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An elegantly dressed crowd of supporters and guests gathered at The Granada Theatre on Friday night for Opera Santa Barbara’s season opening and the first event for the 21st season with a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s famed Rigoletto.
The story of Rigoletto, played by Evan Brummel in his Opera Santa Barbara debut, is the tale of a hunchbacked jester who is an outsider struggling to find a balance between beauty and evil with a tragic story of seduction, self sacrifice and a curse.
“Written during the most fertile period of Verdi’s remarkable career, the opera resonates with a universality that is frequently called Shakespearean,” said Jose Maria Condemi, Opera Santa Barbara’s artistic director.
Brummel has also performed with Opera San Jose, Virginia Opera and Santa Fe Opera. The role of Rigoletto’s daughter, Gilda, is played by Andrea Carroll, with Cody Austin in the role of the Duke of Mantua. Both are making their debuts with Opera Santa Barbara.
Tickets are still available for the Sunday matinee at 2:30 p.m. Single tickets start at just $28 for Opera Santa Barbara’s 2013-2014 season and season tickets start at $77. Click here for more information or to purchase tickets online, or call 805.898.3890.
A special pre-opera gala dinner was well attended by VIPs in optional black tie and flowing gowns, and included a special three-course dinner provided by Rincon Events and featuring a menu of oven-dried tomatoes, butternut squash ravioli and Chilean seabass. A private intermission reception was held in the McCune Founders Room, which was filled with appetizers, dessert cupcakes and cocktails, featuring the signature Jester’s Revenge cocktail with wines by Palmina.
Future performances from this special community treasure include L’italiana in Algeri the evening of March 6 with a matinee on March 8. Gioachino Rossini’s opera seria mixes humor and charm in a setting with pirates, eunuchs and a palace by the sea where the beautiful Isabella sails off to Algiers in search of her Lindoro, being held as a prisoner by the tyrant Mustafa. A Streetcar Named Desire, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tennessee Williams, will be performed April 24 and 26. Click here to purchas tickets online.
Opera Santa Barbara’s Mosher Studio Artist Program provides valuable training to up-and-coming opera singers with top industry directors, conductors, public performances and coaching in master classes by Kathy Kozak, Catherine Miller and Tatiana Vassilieva.
“It is such a pleasure to thank the Mosher Foundation and Ed and Sue Birch for their recent three-year commitment to sponsor our Studio Artist Program, now appropriately named the Mosher Studio Program,” Opera Santa Barbara general director Steven Sharpe said.
The talented 2014-2015 Mosher Studio Artist Program participants include baritones Daniel Cilli and Elliott Hines; bass Keith Colclough and Zachary Owen; tenors Sergio González, David Margulis, Robert Norman and Tyler Thompson; and sopranos Molly Jane Hill, Mariya Kaganskaya, Emma Lacenski, Rachelle Pike and Molly Wilson. Alumni of the program, now in its seventh year, have gone on to perform worldwide, from Los Angeles to Berlin and Hong Kong.
Some of the popular efforts by Opera Santa Barbara to embrace the community include programs for children and youth, providing critical exposure to this special art form.
Free Noontime Concerts featuring members of the Mosher Studio Artists Program held at Santa Barbara Central Library’s Faulkner Gallery. The presentations begin at noon and last about an hour, with the next ones scheduled for Feb. 11, 18 and 25, and April 1, 8 and 15.
The Opera Lab is not currently scheduled for the remainder of 2014, but a highly interactive education outreach program will be offered in 2015 with the generous support of corporate and individual donations. The program teaches the building blocks of the art form of opera with professional cast members.
The mission of Opera Santa Barbara is to add cultural enrichment by presenting high-quality performances and community programs that showcase the beauty of opera. The evening was a wonderful tribute to the arts.
Click here for more information about Opera Santa Barbara. Click here to make an online donation.
— Noozhawk iSociety columnist Melissa Walker can be reached at mwalker@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkSociety, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.
