[FAC] THE CALIFORNIA OPERA FESTIVAL CONTINUES THIS WEEKEND!

[Diane Nixon]

THE CALIFORNIA OPERA FESTIVAL

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF SUMMER OPERA IN FRESNO 

Festival Events are FREE with donations welcome at the door in order to promote a greater interest in, exposure to, and attendance of opera in Fresno -made possible, in part, through the Community Enrichment Program of the Fresno Arts Council, The Bonner Family Foundation, Exxon Mobile, and Bank of the West!

 

July 24th Friday at 7 PM * Mozart's Magical Musical Life

Featuring Bastien und Bastienne * Fresno Art Museum, Bonner Auditorium

2233 North First Street * (Between Clinton & McKinley)

 

One of Mozart's earliest 18th century operas, written when he was only twelve years old, Bastien und Bastienne is a one act "singspiel*."  Leanna Sterios-Primiani conducts, with Stage Direction by Jennifer Myers, Bastienne (British Soprano, Angelina Billington), a shepherdess, fears that her dearest friend, Bastien (German Tenor, Julian Michael Rickert), has forsaken her for another pretty face. Colas, the village soothsayer (California Baritone, Jeremy Silver) intervenes.* Singspiel refers to opera in the German language containing spoken dialogue and usually comic in tone. The earliest singspiels were light plays whose dialogue was interspersed with popular songs. Resembling the contemporary English ballad opera and the French opéra-comique (both of which stimulated its development), the singspiel rose to great popularity in the late 18th century. Its success was in part, related to reaction by composers and audiences against the conventions of the then dominant Italian opera styles.

 

July 25th Saturday at 2 PM * Shep, The Musical 

Fresno Art Museum, Bonner Auditorium * 2233 North First Street 

(Between Clinton & McKinley)

 

Fresno based composer-playwright, Joe W. Ozier's original composition is arranged by Director of Education, Dr. Diane Nixon to produce an old fashioned children's musical melodrama, underscoring the ethical treatment of animals and humanistic moments of people and their dogs. Performed by the Cal Opera Youth Troupe, at its core is the heartwarming story of the rescue of a lonely dog, a young veteran's search for love, and an orphaned girl's conquering of fear to love again. Real life events inspired Ozier. Since he rescued Shep, songs about the dog's life flowed into his head. ... It's a story of hope, says Ozier, I'm a dreamer...

 

July 26th Sunday at 2 PM * Il Trovatore (Verdi) 

TOWER THEATRE * 815 East Olive Avenue at Wishon 

 

The opera in four acts, Il Trovatore, Verdi's 1853 work based on the Spanish drama of the same title by Antonio Garcia Gatteerez, has been of worldwide popularity. It could be accounted the most popular work in the operatic repertoire of practically every land. Swift, spontaneous, and stirring is the music with intriguing storylines revolving around war, love, and revenge. The fully staged production features the return of Soprano Jamie Bonetto (Leonora), Mezzo-Soprano Leslie Hassberg (Azucena), Tenor Fred Winthrop (Manrico), and Baritone John Minagro (Ferrando), introducing California newcomer Joe Kinyon (Count di Luna), British Soprano Angelina Billington (Inez) and Tenor Julian Michael Rickert of Germany (Ruiz). 

 

July 31st Friday at 7 PM * Sisters of Manzanar 

and Other Musical Tales of the Japanese American Experience 

Fresno Art Museum, Bonner Auditorium * 2233 North First Street 

(Between Clinton & McKinley)

 

Western opera became popular in Japan during the Meiji era, and by the 1930s a number of home-grown operas had been created in the western style. Before World War II the most important Japanese opera was Yamada's Kurofune (The Black Ships), which was premiered in 1940. After the war, the premiere of Ikuma Dan's opera Yuzuru (1952) led to a renewal of interest in the form, which has continued to develop ever since. Featuring Miwako Isano, Haruna Shiokawa, and Elyse Nakajima, California Opera presents a Night in honor of Japanese-Americans to highlight pre-war through post-war sagas, including The Sisters of Manzanar, a one-act opera by present day New York composer Paul Stuart, which addresses experience of Japanese Americans in U.S. internment camps after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. 

 

August 1st Saturday at 2 PM Opera Espanol * Un Dia Caliente

Fresno Art Museum, Bonner Auditorium * 2233 North First Street 

(Between Clinton & McKinley)

 

An annual festival opera favorite, this year's event highlighting the Latino arts and culture will feature  opera artists of Mexico, Brazil and the US performing along with members of the Fresno Brisa Espanola in a fiery melodrama Un Dia Caliente (One Hot Day) featuring contemporary, traditional, and classical Latin and Spanish flamenco music, dance, and song. 

 

August 2nd Sunday at 2 PM Suor Angelica (Puccini) * Pagliacci (Leoncavallo)

SHAGHOIAN CONCERT HALL * 2770 East International Avenue 

(Willow & International in NE Fresno)

 

Suor Angelica is the second installment in Puccini's triptych of one-act operas commonly known as Il trittico. The 1918 opera chronicles the fall, redemption, and final transfiguration of its central character, Sister Angelica (Soprano Samantha Knjoi of Huntsville Alabama). With San Jose conductor Bruce Olstad, Edna Garabedian directs puccini's most adventurous writing. Angelica's aria Senza mamma (Without your mother) is considered one of the most poignant moments in any of Puccini's works. Local and International singers complete an all female cast of ages 6 to 60.

 

Pagliacci, Ruggero Leoncavallo's Opera in Two Acts, cultivated a late 19th-century new Italian literary movement style called verismo, meaning realism or truthful. The story follows actors' loves and jealousies, which spill over into their stage performances. It is explained that the dangers of love will be presented on stage but actors are human too, and have real feelings. Canio (the Pagliaccio portrayed by California Tenor Zachary Sheely) says that stage and life are quite different, but that if his Nedda (portrayed by Fresno Soprano Stephanie Hower) deceived him in real life, he would avenge such treachery. The central figure Canio (Pagliaccio) sings his famous self-pitying lament... laugh Pagliaccio, laugh! Conducted by the great Fresno Opera Association founder Nicola Iacovetti, with chorus direction by Dan Bishop, and special appearance by CSU Fresno professor Anthony Radford as Sylvio and Fresno's mystical miming magician Tony Blanco, the performance will represent an all-star feature of Fresno's own greatest operatic and stage talents. 

 

Bring the kids, friends, and family. Support these international artists arriving from around the world and our own local talent learning their craft and performing for YOU - share Fresno's hospitality and culture through your attendance! Dress comfortably for all the summer opera events. Enjoy the opera-tune-ity to try something new and learn more about this treasured classical and evolving contemporary art form!!! Celebrate with us our 10th year of summer opera in Fresno!