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Newsletter of the Manatee Guild October 2020

Did you know the Sarasota Youth Opera President’s Message is going strong this fall, despite the pandemic? It was refreshing to hear that Sarasota Opera is Inclusiveness and accessibility are founding carefully reopening for a few events. In the principals of SYO. In addition to accepting itself, a very socially distanced, and students with little to no musical training, masked audience will be able to enjoy the students who are unable to pay all or part of HD at the Opera series, and in November, the tuition cost are also welcomed into the some recital performances will take place at program. Thanks to Youth Opera donors who the Opera House. Also, Sarasota Opera is give annually or through Taste of Downtown, presenting some performances at outdoor we are able to offer tuition assistance to venues in Sarasota. See more about these approximately 33% of our members each year. performances further on in this newsletter. If you are not This year, we are seeing more requests for this comfortable yet going to the Opera House, some of these assistance, and your support is needed more recitals will be available at home on your computer. than ever before.

Your support also makes it possible for the Thank you to everyone who did renew their membership in Youth Opera to carry on this semester in a MOG. It’s difficult to ask you to continue to be a member when virtual format with an expanded curriculum we are offering little in return this year, but your renewals will that includes acting classes, Music 101, in help us to deliver some revenue to the Opera. I’m still holding addition to the choruses we all love to listen out hope that we will be able to meet sometime in the Spring. to. We can't do this without you! Here is how you can help: Thank you to Elizabeth Aversa for her entertaining article on scary and . These will help put us in the mood for • $75 helps to defray program costs, Halloween! such as improved technology and hardware for virtual sessions, music I plan to continue to keep in touch via the newsletter, so if you supplies, and other costs to build up have any news, comments, or ideas please send them to me: program activities. [email protected]. Please send your tributes to Sheila • $175 covers the cost of tuition for one Varady: 2015 32nd Avenue West, Apt. 226, Bradenton 34205 Youth Opera member, aged 8-10. If you have not yet renewed, here is the information you need to • $250 covers the cost of tuition for one do so. Please send your check to Jeanne Yeagle, 1700 3rd Youth Opera member, aged 11-18, Avenue West, Apt. 111, Bradenton Florida, 34205. AND helps to defray uniform costs for upcoming performances in the spring. Membership dues are as follows Single: $40 — Single Sustaining: $50 Now is the perfect time to raise your voice for Couple: $60 — Couple Sustaining: $70 the Sarasota Youth Opera, a one-of-a-kind program that is a model for opera education Please make your check out to MOG. across the country. Please consider a gift to Sarasota Youth Opera. Click here to Please keep well! We will meet again! Can’t wait! help. Jeanne In Memory of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, were often adversaries in their judicial decisions, they Opera Lover Extraordinaire were fast friends. She adored his sense of humor, and appreciated his sharp intellect. His opinions, she As a nation, we mourned thought, helped her the September 18th hone her own. They death of Ruth Bader often dined together Ginsburg, a singular and then enjoyed an woman who advanced evening at the opera. the civil rights of us all. As she was honored in They both took roles the Hall of Statuary of as supernumeraries, t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s and Justice Ginsburg Capital, mezzosoprano o n c e t o o k t h e Denyce Graves sang the s p e a k i n g ro l e o f spiritual Deep River and D u c h e s s o f the patriotic American K r a k e n t h o r p i n Anthem. While it was Donizetti’s La Fille du not unusual to have such Régiment a t music at a memorial, did Washington National you know that Justice Opera. G i n s b u r g a n d M s . Graves were friends, a A f t e r h i s d e a t h , friendship forged from J u s t i c e G i n s b u r g ’s Justice Ginsburg said lifelong love of opera? “Justice Scalia once described as the peak of his days on the bench an evening at the Opera Ball when he Justice Ginsburg was a passionate lover of opera, a joined two Washington National Opera tenors at the love forged in her youth when she first attended a piano for a medley of songs. He called it the famous performance of La Gioconda when she was 11. Like Three Tenors performance. He was, indeed, a some of our own members, Justice Ginsburg didn’t go magnificent performer. It was my great good fortune to to see a performance just once. She attended dress have known him as working colleague and treasured rehearsals, opening nights and often the closing night friend.” of any opera. In an article from AARP, Justice Ginsburg said “Most of the time, even when I go to In fact, an opera, Scalia/Ginsburg was written about the sleep, I’m thinking about legal problems. But when I relationship between Justices Ginsburg and Scalia. In go to the opera, I’m just lost in it. Loving it. And I don't this one act comic opera by composer-librettist Derrick think about any legal brief.” Wang, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia must pass through three cosmic trials to secure their She was always interested in strong heroines in opera. freedom. The catch: they may have to agree on the After seeing a production of Fidelio at the Washington Constitution. Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg is a Opera, she wrote a letter to the conductor Francesca valentine to law and opera, where the law’s leading Zambello —“it was the best “Fidelio” she’d ever seen. players go toe-to-toe and trill-to-trill in a (gentle) She said I got close to what Beethoven wanted in this parody of operatic proportions. Opinions will be story of Leonore, who disguises herself as a man to offered. Dissents will be delivered. And justice will be rescue her husband from prison. She related to it as a sung. OPERA America. woman and a feminist. “You told the story of what women do,” she said.”” In a interview with WFMT radio, Justice Ginsburg named five operas she wants everyone to know. They Justice Ginsburg had shared her love of opera with the are, in order, The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart) and Don late Antonin Scalia, her colleague on the Supreme Giovanni (Mozart), Der Rosenkavalier (Strauss), Court, and her ideological opposite. Though they (Verdi), and The Girl of the Golden West (Puccini). Hear her reasons for choosing these five by clicking above. SCARY OPERA FOR A SCARY TIME: RECOMMENDED MUSIC FOR HALLOWEEN 2020 by Elizabeth Aversa [email protected]

205-394-0055 Due to the scariness of COVID-19 most of us won’t be • trick-or-treating or holding our annual Halloween Faust (Gounod) parties. We do, however, need to acknowledge the Making a deal with the devil, even for youth and vitality, turns October holiday somehow, and what better way than by out to be a bad deal all around. Faust and Mephistopheles enjoying some creepy music from our favorite performing are the principles in this scene. art? The good news is that you really don’t have to know a lot about the entire operas to enjoy the music and catch LISTEN: “Faust & Mephistopheles Duet” from a 2011 some seasonal anxiety. production of the with Vittorio Grigolo Here are a dozen suggestions for your listening pleasure. and René Pape. Set out a bowl of candy corn, pour an appropriate adult •The Flying Dutchman (Wagner) beverage, and listen to the selections. Both frequently performed operas and some that enjoy less visibility are This is a story, replete with a ship and its crew of ghost represented here. They are listed alphabetically since we sailors, of a man searching the seas for love and the woman don’t want to insult any vengeful ghoulish and ghostly who promises to be true to him forever. characters! LISTEN: Valery Gergiev conducts the Met Opera production •Un Ballo in Maschera (Verdi) of The Flying Dutchman in 2019. Evgeny Nikitin and Anja Whether you know this opera or not, the call for the “King Kampe are the Dutchman and Senta in these excerpts. of the Abyss” to hasten to Ulrica suggests witchcraft and •The Ghosts of Versailles (Corigliano) demon doings. An opera retelling the history of the French Revolution is a LISTEN: James Levine conducts and Quivar sings Ulrica’s “Re dell’abisso, affrettati” in the Metropolitan dark undertaking made even more scary by the fact that Opera’s 1990 production. Marie Antoinette is a ghost herself. In the “They are Always with Me” she sings about what she’s seen. •Bluebeard’s Castle (Bartok) LISTEN: Laura Kay (vocal) and Zach Mo (piano) provide a Judith, Bluebeard’s latest new wife, exploring her new chilling presentation of the aria. home, opens the mysterious door number 5 to see Bluebeard’s wealth and holdings, but everything is stained •Hansel and Gretel (Humperdinck) with blood. And there are more doors to come. The popular fairy tale remains a favorite of adults and LISTEN: Sir George Solti conducts the children alike. The prospects of starvation and of the children Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008 with Sylvia Sass as Judith being broiled in the witch’s oven are bad enough, but the and Kolos Kováts as Bluebeard. finale with the witch baked, like an overdone loaf of bread, is • (Mozart) the stuff of Halloween nightmares.

This popular opera has its scary moments. If a statue of LISTEN: The Met production of January 1, 2008 was the commendatore comes alive and invites you to dinner, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. This is the finale. you must be sure to RSVP. • (Verdi) LISTEN: Riccardo Muti conducts the Vienna ’s “Commendatore Scene” in a 1999 production. The Witches and more witches in Verdi’s treatment of Commendatore is sung by Franz-Josef Selig; Carlos Shakespeare’s Macbeth. What more can be said? Álvarez is Don Giovanni, and Ildebrando D'Arcangelo is LISTEN: “Witches’ Chorus” from Macbeth by the Leporello. Ambrosian Opera Chorus - New Philharmonia Orchestra - with Riccardo Muti conducting for this 1976 recording. •The Medium (Menotti) •Turn of the Screw (Britten)

This short opera tells the eerie story of a medium, Madame This may be best described as a disturbing opera with a very Flora, who shoots a young man (Toby) who is hidden in a sad ending. Based on Henry James’ novel of the same title, puppet but cannot speak when warned. A notable the story involves two haunted children, Flora and Miles, aria is “The Black Swan,” which Monica sings to calm her their governess and the ghosts of a manservant, Peter Quint, mother’s rage in Act one. and Miss Jessel, a former governess.

LISTEN: “The Black Swan” from The Medium, performed by LISTEN: “Miles” by DC Public Opera & Orchestra conducted Baylor Opera, May 11, 2008. by Michelle Rofrano. Flora is sung by Ann-Marie Iacoviello and Miles by Ari Andelman in this 1917 production. •The Nose (Shostakovich) •Der Vampyr (Marschner) It is difficult to imagine something more frightening than waking up without your nose and having to try to find it. But Halloween would not be Halloween without vampires. Here that is what happens in this strange 1928 work. What could is a link to a brief selection of from Der Vampyr along with a be weirder than tapdancing noses? (Excellent costume idea, history of the opera, its synopsis, and an article about the however!) music. LISTEN to this Capriccio Records recording from 2002. WATCH: “Giant Tapdancing Noses” by The Royal Opera, 2016. For this Halloween, enjoy the recordings while you join us in hoping for live opera in 2021.

1983 — Costumed Bradenton Opera Guild Members Participatein DeSoto Parade. Does anyone remember this event? News from Sarasota Opera

As you know, the Sarasota Opera House has been quiet Hear different operatic favorites that celebrate the since we were forced to suspend our season back in outdoors in these garden concerts with piano March, and health concerns prevent us from having full accompaniment. productions on our in November. This has forced Each concert will be limited to 100 people only! us to cancel our planned productions of Don Giovanni Tickets: $35 and the Youth Opera The Hobbit. Besides these concerts, we are bringing back our HD in While we are disappointed in these cancellations, the Opera House series starting October 4, as well as we are determined not to be silent! OperaMobile!—FREE 20-minute performances featuring two singers and a pianist in selected locations As our closest patrons, we wanted you to be the first to to be announced throughout the greater Sarasota area know. There will be live performances at Sarasota on November 9 and 10. Please check Opera this fall, featuring some of your favorite Sarasota SarasotaOpera.org for updates. Opera Artists. Hanna Brammer, Anna Mandina, and Caitlin Crabill, with tenors Andrew Tickets for Live from Sarasota Opera House and Surrena and Samuel Schlievert, baritone Alexander Sarasota Opera at the Gardens will be on pre-sale for Boyd, and bass Young Bok Kim will be performing in Sarasota Opera donors and subscribers starting concerts throughout Sarasota from November 9 October 1, 2020. through November 19. Call (941) 328-1300 or go to SarasotaOpera.org to buy Health & Safety tickets or for more information. We are committed to bringing you great singing, but Click here to choose your concerts, and use offer code also to the health and safety of our audiences, artists "FALL20" when checking out to get your exclusive and staff. As a result, you’ll see some changes at the donor and subscriber pre-sale tickets starting October Sarasota Opera House when you return, including first! print-at-home tickets, mandatory use of masks while in the Opera House complex, temperature checks, The Winter Opera Festival socially-distanced seating, and more. Click here to read At this time, we are still planning to have our winter more about our new health and safety protocols. season as scheduled. However, if health conditions and regulations won’t allow it, we are developing Please join us at the Opera House, in the outdoors, or alternative plans to present live opera on the stage of online for these concerts: the Sarasota Opera House and throughout Sarasota. Live from the Sarasota Opera House Please check SarasotaOpera.org for updates. November 13, 7:30 at the Sarasota Opera House Please Support the Sarasota Opera Relief Fund Hear your favorite opera selections with piano These are challenging times for us all. The performing arts accompaniment on the Sarasota Opera House stage. have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 As long as health & safety regulations allow, we will pandemic and related shutdowns. During this time, we are also have a live, distanced audience limited to 250 doing our best to continue to keep our staff working by people in the Sarasota Opera House. You will also be providing great music to our community, and continuing our able to see this concert live-streamed over the internet Sarasota Youth Opera, in a virtual form. for the first time in Sarasota Opera history! This has not been possible without your support! Tickets: We have been gratified by the generous support of our ticket In person at the Sarasota Opera House: $25-45 buyers and donors. Although our challenges will continue for Watch a live stream over the internet: $10 some time, we have been encouraged to know that you are Sarasota Opera at the Gardens behind us and support us and want us to be there for you November 17, 5:30: at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens when it is safe to return to the theater. If you can, we ask you to please consider donating to the Sarasota Opera Relief & November 19, 5:30 at Historic Spanish Point fund by clicking here.