AVA Artists Here, There, and Everywhere!

And for the rest of the season

The 2011 - 12 opera season is in its second half so let's take a look at where AVA alumni and Resident Artists will be singing.

2009 graduate Ben Wager sings Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor at Minnesota Opera in early March.

 

Keith Miller (2006) will be taking a break from his Metropolitan Opera duties to sing the role of Riolobo in Florencia en el Amazonas at Opera Colorado in March.

  

Todd Thomas  (1987) takes the title role in Rigoletto at Pensacola Opera
on March 9 and 11.

 

 

 On March 4 and 10, Dana Beth Miller (2003) willbe at Arizona Opera
singing Amneris in Aida. 

 

 

Richard Troxell (1992) is at Portland Opera for the Philip Glass opera Galileo Galilei from March 30 through April 7. He sings the dual roles of the elder Galileo and the Speaker.

 

 

It's a brand new year

Happy New Year to all!

2012 gets off to a great start with news from Othalie Graham (2004) and Corinne Winters (2011).

Othalie reports that she has been awarded the Olga Forrai Foundation  Grant which is given "to provide support for the training, education and career development of exceptionally large dramatic voices in the fields of opera and conductors of classical music."

Coming up  in April for Othalie is the role of Minnie in Puccini's "La Fanciulla del West" at Nashville Opera. And stay tuned for further news about the beauty with the big voice.

 

 

 

A graduate of AVA's most recent class, Corinne has been named Musical America's New Artist of the Month.  She will be appearing at Florida Grand Opera as Lisette in Puccini's "La Rondine" in from January 21 through February 4. Future plans for Corinne include Michaela in "Carmen" at Opera Theater of Saint Louis in May and  June.

 

 

 

The Fairy Godmother waves her magic wand...

With the help of our technological age, there will be local HD transmissions of the Royal Opera House production of Jules Massenet's Cendrillon. This smashing production with Joyce DiDonato (1995) and Eglise Gutierrez (2004) will be shown at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute and the Ambler Theater.

The Bryn Mawr Film Institute will show the opera on Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 1 PM. Michael Bolton of the Opera Company of Philadelphia will introduce this showing. Bryn Mawr will also repeat the opera on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 7 PM.

The Ambler Theatre will have one showing on Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 12:30 PM.

Re-introducing myself...

When Denise Stuart, AVA's Director of PR and Marketing, asked me to write my introduction for this blog I was anticipating a new chapter in my relationship with AVA. Not too long after however, my mother took a fall which precipitated a physical and mental decline that ended in her death in early autumn.

This past summer and fall were difficult times for me but I believe deeply in the healing balm of music. The joys of watching and listening as the Resident Artists of AVA mature and blossom reminds me that life goes on and how much the world needs the beauty they bring to it. I miss my mother very much but I am thankful for her introducing me to the bliss that is opera. And I will smile through my tears whenever I hear Jan Peerce sing “The Bluebird of Happiness.”

*My mom Sylvia (right) and her younger sister Gert in 1964.

Our two girls...

Mezzo-soprano Joyce Di Donato and soprano Eglise Guiterrez, backstage at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden after last night's triumphant opening of Cendrillon.

This picture is copyrighted by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Meet Linda...our newest blogger for AVA!

My name is Linda Ginsburg...

I grew up a casual opera fan, courtesy of the Ed Sullivan Show and my mother’s occasional visits to the Academy of Music. The Jewish opera star was in ascendant and she went with her sister to see their figurative mishpocha (family) of Robert Merrill, Richard Tucker, Roberta Peters and her particular favorite, Jan Peerce. Although, truth be told, it was a certain Italian singer with extraordinary good looks and an even more extraordinary voice that the sisters were the most excited to see and hear.

 I listened to the Met’s Saturday broadcast on an irregular basis and as I grew older I was an interested fan who tuned in enough to send away for the season broadcast guides. Which is how I got on the Met’s mailing list and in late 1992 received a brochure for the spring 1993 Der Ring des Nibelungen.  I decided it was a rare chance to hear the operatic masterpiece of Western music and I would discharge a cultural obligation. Now here I am, having attended the Met’s Otto Schenk production through five presentations and anticipating the new Robert LePage one.

 Those four Saturday matinees in April 1993 set me on a path to learn and listen and love opera in a way I could never have imagined. And in 1981 I discovered AVA where it has been a joy to discover so many enormously talented young singers at the beginning of their careers. It has been so much fun to be a regular subscriber and volunteer and I’m delighted to be associated with them as a blogger.