AVA Opera Blog

Understudy of a lifetime...

This season at the Metropolitan Opera will see many AVA alums, both on the stage, and almost on the stage.

It’s a wonderful honor to be asked to understudy in this great house, and several great alums are ready to go on at a moment’s notice.

Our French songbird Manon Strauss Evrard has been singing on both continents, but she gets a turn at the Met this season, with one of the hardest sings possible. She will understudy the title character in Lulu by Alban Berg. We know that there is an unhappy ending to that opera, but don’t feel bad for Manon she’s starring as Marie in La Fille du Regiment for Virginia Opera. Can you say the perfect role for Ms. Evrard? Very good things are in her future in 2010 she will sing her first Semiramide with Maestro Alberto Zedda.

 

Angela Meade is no stranger to the Met. She is actually the poster child for understudies, having made her Met debut in Ernani, when she went on for an ailing soprano. She’s at the Met right now rehearsing for her debut as the Countess in the Met’s production of Le nozze di Figaro on December 4th. She also recently returned from San Francisco Opera where she understudied Constanze in The Abduction from the Sereglio. Before her stint at the Met in Armida, where she will understudy Renee Fleming for the second time, Angela will return to AVA to sing selections from Norma on the Operatic Masterpieces concert on January 30, 31 and February 2.

 

Caroline Whisnant

 has just returned to the Met to understudy the title character in Elektra by Richard Strauss. She is no stranger to this role, and even performed it as an alumna at AVA, in 2004. Ms. Whisnant’s repertoire is not for the faint of heart. It includes the roles of Turandot, Tosca, Lady Macbeth, Leonora (Il trovatore), Senta, and Brünhilde, to name a few. Somehow, I think she can handle herself on the NYC subways! She makes her home in Germany and performs the bulk of the season in Mannheim, Essen, Karlsruhe and Frankfort.

Not to out-do the sopranos, tenor Michele Angelini will be understuding two roles at the Met this season.  His first assignment is that of Tonio, in La Fille du Régiment. From what I hear, Juan Diego Flores will be arriving late for the stage rehearsals, so Mr. Angelini will actually get stage time. He probably won’t need much time with the role since he will have sung it with San Antonio Opera before he arrives at the Met.  He’ll be back later in the spring to understudy a role in Armida, along with Angela Meade. During that time he’ll make his Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with the New York Choral Society on May 1, 2010.

Don't over eat...

...or this could be you on Thanksgiving night!

Happy Thanksgivng from all of us at AVA.
 

From beginning to end...

The Bucks County Opera Association and AVA’s  love affair has been going on for almost 50 years. Founded by AVA’s ex-president Adele Paxson and board member Franca Warden the purpose of this group was to bring AVA productions brought to Bucks County.

That mission still stands, but their committee has done so much more, including endowing an annual resident artists Fellowship. This year’s recipient is fourth year baritone Christopher Bolduc.

It was a whirlwind week in Bucks County beginning with their Benefactor party for the production of Falstaff, at co-chair Barbara Donnelly’s home in Carversville on November 15. The music was pure AVA with Jan Cornelius, Zachary Borichevsky, and Wes Mason with Maestro Richard Raub at the piano. Great music, food, and the anticipation of a fantast Falstaff performance for the following week was the order of business.

  
photo #1 - Jan Cornelius and Wes Mason
  photo #2 - Dr. Farah Vikoren and Zach Borichevsky, both Bucks County residents
  Photo #3 - Mary Walrond, and AVA board member Ann Stephenson
  Photo #4 - Richard Raub, Susan Kane, Zach Borichevsky, Barbara Donnelly, Wes Mason, Jan Cornelius
  
Skipping ahead to November 21 - the big night arrives. The Bucks County Opera Association manning their posts at Central Bucks South High School, with an almost sold-out house for Falstaff. Member Pearl Mintzer donated a lovely ladies cosmetic bag which she designed, with all the proceeds going to the Bucks County Opera Fund. Former teacher, Janet Gandeszak manned the booth, with free tickets for all students who attended.The rest of the committee helped with the tickets and ushering. I was there for the show and it was truly wonderful. Alum Daesan No played the title role of Sir John with skill and a comic timing that kept the audience laughing.

photo #1 - Pearl Mintzer
photo #2 - Janet and Joseph Gendeszak
photo #3 - Ann Stephenson, Susan Kane, Barbara Donnelly, Kathleen Mahanes
photo #4 - Virginia Hartman, nancy Pond Brown, Anna Williams, Franca Warden,

Following the opera there was a dinner in honor of the performers.  Although it was close to midnight we all ate and toasted to Sir John!

 

photo #1 - Oliva Vote (Meg Page), Daesan No (Falstaff)
photo #2 - Richard Stephenson, Michelle Johnson (Mrs. Ford)
photo #3 - Margaret Mezzacappa (Dame Quickly), Zach Nelson (Falstaff), Christopher Bolduc (Mr. Ford)

Falstaff on a cracker...

Opening night of Falstaff kicked off the 75th Anniversary Season at AVA. And what an opening it was!

AVA Board Member Martha Hurt invited the cast, crew and invited guests to her home to wait for the reviews in the morning paper a la Sardi’s in the 50’s. Well, that’s not quite true about the reviews (which you can read on the AVA website), but it was a great party.

The post-opera crowd were walking on a cloud, and their bellies were sore from laughing so hard. All they wanted was to congratulate the opening night cast and tell them how much they enjoyed their performances. The cast just wanted something to eat!


Pictured above is Cynthia Cook (Meg Page),Martha Hurt, Michelle Johnson (Alice Ford)

During the evening Mr. McDowell toasted stage director Tito Capobianco, who made his US directing debut at AVA in 1963, and to Maestro Macatsoris for a wonderful production.

I can tell you this, the party was so much fun, it was the latest I’ve stayed up in a long time. Thank you Martha for a wonderful evening.

Photo #1 - Kevin McDowell toasting Tito Capobianco (seated)
Photo #2 - AVA alumna Ailyn Perez and Tito Capobianco
Photo #3 - Chantrea MacLean, Martha Hurt, and Allison Hymel

Everything you ever wanted to know...

To start the opera season, Denise Stuart, Director of PR & Marketing started something new.  She designed a “Sound Bites” lecture series for all three operas which gives the audience some insight into the opera through the eyes of the conductor and director.

A  few weeks ago was the Falstaff lecture with two greats of the opera world as guest speakers, Maestro Christofer Macatsoris and internationally known guest stage director, Tito Capobianco. Both gentlemen are not novices to Verdi’s works, especially Falstaff, and the information they gave to an audience of over one hundred and fifty people was very informative.

Along with the lecture, there are always a few musical selections chosen by Maestro  performed by the cast. For this presentation he chose the Letter Scene where Alice and Meg realize that John Falstaff has sent them the same letter! He ended the presentation with the rousing finale (Tutto nel mondo è burla... Tutti gabbati! / "Everything in the world a jest...").

The lecture ended with a time for the audience to meet the singers along with Maestro Macatsoris and Mr. Capobianco. There was a small reception following the lecture with champagne, which made everyone happy.

The next Lecture is on February 10 for Capriccio, followed on April 21 with the La bohème lecture. These lecture are free to the public, and tickets can be reserved one month from the date by all AVA.

Photo #1 Board president Mackie Maclean, Maria Aledia, Corrine Schafer (Nannette), Bill and Anne Carey
Photo # 2 Elaine, Zach Nelson (Falstaff) and his mom Kathy Nelson
Photo # 3 Daesan No and Zach Nelson (both Falstaves)
Photo # 4 Sean Arnold (Bardolfo), and Nicholas Masters (Pistola) with admirers
Photo # 5 Dr. Herbert I. Goldberg, John Viscardi (Fenton), and Charlotte MacLean   

Mazel Tov!...

AVA loves its alums! We try to follow their careers on the stage, but sometime a special life event deserves recognition.

Alumna mezzo-soprano Jody Kidwell, is not, I admit, a 13 year old, but she came of age on October 16th when she celebrated her bat mitzvah at Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia.

Ms. Kidwell has been a cantor there for the past decade and I know it feels like home to her. She also had many of her AVA family there for the celebration.

My AVA roving reporter for the event was alum Michael Eberhard. He wrote to me, “the service was absolutely wonderful. Jody chanted her torah portion beautifully and sang even more so. She also gave an amazing speech and talked about her journey and conversion to Judaism which began in the 90’s.”

Many AVA alums joined their voices for Jody. The chorus was made up of quite a few alums including, Rebecca Carr, Suzanne DuPlantis, Michael Eberhard, Kenneth Garner, and John Miles. Also in attendance was AVA master vocal coach, Richard Raub, and alumna Judith Lovat with her partner Cynthia.

Photo #1 Jody and her guests
Photo #2 Judith Lovat, Jody Kidwell, Judith's partner, Cynthia, and Rebecca Carr

Sunday in the burbs with singing...

A Sunday afternoon filled with music is always a delight.  In October, the Main Line Opera Association held its annual fund raising event called An afternoon with the Opera Stars of Tomorrow, with the proceeds benefitting the AVA Scholarship Fund.

Event co-chairs Kay Bossone and Electra Lenard, with the help of a fantastic committee, flung open the doors to the AVA social season. The party was held at the Devon, PA home of Ian and Sharon Modelevsky (pictured) . This historic home, called “Cedar Lawn,” has a full and rich history dating back to 1760, the year it was built.

The highlight of the afternoon, as always, was the musical performance by the resident artists.  At this party the cup runneth over, musically speaking, with selections by Maria Aleida, Jan Cornelius, Olivia Vote, Zach Borichevsky, Wes Mason and Ryan Kuster, all under the music direction and accompaniment of Luke Housner.

Part of the evening included a live auction with one item directly related to AVA.  For a good price, one of our donors purchased an afternoon at AVA, including a tour of the historic building by Robert Lyon, Director of Institutional Advancement, sitting in on an open staging rehearsal , followed by an hors d’ouvre reception.  Now aren’t you sorry you didn’t win that?

Maria Aledia

Olivia Vote and Ryan Kuster

 

Jan Cornelius and Wes Mason
 

Tooting my own horn...

Many of the readers of this blog know of my love for operetta. In October I decided to tackle producing two different concerts in two different cities within weeks of each other. Without the help from AVA singers this process would have been much more difficult.

In early October, Concert Operetta Theater scheduled a performance  in Philadelphia titled Gems from the American Operetta. It was with pleasure that two resident artists and two alums were part of that program. Sopranos Zulimar Lopéz-Hernández and Maria Russo, with resident artists tenor Noah Van Neil and bass-baritone Ryan Kuster brought to life the music of Rudolf Friml, Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, and Sigmund Romberg. Although this music has been performed for almost a century, much of it was quite new to the singers in this program. What a wonderful time hearing March of the Musketeers, You will remember Vienna, Thine Alone, and Sweethearts.

Two weeks later COT made its NYC debut at Merkin Hall in Lincoln Center with a 1914 operetta by Emmerich Kálmán, Sári. This was a concert first produced in Philadelphia in October 2008. Again AVA was represented with baritone Steven LaBrie (pictured) singing the part of Pali Racz, the old gypsy violinist, and tenor Noah Van Niel as his son. AVA was represented on both the stage and in the audience. It was wonderful to see many alums there including Nina Yoshida Nelsen, Zulimar Lopéz-Hernández, Joyce El-Khoury, Joseph Spector and his lovely wife Kate, as well as AVA’s Professional Development Coach, Thor Eckert.

Neither show would have been possible without the music al talents of pianist José Meléndez. He is  AVA’s librarian and coach and the music director for COT.

If you would like to see some of the AVA singers perform operetta repertoire, click here to see Concert Operetta’s YouTube page.

I'm scared...

One party I look forward to every year is Pearl and Chuck Mintzer's Halloween bash in Bucks County. The Mintzers are part of the Bucks County Opera Association and open their home to ghouls, ghosts and opera characters each year.

Many of the Bucks County Opera Association members really get into the spirit of the AVA opera they are hosting in their county. Falstaff was the opera of the evening with beautiful costumes made by Anna Williams. Attendees were dressed as Mrs. Ford, Mrs. Page, Nanetta, Sir John Falstaff, and the tree from Windsor
Forest. Yes, even the tree made an appearance.

That same night in Philadelphia, the AVA resident artists had their own dress up Halloween party. 

No one wanted to go outside for trick-or-treating because of the rainy night, so a warm home filled with great food was the order of business. Many creative costumes were designed for that event, but my favorite was the appearance of Mary Poppins, aka Olivia Vote, and Burt the Chimney Sweep who was actually Taylor Stayton.

Light the candles...

The fundraising season started off on a high note with the first Friends of AVA fundraising event - FOA does Broadway! on September 26th in AVA’s Helen Corning Warden Theater.

One hundred AVA fans enjoyed a buffet along with a concert of Broadway repertoire sung by the resident artists. I’m not sure who had more fun with this repertoire – the singers or the listeners?

With wonderful sponsors like Nan and Brett Altman, and great raffle donors like John McCarthy, this was the best opening event ever for the Friends of AVA raising five thousand dollars for the Scholarship Fund.

 

Photo #1 - Cynthia Cook, Jose Melendez, Jan Cornelius, Christopher Bolduc
Photo # 2 - Wes Mason and Corrine Winters
Photo #3 - "The Raffle Girls" Na Li Youm, Margaret Mezzacappa, Corrine Schaefer
Photo #4 - Noah Van Niel