying, but wants to win her back. Luigi, thinking that Michele's lit pipe is Giorgetta's signal to meet with him, returns, confronted by Michele who ..... (can't give away the ending)! 

 

AFTER INTERMISSION THE 2008 CALIFORNIA OPERA COMPETITION WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED AND WILL SING FOR YOU THEIR WINNING ARIAS to close this year's Festival Program. 23 Vocal Artists competed last Saturday in the Youth and Adult Artist division finals.

 

MICHAEL PHILIP DAVIS, tenor, stage director offers numerous stage credits, including past productions with COA, and performs tenor roles such as Pinkerton in Puccini's Madama Butterfly the title roles in Roméo et Juliette ,  The Tales  of  Hoffman,  and The Student  Prince  and has appeared as Tamino in The Magic Flute , and as Alfredo in La Traviata among many others.  His solo recital CD MICHAEL PHILIP DAVIS in Concert was released in 2005.  Son to the world-renowned opera legend Regina Resnik, in addition to sharing his immense talents as stage director and operatic tenor, Mr. Davis has been a High Holy Days Chazzan for 25 years, including  seven at the 92nd Street Y in New York, and recently appeared at the San Francisco  Museum of Jewish Heritage and San Diego Jewish Music Festival. 

 

NIKOLAUS SCHIFFMANN, baritone, in his premiere at the California Opera Festival, a resident of Santa Barbara with Opera San Jose has performed the roles of Gregorio (Roméo et Juliette), Christian (A Masked Ball) and Masetto (Don Giovanni) and Dancairo (Carmen). Other roles recently performed include Colline (La bohème) with Portland Opera, the Imperial Commissioner (Madama Butterfly) with Opera Santa Barbara, Schaunard (La bohème) with SF Lyric Opera, Masetto (Don Giovanni) for West Bay Opera & SF Lyric Opera, and Zuniga (Carmen) and Alidoro (La cenerentola) for Bay Shore Lyric Opera.  With the UCSC Opera, Mr. Schiffmann performed the role of Escamillo (Carmen), Dulcamara (L'elisir d'amore) and the title role in Gianni Schicchi. 

 

STEPHANIE HOWER, soprano, in her second year at the COA Opera Festival graduated Oregon State University in Music, receiving a warm welcoming back to Fresno as a recent soloist with the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra and the Fresno Community Chorus.  With an early start toward a serious career, by age 16, Stephanie won the NATS competition in every voice category over several consecutive years.  

 

ZACHARY SHEELY, tenor, of Lemoore graduate in Biology from Westmont College, has been building his repertoire and role development through COA's opera programs since age 16, including Flavio in last Sunday's Norma, Rodolfo (La Boheme), Duke (Rigoletto), Alfredo (La Traviata), Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi), Arturo (Lucia di Lammermoor), the Conductor (La Divina), Brack Weaver (Down in the Valley), the Witch (Hansel and Gretel), Hermes (Silver Swan), Kaspar (Amahl and the Night Visitors) and he made his international debut in 2006 in Hanzhou, China, as Don Jose and Remendado in Carmen. 

 

LEONARD INGRANDE, Resident Conductor of the California Opera Association, providing musical leadership throughout the San Joaquin Valley, and Southern California, Mr. Ingrande has conducted Holiday performance of Hansel and Gretel and Amahl and the Night Visitors as well as the annual Summer Festival productions since the company's beginnings in 2000. In the developmental process of expanding chamber orchestral opportunities for the Clovis community, Leonard is also currently the music director of Central Unified, led the Merced Symphony during its growth period of the 1990s, and is the newly appointed Maestro of the Kings County Symphony.  

 

LUDMILA FILATOVA returning feature pianist, vocal coach, and opera arts educator graduated with highest honors from the Conservatory of Music in Saratov, Russia. She was chosen by Kabalevsky as the best performer of his piano compositions, and was the winner of prestigious Laureate in the Competition for Young Pianists at 17 years of age. She has taught in the Saratov Music School, was Concertmaster in the Saratov Theater House, and performed as a soloist with the Latvia Symphony Orchestra. Her students have continued on to successful musical careers in Russia and Europe. Since her arrival in the US, she has been performing in solo piano concerts and chamber music performances, and as an accompanist, vocal coach and music director in the production of operas internationally, offers her warm, nurturing approach that enables students to develop a long-lasting love for music.

 

ROBERTA WAIN-BECKER, Mezzo-soprano, Artistic Director and General Manager  of Golden Gate Opera, winner of Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award, and of the Wagner Society of Northern California, William Matheus Sullivan Musical Foundation of New York, and National Institute for Music Theatre awards, has over 50 roles in her repertoire with international and US regional engagements including New Opera Festival di Roma, The Israel National Opera, Portland Opera, Mississippi Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Arizona Opera, Whitewater Opera, Marin Opera, Berkeley Opera, Sacramento Opera, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Lamplighters Music Theatre, and Cinnabar Opera Theatre. As featured soloist with symphonies in the west, she has had performances with Sacramento Symphony, Jackson Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, Billings Symphony, Diablo Philharmonic, Marin Symphony, Santa Barbara Choral Society, Oakland Symphony among others and is a Voice faculty member of the San Francisco Community Music Center. 


CHI-CHUNG LIN AND I-SHENG HUANG, from the Tunghai University of Taiwan, were recruited by COA General Artistic Director, Ms. Edna Garabedian in April 2008, during a government sponsored tour to promote collaboration between the countries of the US, Taiwan and mainland China. As first-time international visitors to the United States, these outstanding young developing vocal artists make their Western opera debut through this year's summer opera program. 

 

Administrative, Collaboration and Public Relations: COA Opera Guild and Host Families, led by Anita Edelman, Ray Ensher, Matt Marovich, Kay Schlotthauer, Pat Gebs, Peter Kraemer, Phil Kimble, Paul Saito, the Don Rogers Family, the Ted & Deborah Sheely Family, Richard Delgado, Paula Klaus, Jeanne Durnell, Jeanne Lovelace, Madleine Esquivel, Nancy Wade & Fresno Opera League members, with Rick Adamson and Roger Smith (Set Design), Diane & Boris Nixon (Development), Larry Barber (Transportation), Roberta Wain-Becker (Golden Gate Opera), Grace Solis (Arte Americas), Father James Pappas (St. George Greek Orthodox Church), Rabbi Robert Ourach (Temple Beth Israel), Tracey Pimentel (San Joaquin Gardens), Msgr. E. James Petersen (Shrine of St. Therese), Erika Morales (Fresno Art Museum), Janna Graham & Jayne Guyer (Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra), FCOE's Larry Powell & Bob Bullwinkle (Fresno County Youth Choir), Donald Munro (The Fresno Bee), Maria Franco, Joyce Aiken and Victor Ramayrat of Fresno Arts Council, Elizabeth Laval (Pop Laval Foundation), The Sonnichsen Family (Exxon Mobil), The Bonetto Family (Bank of the West), Larry Balakian (William Saroyan Centennial Committee), Les Graham, Terry and Bill Barrett Piano, San Francisco Opera (Music-Sound), Juan Salcedo & Company of Reflections (Hair/Make-Up), Susan Neville and the Abbott Family of Tower Theatre among many others.   

 

Please come on out, join the crew and just have some fun 

AS WE END THE SUMMER'S EVENTS ON THIS VERY "HIGH NOTE"  !

 

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