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BEL CANTO Newsletter of the Manatee Opera Guild December 2020 Sarasota Opera Winter Season 2021 Announced! Sarasota Opera has announced its Winter Season Il Signor Bruschino by Gioachino Rossini, libretto by 2021, and tickets will go on sale on January 4. This Giuseppe Maria Foppa year these fully-staged operas will be available either live or at home through streaming. These operas will This lighthearted operatic comedy opens with one of give us the opportunity to explore little known gems. Rossini’s most innovative and playful overtures. Anxious young lovers navigate their way through meddling Healh and safety guidelines will stay in place, and parents, an arranged marriage, and a case of mistaken they are listed later in this newsletter. identity, with sparkling arias and ensembles soaring Here are the offerings that we can look forward to: towards happily ever after. April 9, 13,16, 21 at 7:30 Winter Season 2021 April 18, 24 at 1:30 The Happy Deception. by Gioachino Rossini, libretto Livestream: April 9 at 7:30 by Giuseppe Maria Foppa A duchess disappears and then washes up on a Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell, libretto by Nahum beach in a small mining town. A kind miner takes her Tate in and cares for her, until ten years later when her In this Baroque treasure based on the Aenead of Virgil, grieving husband and his entourage pay a visit. Dido the Queen of Carthage falls in love with the Trojan Abduction, menace, passion, and comedy all swirl warrior Aeneas, yet scheming sorcery and fateful spells towards a happy conclusion. doom their great passion. Hear the abandoned and February 12, 17, 23, and 25 at 7:30 heartbroken queen conclude the epic tale with one of February 14, 20 at 1:30 opera’s most memorable laments. Livestream: February 12 at 7:30 April 11, 25 at 1:30 Maid to Mistress, by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, April 15,17,20, 22 at 7:30 with libretto by Gennaro Federico. Livestream: April 11 at 1:30 A wealthy older bachelor grows impatient with his saucy young maid and resolves to find a wife to care Live in HD for him properly. The maid has other ideas and December 20, 2020 , schemes to get the promotion she desires — bride 1:30PM The Nutcracker - Ballet Film and mistress of the home. Tickets are $20, and can be purchased now using this February 19, 24, March 2 at 7:30 link. February 21, 27 at 1:30 Livestream, February 19 at 7:30 Sarasota Opera Health and Safety Measures President’s Message Face masks required for all audience members at Holiday wishes to all our Manatee the Opera House and at our outdoor concerts. Opera Guild friends! May your Please wear a mask at all times while inside the holidays be bright and happy. Opera House complex, and throughout the performance. We have had 2 pieces of good news Print your tickets at home or receive a ticket on since my last message: an effective your mobile device. Self-scanning as you enter the vaccine is on the way, and Sarasota Opera will be theater will limit your contact with our ushers and presenting a Winter Season 2021. Dave and I join you staff. in hoping for a return to our pre-pandemic lives, and I long to see you all again. Thank you to everyone who The box office in the lobby will be closed to limit has kept the faith with the Manatee Opera Guild. The crowding. If needed, the main box office in the Board has agreed to give $5,000 to SOA, and an Pavilion building, under the green awning will be open. additional $1,000 to Sarasota Youth Opera. This donation was made possible by your membership Please do not come to the Opera House if you are dues, and by the generous Deane Allyn bequest. feeling ill. Temperature checks will be required before you enter the Sarasota Opera House. Next year, when we’re all vaccinated, and ready to Anyone who is running a fever (100.3° F or higher) resume activities, we will all work to resume our will not be permitted to enter and your tickets will be wonderful meetings and to present a variety of refunded. enjoyable fundraisers and bring our donations back to All seats will be reserved to accommodate their usual levels. In the meantime, stay masked, stay distanced seating for performances at the Opera physically distanced ( I don’t like the phrase “socially House, including our HD at The Opera House distanced”) and keep your hands clean. We don’t want movies series. Seating has been spaced so that there to lose any members to the virus. You are all too dear. is one row in between groups and no fewer than Thank you to Elizabeth Aversa for bringing us a column three seats on either side. To ensure social on parties in opera with many links to performances distancing, you must use your reserved seat and may not switch seats without the assistance of the house that will lift our spirits this holiday season. manager. And thank you to Syble DiGirolamo who has Opera Club and McCorkle Lounge will be closed interviewed Maestro Jesse Martins and Maestro until further notice. George Hemcher of the Youth Opera. You’ll enjoy learning their backgrounds and how they have Concessions and drinking fountains will be closed managed to keep the Youth Opera members engaged, for the HD at the Opera House Movies as well as for the November concerts. As a result, you will be learning and growing during this most difficult time. allowed to bring your own bottled water in the theater. Tributes Social distancing rules will be observed at the opera house with modifications to lines approaching Our gift to MOG is to celebrate our 59th wedding the restrooms and elevators as well as the entrance Anniversary on Dec18th - still livin' and lovin'... to the theater. Sheila and Joe Varady Sanitizing stations have been installed in the In fond memory of Mary Jane DeGenaro who artfully theater and we have optimized the air conditioning presented in our Prelude Series. system to provide better air flow and filtration. from all MOG members Your Virtual Holiday Opera Party for 2020 Macbeth by Elizabeth Aversa Verdi’s Macbeth features a toast as Macbeth receives Back in the days when we could gather with friends guests at a banquet. The social event is fraught with beyond our own households we held, and attended, drama – the ghost of Banquo distracts Macbeth, but many opera parties. With friends in Washington, DC, a when the spirit disappears an effort is made to get group met at the Foggy Bottom apartment of one things back to normal. This 1976 performance of “Si couple, enjoyed a cocktail or two, and walked together colmi Il calice” at La Scala features American mezzo to the opera at Kennedy Center. Another group held soprano Shirley Verrett and Italian baritone Piero “watch parties” with elaborate multi-course dinners, Cappuccilli. Watch here. served at intermissions and after the last applause, as we came together to watch the occasional televised, A Masked Ball live performances from the Met. And for a significant Verdi’s A Masked Ball involves, in the end, just that - a birthday celebration for my husband we gathered 35 masked ball. But in this 1859 opera, the party does not friends in our living room to enjoy live music performed end well, as the final scene reveals. Performed at the by singers and pianists from the university’s opera Bergen Performing Arts Center in Bergen County, New theatre. In our lives, opera and parties naturally go Jersey, here is an excerpt from the conclusion of A together! Masked Ball. As the 2020 winter holidays approach, though, few of Before Verdi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) us will gather with others outside our “COVID-19-safe composed some 22 operas, many of which remain in pods.” However, we can make some merriment, lift our the world’s repertoire today. Don Giovanni is a sagging spirits, and celebrate opera in the safety of our frequently performed favorite. homes. Set aside an hour, line up some snacks and a Don Giovanni holiday beverage, and sit down to delight in seeing opulent settings, happy revelers, elegant costumes, Mozart’s Don Giovanni which premiered in 1787 and in hearing great music. Enjoy your own private includes a party scene at the end of Act 1. party with a half dozen operas plus one brief article to The Royal Opera House production of 1992 featured read. Thomas Allen as Don Giovanni; Leporello is sung by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) takes the “triple crown” Claudio Desderi; Carol Vaness is Donna Anna and where lavish parties embedded in great operas are Donna Elvira is sung by Patricia Schuman. Additional concerned. La Traviata (premiered 1853), Macbeth cast included Don Ottavio sung by Hans Peter (premiered 1847), and A Masked Ball (first performed Blochwitz; Masetto by Bryn Terfel; and Marta 1859) provide drama, drama, and more drama at Marquez is Zerlina. This is the act 1 finale. Click here. beautiful social affairs. The next two works, considered to be operettas, La Traviata incorporate memorable parties. [Although not clearly defined, the differences between operetta and opera Mention parties, drinking, and opera and “Libiamo, ne’ seem to be that (1) operetta is a lighter version of lieti calici” from Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata is likely to opera; (2) operettas have more frivolous story lines and be the first to come to mind.