Call for Volunteers . . .
Enjoy meeting others in Rochester's opera community and contributing to the availability of opera activities by volunteering for the Opera Guild! Currently there are two jobs posted: Event Host or Hostess and Assistant Publisher. Click on a link for the job descriptions.
Let us know of your interest by contacting Carol Crocca, President, at [email protected]
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Edition Viva Voce, February 2018
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The Opera Guild of Rochester, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization with a mission to support opera and opera education in the greater Rochester area.
The Guild presents free opera lectures at local libraries, tours to productions of local opera companies and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and our popular Beat-the-Blahs, Haskell Rosenberg Memorial Series, at Temple B'rith Kodesh in Brighton.
This newsletter is sent via eMail each month, currently to over 3,000 subscribers. For a free subscription send your contact details, including your eMail address, to [email protected].
Our Website and Facebook pages serve as a clearinghouse for local and regional opera, concert, and recital information, with links to other music organizations in our area. Please visit our Website at operaguildofrochester.org.
For up-to-date information on opera-related news and events, please visit us on facebook.com/OperaGuildofRochester.
Reader Article submission deadline for the next issue is the 15th of the previous month.
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Feb 17, Rigoletto at The Little
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Friends of Eastman Opera
17th Annual Voice Competition
Friends of Eastman Opera is proud to announce the Seventeenth Annual Voice Competition with opera singer extraordinaire, actor, director and teacher, Catherine Malfitano, as this year's adjudicator.
This year's competition will take place on Friday, February 9, 2017 at 8 pm in Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music. A reception follows immediately on the Cominsky Promenade. The public is cordially invited to attend this memorable and exciting event. Admission is free.
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Eastman Opera
2017-2018 Calendar
Les Enfants Terribles* (1996)
by Philip Glass and Susan Marshall
Adapted from the Jean Cocteau Novel and 1950 French Film
February 1, 2, 3 at 7:30 p.m.
February 4 at 2:00 p.m.
804 Black Box Theatre
See our
Web site for more information.
Friends of Eastman Opera
Voice Competition
February 9 at 8:00 p.m.
Kilbourn Hall
The Light in the Piazza *
by Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas
Based on the novella by Elizabeth Spencer
April 5, 6, 7 at 7:30 p.m.
April 8 at 2:00 p.m.
Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre
OPERA SCENES
May 5 at 7:30 p.m.
May 6 at 2:00 p.m.
804 Black Box Theatre
*Tickets sold through the
Eastman Theatre Box Office
433 East Main St., Rochester NY
585-274-3000
Pre-performance Talks one hour
before each Eastman Opera Theatre
performance except April 5
Information about upcoming
Eastman concerts and events can be found at
www.esm.rochester.edu/concerts
www.esm.rochester.edu/voice
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Granger Eastman Salon Series |
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The Granger Eastman Salon Series seeks to provide an encouraging performance space for Eastman voice students in the greater Rochester area. This semester's recitals are as follows:
February 18th at 2pm: Songs of Love
March 23rd at 8pm: The Light in the Piazza: A Night of Musical Theatre
April 27th at 8pm: Songs of Summer
Performances will be held at
Granger Homestead and Carriage Museum,
295 N Main St, Canandaigua, NY 14424
(585) 394-1472
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Eastman Opera Special Event
Frederica von Stade in recital with Anthony Dean Griffey
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The Eastman School of Music is thrilled to announce a special recital featuring Frederica von Stade and Eastman's Anthony Dean Griffey on
February 18 at 7 pm in Kilbourn Hall. Tickets for just the recital are available starting at $26. Admission to both the performance and reception is available for $100 with proceeds benefiting the Eastman Voice and Opera Department. Tickets for the recital are on sale now. You may purchase online (
Click Here) or by calling the Eastman Theatre Box Office at 585-274-3000.
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Enjoy the opera at The Little! Here is the 2017-18 Royal Opera House lineup
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Verdi's Rigoletto
Saturday, Feb 17, 12 PM
Tuesday, Feb 20, 6 PM
Join fellow opera fans for informal discussion at a Meet-Up in the café after the Saturday screening.
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Puccini's Tosca
Saturday, Mar 3, 12 PM
Tuesday, Mar 6, 6 PM
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Bizet's Carmen
Saturday, Apr 14, 12 PM
Wednesday, Apr 18, 6 PM
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Verdi's Macbeth
Sunday, May 27, 12 PM
Tuesday, May 29, 6 PM
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2017-2018 'Doomed Divas' season!
Verdi's La traviata
Feb 2 at 8 PM
Feb 4 at 2 PM
Soprano Raquel Gonzalez and tenor Andrew Maughan (Eugene Onegin) return to bring Verdi's gorgeous score to life. Directed by Stephanie Havey (Rigoletto) and conducted by Christian Capocaccia.
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Puccini's Madama Butterfly (Opera Guild spring trip)
April 13 at 8 PM
April 15 at 2 PM
Soprano Toni Marie Palmertree, having debuted the role of Butterfly at San Francisco Opera in 2016, will reprise the role for Syracuse Opera. CNY native Dinyar Vania returns to play Pinkerton, with baritone Troy Cook (Eugene Onegin) as Sharpless, the American Consul. Glenn Lewis of Pittsburgh Opera will conduct, with Alison Moritz making her Syracuse Opera debut as stage director.
For more information about the trip to Madama Butterfly Click Here.
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Tickets from $26 to $206, student tickets, $10.
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2017 - 2018 Season
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Terrence McNally Master Class
February 23, 24 7:30 PM
February 25, 3:00 PM
Tri-Cities Opera Center
Peter Brook and Georges Bizet The Tragedy of Carmen
April 27, May 4, 7:30 PM
April 29, May 6, 3:00 PM
Tri-Cities Opera Center
For tickets and information call (607) 772-0400 or go to http://www.tricitiesopera.com
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GUILD OPERA LECTURES
NOTE CHANGE FROM BROCHURE ON MARCH 19
Brighton Memorial Library
2300 Elmwood Avenue
Rochester, NY 14618
585-784-5310
All lectures are on Mondays from 7-9 pm
Feb. 26 - E Pluribus Unum: Operatic Ensembles
Art Axelrod
Mar. 5 - Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro
Peter Dundas
Mar. 12 - Obsessive Love in Massenet's Operas
Agneta Borgstedt
Mar. 19 - Verdi's La traviata (Who Was She? Among Other Questions Answered)
Carol Crocca
Mar. 26 - Puccini's Turandot
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Metropolitan Opera HD Season 2017-2018
See our docents' essays on the composer and background of the operas in the Viva Voce issue published in the beginning of the broadcast month. These essays can also be found on our Website. Click Here to peruse the collection.
Gaetano Donizetti, L'Elisir d'Amore
Sat, Feb 10, 2018 12:00 PM
A Bartlett Sher production, starring Pretty Yende as Adina, Matthew Polenzani as Nemorino, David Luciano as Belcore, and Ildebrando D'Arcangelo as Dulcamara. Domingo Hindoyan will conduct.
Giacomo Puccini, La Bohème
Sat, Feb 24, 2018 12:30 PM
Franco Zeffirelli's classic production, starring Sonya Yoncheva as Mimi, Susanna Phillips as Musetta, Michael Fabiano as Rodolfo and Lucas Meachem as Marcello. Marco Armiliato will conduct.
Gioachino Rossini, Semiramide
Sat, Mar 10, 2018 12:55 PM
Its first appearance at the Met in almost 25 years, starring Angela Meade as Semiramide, the murderous Queen of Babylon, Elizabeth DeShong as Arsace, Javier Camarena (the current "King of the High C's") as Idreno, Ildar Abdrazakov as Assur and Ryan Green as Mitrane. Maurizio Benini will conduct.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Così fan tutte
Sat, Mar 31, 2018 12:55 PM
A new production by Phelim McDermott set in Coney Island in the 1950's, starring Amanda Majeski as Fiordiligi, Serena Malfi as Dorabella, Broadway star Kelli O'Hara as Despina, Ken Bliss as Ferrando, Adam Plachetka as Guglielmo and Christopher Maltman as Don Alfonso. David Robertson will conduct.
Giuseppe Verdi, Luisa Miller
Sat, Apr 14, 2018 12:30 PM
Its first Met performance in more than 10 years, starring Sonya Yoncheva as Luisa, Piotr Beczala as Rodolfo, Olesya Petrova as Federica, Placido Domingo as Miller, Alexander Vinogradov as Walter and Dmitry Belosselskiy as Wurm. James Levine will conduct.
Jules Massenet, Cendrillon
Sat, Apr 28, 2018 12:55 PM
Its premier at the Met in an imaginative, new storybook production by Laurent Pelly, starring Joyce DiDonato as Cendrillon (Cinderella), Alice Coote (in a trouser role) as Prince Charming, Kathleen Kim as the Fairy Godmother and Stephanie Blythe as Madame de la Haltiere. Bertrand de Billy will conduct.
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Lotte Lenya Competition
April 14, 2018
Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School of Music
Finals usually 11 am to 4 pm; evening concert and announcement of winners to follow.
All free and open to the public - watch for further details
2018 is the 20th anniversary of the Lotte Lenya Competition, an international event intended to identify and nurture the next generation of performers who are multi-trained and -gifted in opera and musical theater.
The talent and versatility these young artists display is truly amazing. At the day-time performance, each must present a number from each of the following: opera or operetta, the works of Kurt Weill, a pre-1968 musical; a post-1968 musical.
This year, the semifinalists will perform in New York City for judges Lisa Vroman, musical theater star, and Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori. In Rochester, the finals round will be judged by Tony Award-winning actress and singer Victoria Clark, opera and music theater conductor James Holmes, and Broadway director, producer and author Jack Viertel. A total of $75,000 in prize money will be awarded.
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Rigoletto
FEBRUARY 7 to FEBRUARY 24, 2018
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The Abduction from the Seraglio
FEBRUARY 7 TO 24, 2018
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The Nightingale and Other Short Fables
APRIL 13 TO MAY 19, 2018
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Anna Bolena
APRIL 28 TO MAY 26, 2018
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To buy individual or subscription tickets Click Here
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ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF MEDICINE AFTERNOON CONCERT SERIES
1441 East Avenue
Rochester, NY 14610
Sundays at 2 pm. March 4, April 8
Rebecca Penneys, piano
Stefan Reuss, cello
Mikhail Kopelman, violin
Doors open at 1:15. Tickets are $35 at the door for non-members and subscriptions are available.
Go to www.raom.org or contact Lydia N.C. Nicolson at 585-271-1314 or [email protected] for more information.
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CLASSICAL IDOL INTERNATIONAL VOCAL COMPETITION
Saturday, April 28, 7:30 pm
Temple B'rith Kodesh, 2131 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester
The 12th annual voice competition, featuring 9 finalists performing opera, art song, and oratorio. Distinguished judges offer constructive commentary to these young artists, and Julia Figueras of WXXI emcees the event.
Tickets ($75) are available online click here.
Or through the ROS Box Office, (585) 473-2234.
Contact the office for tables of up to 8 guests.
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Donations
Thanks to those who responded to our call for support of Viva Voce.
As an Amici, your contribution in any amount is greatly appreciated. All donation levels receive an invitation to the Annual Recital (see the following article); those listed below will be given priority until a date specified on the invitation.
Chorus: $60-$99
Comprimario: $100-$149, one additional recital invitation.
Primo: $150-$199, $20 discount on trip (except to New York City).
Maestro: $200-$299, $30 discount on trip (except to New York City).
Impresario: $300 or more, $30 discount on trip (except to New York City); two additional recital invitations.
To donate online go to
http://operaguildofrochester.org/donate.html
and scroll down until you find the PayPal link.
You may also mail a check to Opera Guild of Rochester, P.O. Box 92245, Rochester, NY 14692-0245. Please include an email or other address for your tax receipt.
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Opera Guild of Rochester Annual Recital for Donors
Sunday May 20, 2018, 2 p.m.
Rochester Academy of Medicine, 1441 East Ave.
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This year our recitalist is tenor Mark Daniels, accompanied by pianist Rob Goodling.
Mr Daniels is a versatile tenor who hails from Kennebunk, Maine. His early studies were with David Goulet in Portland, Maine, where he made his professional debut as Charlie Dalrymple in Lerner and Loewe's
Brigadoon. Mr. Daniels continued his studies at the Eastman School of Music in the studio of Rita Shane, where he made his Eastman Opera Theater operatic debut as Sam in Carlisle Floyd's
Susannah. He performed the role of Ferrando in Mozart's
Cosi fan tutte in Urbania, Italy, with Benton Hess's Oberlin in Italy program and again in Buffalo, New York, with Buffalo Opera Unlimited. Other roles have included Danilo in Lehar's
The Merry Widow with Buffalo Opera Unlimited, Nemorino in Donizetti's
L'Elisir d'Amore with Genesse Valley Orchestra and Chorus, and Bingley in the world premier performance and recording of Amanda Jacobs and Lindsay Warren Baker's
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Mr. Daniels was the tenor soloist in J. S. Bach's
Magnificat with the Finger Lakes Chorale under the direction of John Walker, and Great Lakes Productions created a show around him called "
A Tenor," which he preformed for two years throughout the Rochester area and upstate New York with the "Tuscan Trio and Two Sopranos."
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Mark Daniels' recital will include tenor arias by Donizetti, Tchaikovsky and Verdi as well as a collection of Neapolitan folk songs.
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Opera Essays
This section brings you articles written by Opera Guild docents. Previously distributed at HD performances, these, along with other essays, are now published in Viva Voce in the beginning of the broadcast month, which issues are also available on the Website.
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Mixing an Elixir: A Bubbly Cocktail of "Upper-Attic" Fun
Rachel Stuhlman
Every good opera deserves a satire, and a great comic opera deserves to be lampooned by a master of wit and wordplay. Such is the happy fate of Donizetti's
L'elisir d'amore.
Elixir of Love is a concoction of soprano, tenor, baritone and bass. In this iteration of a familiar plot derived from Italy's
commedia dell'arte tradition the composer and his expert librettist Felice Romani breathed new life into the formulaic characters. The spunky soprano Adina is the love interest of the illiterate love-stuck tenor Nemorino, our hero. His nemesis is the strutting baritone Sargent Belcore, and the plot moves along with the entrance of Dr. Dulcamara, a comic basso-buffo role, the self-important humbug who meets his match in the clever and quick-witted heroine.
As to the lampoon, in December of 1866, thirty-five years after the opera's premier, these characters had an encore performance on the London stage in Dulcamara; or The Little Duck and the Great Quack. The little duck was Adina, and the big quack, of course, that outrageous fraud Dr. Dulcamara. The audience would have understood the wordplay. "My little duck" may no longer be a common expression of endearment, but "just ducky" survives in our vocabulary. And the puns continue with the cast of characters: Adina, "the little duck, who, it is hoped, will nevertheless be found to be very long in the bill," - the playbill, that is; Nemorino, "a Neapolitan peasant, of whom you will hear more peasantly." The writer of this affectionate take-off on L'elisir added another principal character to the plot: Beppo, Dulcamara's "Jack-pudding - a mystery, whose real nature is concealed by a mysterious Pike-crust." 'Jack pudding' was the term used for the sidekick of a huckstering charlatan; his true identity is hidden within a fish pie. It gets worse from there. In the denouement, this rather 'crusty' fellow is revealed to be none other than Dulcamara's long lost mother.
The plot follows that of the opera with certain comic deviations.
You're in a village during harvest time,
Where all the humblest peasants talk in rhyme,
And sing about their pleasures and their cares
In parodies on all the well-known airs.
And so it proceeds in rhymed couplets. The ditties with their excruciating puns were set to popular tunes of the day: Hot Corn, Champagne Charley is My Name, Jog Along Boys and "La tremenda ultrice spada." This last, used for Belcore's entrance in the parody "For this welcome, unrivalled in story" would have been immediately recognizable to the audience as one of the hit tunes of Vincenzo Bellini's 1830 lyric tragedy I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues) based on the story of Romeo and Juliet. Other operatic arias are quoted: the song for Dulcamara and Chorus - "Buy my goods, as I'm advising" is set to the tune of that delightful barcarole "Io son ricco" from L'elisir d'amore; a trio for Nemorino, Belcore, and Adina - "Right away I'll tod-tod-tod-tod-toddle" is sung to the music of "Esulti pur la Barbara," also from L'elisir. Clearly the London audience was familiar with Italian opera and happy to hear the music repurposed for comic effect.
In all, Dulcamara; or The Little Duck and the Great Quack is a work of punderful fun and fundable puns - although the funding was decidedly modest for its little-known author, a certain William Schwenck Gilbert. When he wrote it, Mr. Gilbert was a thirty-two year old disenchanted London barrister best known for his humorous weekly column published by Fun magazine, complete with his own caricature drawings. As Christmas approached he landed a rush job to write a piece for the holiday entertainment at the St. James's Theatre. The subject was of his own choosing, and he knocked it off in 10 days. The assignment unleashed his imagination and sent him spinning into a world of mischievous but innocent, linguistically playful theater pieces full of topical allusions. Dulcamara ran for 120 nights. It was to be the first of his many successes.
Before his name was forever linked with Sir Arthur Sullivan's, the young W.S. Gilbert learned his craft by writing pantomimes and burlesques to entertain the London public. Dulcamara was the first of Gilbert's several "Upper-attic" romps. The following year he produced La Vivandière; or, True to the Corps!, an affectionate parody of Donizetti's La fille du régiment (The Daughter of the Regiment). The punning subtitle referred to a popular melodrama, True to the Core; A Story of the Armada, and once more Donizetti's music was fitted to entirely incongruous words. This was followed by Robert the Devil, or The Nun, the Dun, and the Son of a Gun, a work that successfully deflated the pretentions of Meyerbeer's warhorse Robert le Diable. Finally, Bellini's Norma got its send up in The Pretty Druidess; Or, The Mother, The Maid, and The Mistletoe Bough. In these early pieces W.S. Gilbert first worked out the humor, absurd plot lines and comic characters he would later elaborate in the great Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan.
Norma shall have the last word:
So for burlesque I plead. Forgive our rhymes;
Forgive the jokes you've heard five thousand times;
Forgive each breakdown, cellar-flap, and clog,
[Three types of dance popular in burlesque]
Our low-bred songs - our slangy dialogue;
And, above all - oh, ye with double barrel -
Forgive the scantiness of our apparel!
Luckily for us, no censorious critic leveled his double-barreled shotgun at Gilbert as he went barreling along, taking the English language with him.
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Heavenly Lunacy: La bohème and Moonstruck
Carol Crocca
Many of you will be familiar with the movie Moonstruck and its close connection to opera, in particular, La bohème. (If you haven't seen the movie, I recommend it, although it may be one of those movies one either loves or hates.) Having tired of writing about Puccini, I thought I would write about these two wonderful examples of their genres in relation to each other.
Of course, opera has been used a lot in films, and for various purposes. But why opera for this film? First of all, the screenwriter, Gary Shanley, said that he conceived of life as an opera. Secondly, he grew up in New York City in a neighborhood with lots of Italian families and wished he were in one of them - he loved their volubility, warmth, and the way arguing and even fighting did not alter their affection and commitment to one another.* Opera fits Italians like a glove - it's their national art form. And why Bohème? (aside of course from beautiful music). Well, Moonstruck and Bohème are both love stories, that connection is obvious. But it is a love story about at least two and possibly three couples (shades of opera buffa) and the drama is completely embedded in - what else? LA FAMIGLIA. This is an ensemble movie if ever there were one. And there is nothing more like a family, although a single generation one, than the group of students in Bohème, who suffer poverty together, tease and argue, share their resources, and take care of one another in their most dire moment. The only reason it couldn't take place in Italy is that they would all be living at home with their parents.
But Moonstruck and opera had some difficulty. Director Nornan Jewison relates that he had always thought of the beginning of the movie (New York City shots of Met scenery trucks, etc., while the opening credits roll) accompanied by the music of La bohème.* At the first screening, however, the audience did not respond to the comedy in the movie for about half an hour. Jewison was mystified until one of his editors pointed out, "It's the opera. It puts people off." People were stymied by the unfortunately common reaction to opera as a high-brow recreation of the rich and snooty, and did not know how to respond. Then Jewison and Dick Hyman, the composer of the score, looked through a whole pile of songs, and when they found "That's Amore" by Dean Martin, they knew they had it. ("Whe-e-e-n the moon hits your eye like a big-a pizza pie..."). With that as the opening, the audience knew it was a 'tongue-in-cheek' movie - they could relax and laugh.* So this film also reflects the little-known but long-standing opera tradition of opera making fun of itself.
Opera as a genre also has a meta-significance here (somewhat like "going to Italy" stands for "loosening up" in Room with a View, a movie with the same basic plot). Loretta Castorini (Cher), an accountant in her thirties, attempts to overcome the "bad luck" (read 'mal'occhio' - or evil eye) of her first marriage which ended when her husband was killed by a bus. She superstitiously intends to do everything by the book this time: proposal on the knees, ring, cake, reception; and she's getting engaged to a nice man, Johnnie (Danny Aiello), whom she likes but doesn't love (if she loses him, not quite so much a tragedy). She is jolted off this course by her encounter with her fiance's brother, Ronnie, who loves the opera and is not constrained by social niceties or, necessarily, rationality. To Loretta's opinion that his grudge against his brother is unfair: "I ain't no freaking monument to justice!" Ronnie spends the whole movie countering Loretta's protestations of the wisdom of doing the safe and conventional thing, and taking her to the Met to see Bohème is part of it. His message, movingly conveyed in a poetic "aria" after the opera: love may not bring happiness but if you pass it up you might as well be dead. In opera, don't we remind ourselves that life should be lived passionately?
If Moonstruck were literally an opera, it would be, like Bohème, verismo. Not as in Pagliacci, for example, with jealousy, lust and murder, but in its most fundamental sense: being about the lives, concerns and emotions of ordinary people. And although it's a comedy it's still definitely a 'song of love and death.' The first scene is a funeral parlor where Loretta does the books. (I can't help pointing out here that the undertaker refers to himself as an artist. That seems to me a poke at the actually quite charming habit of Italians, at least in Italy, of making beautiful the little occasions of life, both in their manners and their material accompaniments.) The fiancé's mother is dying in Sicily. Loretta's father, Cosmo, has an obsession with death. In his very over-the-top entrance aria (sorry, monologue!), Ronnie threatens suicide. Death, or the lack of it, is even part of the plot. The fiancé's mother rises from her deathbed on the news that her son is getting married. "It's a miracle!" he exclaims. But now he can't marry Loretta because his mother will die.
In its rootedness in the ordinary lives of the characters, its attention to detail and dialogue, the sets true enough to Brooklyn as it was, the cheerful tunes created by Hyman which stand in perfectly for Neapolitan street music, he and Shanley seem to have channeled Puccini himself in their ability to create ambiance, the sense of the story happening in its own complete world. This was one of Puccini's specialties: his first creation was the world of the struggling Parisian artists, followed by the world of Madama Butterfly and that of The Girl of the Golden West. He was frequently inspired by what to him was exotic, and he had the gift of imagining that world so that his audience could also experience it.
Rather than being ubiquitous, as it so often is today, music is used brilliantly in the film. The love music from the end of Act I appears at appropriate moments. The fanfares from the beginning of Act II are used as Ronnie and Loretta traverse Lincoln Center Plaza towards the entrance to the Met. My favorite, however, is the use of Quando m'en vo, Musetta's waltz, for the passage of the truly Met-sized moon as it moves across the sky to shine in turn into the bedrooms of the three admiring couples: Ronnie and Loretta, Loretta's parents, Cosmo and Rose, and her aunt and uncle, Rita and Raymond. In her waltz, Muzetta sings of strolling down the street while passers-by gaze admiringly at her beauty, the perfect metaphor for the moon in this scene. Dick Hyman, the composer of the score, said that Puccini should really have gotten an award. Moreover, he continued, Puccini was the best collaborator he ever had - didn't give him any trouble at all.*
*Indirect quotes and the anecdote about the choosing of the opening music are taken from the bonus feature "The Music of
Moonstruck" on the DVD
Moonstruck, Deluxe Edition, released in 1987 by Metro-Golden-Mayer on DVD Video.
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From your Opera Guild
We have just completed another successful season of Beat the Blahs, our presentations of opera DVD's on Sunday afternoons in January. We broadened the scope of our offerings a bit this year by including The Cunning Little Vixen by Leos Janáček and Sadko by Rimsky-Korsakov. We are open to suggestion about what to show, so let us know if you have one.
A big challenge the Opera Guild faces is to attract new board members. Three of our current board members are into their eighties, and two are in their later seventies. That's out of a total of seven! We did have a very good new board member last fall, but unfortunately personal circumstances made it necessary for him to resign in December.
If the Guild is to continue, it needs new board members, and if it is to revitalize itself for younger generations, it must have them soon. We need people with various talents, but an extensive (or in some cases, any) knowledge of opera is NOT necessary - just a desire to help the organization fulfill its mission of supporting opera in our community. If you are interested yourself, or know of someone we could approach please contact the Guild at [email protected].
Computer Skills Needed
Electronically publishing the newsletter requires a few fairly sophisticated computer skills and we are fortunate to have two accomplished volunteers working in this capacity. But since it is a job requiring 2-3 days per month on a regular basis, two technical publishers are not enough to make sure we have coverage for times of illness, vacation, computer malfunction, etc. If you have computer skills, please consider helping with this valuable project, even if you cannot, or would prefer not, to work every month. Thanks for your consideration! Just see the beginning of the newsletter to find a job description and how to let us know of your interest.
Please consider the Opera Guild of Rochester among your charitable organizations for 2018. Donations to the Opera Guild of Rochester are fully tax deductible and donors will receive an invitation to the Annual Recital in May 2018, which includes a dessert reception with the artists.
To donate online Click Here. Be sure to scroll down until you find the PayPal link.
Enjoy our free Lecture/Listening series, which you can download from the Website at operaguildofrochester.org by clicking on Reading Room. While at our Website you can also learn about our opera program at Temple B'rith Kodesh, our opera trips to regional opera companies including the Glimmerglass Festival, and our Metropolitan Opera trips.
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