Cornelia Street Cafe

dell’Arte Opera Ensemble

presents Violetta and her Sisters: Season Preview

at Cornelia Street Café on July 26, 2016 at 6pm

 

dell’Arte Opera Ensemble presents the company’s August 2016 Season Pre-Season Events. Prepare to revel in a world of festivity, sensuality, and high drama in Paris’s storied past with fun and engaging activities leading up to the company's season entitled Violetta & her Sisters.  For more information visit: http://www.dellarteopera.org/season.php5?p=74.

 

Violetta and her Sisters: Season Preview
Tuesday, July 26 at 6pm, Cornelia Street Cafe, 29 Cornelia St.
TICKETS: $10 cover/$10 minimum.

Talented cast members perform excerpts from August festival programming, hosted by Lisa Flanagan.

 

The season continues with Violetta & her Sisters featuring Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata, Jules Massenet’s Manon, a semi-staged Scenes from the demi-monde, with excerpts from Puccini’s La Rondine and Leoncavallo’s La bohème, and a recital featuring the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, with settings by Debussy, Fauré, Duparc, Vierne, d’Indy, Loeffler and others.

 

Violetta & her Sisters will be performed in The Rose Nagelberg Theater at the Baruch Performing Arts Center, with 14 performances from August 13-28, 2016. La traviata will be performed on August 13-14, 25, and 27 at 7:30pm, and August 20-21 at 2pm; Manon on August 20, 22, 24, 26 at 7:30pm and August 28 at 2pm; Scenes from the demi-monde on August 19 and 23 at 7:30pm and a very special recital Chansons de Baudelaire August 27 at 2pm. 

 

“This season promises to be our very finest, as we institute a new Opera Leaders Mentorship Program, through which our young stage directors, stage managers, designers, conductors, and pianists will receive expert guidance ‘on the job,’" said Chris Fecteau, artistic director of dell’Arte Opera Ensemble. “Our vocal artists will enjoy a larger orchestra and more generous coaching allotments than in previous years. We know our audiences will feel the difference.”

 

Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata (libretto by Francesco Maria Paive) will be conducted by John Spencer IV and directed by Kyle Pfortmiller, featuring Bonnie Frauenthal, Margaret Newcomb, Jeremy Brauner, Jose Heredia, Jeremiah Johnson, Paul Khoury, Magda Gartner, Hillary Grobe, Natasha Nelson, Ileana Santamaria, Ting Li, Chris Lilley, Nobuki Momma, Kofi Hayford, and Nick Webb; Jules Massenet’s Manon (libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille) will be conducted by Chris Fecteau and directed by Victoria Crutchfield, featuring Olivia Betzen, Sean Christensen, Stan Lacy, Nick Webb, Ting Li, Nobuki Momma, Kristina Malinauskaite, Perri Sussman, Magda Gartner, and Kofi Hayford; Scenes from the demi-monde will be directed by Joule Voelz and Brittany Goodwin, and conducted by David Štech.  Scenic design for the season by Courtney Nelson, costume design by Carly Bradt (Traviata) and Nina Bova (Manon), and lighting design by Mary Ellen Stebbins.

 

About dell’Arte Opera Ensemble 

The gap between academic training and a flourishing career is wide, and few singers can bridge it without the kind of assistance that dell’Arte Opera Ensemble has been providing in New York City at no cost to singers for the past twelve years. The company’s dual mission is to nurture emerging opera artists through rehearsal and performance opportunities, seminars, and master classes, and to attract new audiences by offering them high-quality opera presentations featuring exciting young artists at little-or no-cost. Our emphasis is on ‘learning by doing,’ backed by the philosophy that only superior craft creates great art.  dell’Arte is committed to the essential building blocks of opera: great singing, great music, and great acting. Singers working with dell’Arte range from those who have just exited school to those pursuing regional careers and even to those performing on the roster of The Metropolitan Opera.  Participating singers attend master classes, receive private coaching, enjoy the support of enthusiastic and talented colleagues, and collaborate with professional instrumentalists, culminating in a highly enriching performance experience.  Audiences enjoy the fresh excitement of experiencing role debuts and witnessing important landmarks in each singer’s artistic process.  www.dellarteopera.org

 

 

TO THE DEATH OF MY OWN FAMILY is an intensely dramatic non-linear play about an Afghan-American woman who returns to the land she fled with her mother as a child to help her father escape, and then has to justify her journey, reclaim her citizenship, and relive lives lost, during an interrogation when she comes home to the United States.

DAVID L. METH is an O'Neill finalist who has been produced nationally. For more information, please visit: http://web.mac.com/dlm67

TREZANA BEVERLEY: Winner of the 1976 Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway show "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rain Is Enuf". Among the highlights of her distinguished acting career are: Mother Courage, A Raisin In The Sun, Flyin' West, Peer Gynt and Macbeth. In film: Beloved, Resurection, Carolina Skeletons and Margaret and the Saturday Night Ladies. Among her directing credits are: Spell# 7, Native Son, In The Blood, From The Mississippi Delta, Pecong, The Trojan Woman, Salome, String Of Pearls, and The Bluest Eye.

FARAH BALA origninated the role of "Nadeema" and resides in New York City. She is a founding member of Q Theatre Productions in her hometown Bombay, India. Theatre credits include Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Sylvia in Two Gentlemen of Verona, Letters to Baghdad, Fear Up, and 9/12. Film credits include Karma, Confessions and Holi. She is affiliated with Sports and Arts in Schools Foundation.

Storytelling stripped to the bare essentials, Conner's Metamorphoses returns audiences to the very well-springs of the Western storytelling tradition. Conceiving, translating and adapting from Ovid, Conner reaches even further back than his ancient Roman source material to explore the poetic/rhapsodic tradition from which Ovid drew his inspiration. With only his voice, body, a few props, a minimum of light, and a harp (for which he also composed accompaniment), Conner's performance is a powerful reminder that in our age of relentless over-mediation and mass-entertainment, the human being remains the essential medium of artistic expression.

L.A. Weekly called Todd Conner "...a masterful storyteller with a body that twists into vivid physical images...." The Minneapolis Star-Tribune wrote that "...Conner proves that you don't need lots of fancy, special effects to create an atmosphere." Entertainment Weekly in L.A. described Metamorphoses as "...an absolute pleasure and perfect way to spend a night. A grand combination of art and entertainment, this play is as magical as the characters it portrays...this play is delivered from the gods."

Todd Conner, in addition to being a performer, is an award-winning playwright and accomplished stage director. He was a recipient of the L.A. Weekly Award for his acting work in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? at the Greenway Court Theatre in Hollywood, CA. His screenplay (with director Miguel Rueda) and performance in the film One Two Three... helped to merit an official selection and finalist mention in both the 2003 Hollywood Film Festival and Showtime Latino Filmmakers' Showcase.

RESERVATIONS STRONGLY URGED at 917.294.8310