From Rodelinda
Faust
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Opera San Luis Obispo presents Falling in Love with Opera
An opera course featuring video showings of Six Bel Canto Favorites
Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia - La Cenerentola
Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor - L'Elisir d'Amore
Bellini's I Puritani - Norma
by John Frey
Falling in Love with Opera is a video course on Bel canto (beautiful song) opera. It encompasses the operas of three great Italian opera composers - Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini. Bel canto emphasizes beauty of tone and mastery of technique with legato phrasing. The arias feature elaborate ornamentation — trills, runs, turns, roulades, staccato, rapid scales, brilliant cadenzas — in short, coloratura. The Bel canto era witnessed the rise to singing supremacy of the prima donna soprano and the virtuoso tenor.
The course consists of six sessions - each of which includes a 30-minute commentary and a two-hour video segment from one of the operas. You will listen to such famous arias as "Una voce poco fa," and "Casta diva" sung by Bartoli and Cedolins, as well as the famous sextet and mad scene from Lucia. All operas are sung in the original Italian with English subtitles. The course syllabus includes an analysis of each opera and a description of its story and characters.
The six sessions meet at the PG&E Energy Education Center at 6588 Ontario Road (off 101 at San Luis Bay Drive), Tuesdays - January 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 and February 14. All classes run from 10 AM until 12:30 PM. The charge is $25 for the entire six-session course or $5 for a single session. To register, phone 805-541-5369 or send a check addressed to OperaSLO-Belcanto at PO Box 14760. Checks will also be accepted at each session.
All proceeds go to support OperaSLO. For specific questions and additional information please email John Frey or phone 549-0721.
The Met: Live in HD
The Met Live in HD 2011-2012 season continues with three showings in January 2012 at the Performing Arts Center San Luis Obispo.
Handel's Rodelinda will be shown at 2 PM on Sunday, January 8. Star soprano Renée Fleming reprises her stunning portrayal of the title role of Rodelinda. As the loyal queen who refuses to betray her husband, she stars opposite a cast of outstanding Baroque singers, including Stephanie Blythe, Andreas Scholl, Iestyn Davies, and Joseph Kaiser. Harry Bicket conducts the Met's acclaimed production.
Gounod's Faust will be shown at 2 PM on Sunday. January 15. With Jonas Kaufmann in the title role, René Pape as the devil, and Marina Poplavskaya as Marguerite, Gounod's classic retelling of the Faust legend couldn't be better served. Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff updates the story to the first half of the 20th century with a production that won praise in London last season. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts on the heels of his Don Carlo success.
The Enchanted Island
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The Enchanted Island
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Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, & Others
The Enchanted Island– World Premiere will be shown on Saturday, January 21 at 9:55 AM. In one extraordinary new work, lovers of Baroque opera have it all: the world's best singers, glorious music of the Baroque masters, and a story drawn from Shakespeare. In The Enchanted Island, the lovers from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream are shipwrecked on his other-worldly island of The Tempest. Inspired by the musical
pastiches and masques of the 18th century, the work showcases arias and ensembles by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, and others, and a new libretto devised and written by Jeremy Sams. Eminent conductor William Christie leads an all-star cast with David Daniels (Prospero) and Joyce DiDonato (Sycorax) as the formidable foes, Plácido Domingo as Neptune, Danielle de Niese as Ariel, and Luca Pisaroni as Caliban. Lisette Oropesa and Anthony Roth Costanzo play Miranda and Ferdinand. The dazzling production is directed and designed by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch.
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