California Opera Association

Summer Opera Arts & Education Festival

2011 Performance Event Schedule

California Opera Association continues Fresno’s Festival Fan Favorites for the annual Summer Opera Festival in Fresno. This summer, Festival Fans journey around the world as Festival Artists highlight diverse cultural traditions of opera from East to West. California Opera’s annual Summer Opera Festival starts this weekend – meet and greet the artists traveling to Fresno from around the world to entertain, educate, enlighten and enjoy the friendship and following of Festival Fans.

Enjoy live, fully staged opera at the MET in Clovis on August 7th and 14th. Visit the Fresno Art Museum for the Free Summer Opera Series at the Bonner Auditorium, sponsored by the Bonner family Foundation, starting this weekend. Patrons of any of the Free Summer Opera Series at the Bonner Auditorium will receive a VIP Pass to attend the August 7th and 14th performances at the MET.

July 29th

Festival Artists Showcase

Friday, 7 PM

2233 North 1st Street

Meet and greet opera festival performers, youth through those professional artists who have traveled around the world from countries including China, Japan, Korea, England, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Canada and the United States to share their talents with the Fresno community. Opera Artists present their signature works and enjoy food, fun and fellowship with family, friends, and fans!

July 30th

A Night in Asia

Saturday, 7 PM

2233 North 1st Street

Starting the summer’s international world tour in Asia, an evening featuring new and returning festival artists of China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan gift patrons with songs of their homelands. Complimenting the evening is an encore performance by the 2010 cast of the Madama Butterfly performance tour, that was praised for it’s outstanding ensemble, ingenious staging, and exceptional casting, creating a realistic portrayal of the infamous characters that moved us all.

July 31st

Bluebeard’s Castle

Sunday, 2 PM

2233 North 1st Street

The opera festival travels to Hungary for Bartok’s only opera. The psychologically thrilling folk tale from Béla Bartóktakes place as Judith (British Soprano Angelina Billington) leaves her previous life to be with Bluebeard (Baritone Nicolaus Schiffman) in his castle as his newest bride. Upon entering the castle she notices seven locked doors. She insists on knowing what is behind the doors so Bluebeard reluctantly gives her a key to each door. He begs her not to open the last two doors, but her curiosity soon prevails. The electric duo of Billington and Schiffman has been decribed by critics as "sizzle on stage."

August 5th

Destination Deutschland

Friday, 7 PM

2233 North 1st Street

On this summer’s international journey, the tour stops in Germany - among other features of the evening, Festival artists highlight Die tote Stadt (German translation - The Dead City) that premiered in 1920, when composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, at 23 years old, had two other one-act operas already to his name. The success of his earlier works was so great that Die tote Stadt was subject to fierce competition among German theaters for the right to the world premiere. One of the greatest hits of the 1920s, the work was banned by the Nazi régime due to Korngold’s Jewish ancestry, then fell into obscurity until recent revival.

August 6th

An Evening in Memory

Saturday, 7 PM

2233 North 1st Street

Each year, California Opera honors those beloved members, patrons and performers who departed throughout the year. Continuing the summer opera’s international tour, set in a pearl-fishing village in Ceylon (today’s Sri Lanka), French composer Bizet’s “other opera” The Pearl Fishers (Original French title: Les Pêcheurs de perles) is a highlight of the evening, sharing a story about choosing friendship over the love of a woman and a priestess who prays for the safety of the pearl fishers.

August 7th

Sunday, 2 PM

Lucia di Lammermoor

Mercedes Edwards Theatre

902 Fifth Street, Clovis, CA

The opera festival stops in Scotland for the Mainstage Performance of the fully staged opera Lucia di Lammermoor at the Mercedes Edwards Theatre in Clovis. Complimentary VIP Passes will be made available to all audience members of any of the Bonner Auditorium Summer Opera Series events.

August 12th

From Sea to Shining Sea

Friday, 7 PM

2233 North 1st Street

From Broadway to the American Opera Stage, festival artists showcase their favorite American works of musical theatre, operetta, and American opera composers. Bright young artists with exceptional musical theater talent perform from their best loved great American productions, as veteran opera artists bring audiences a slice of the 20th century American opera experience.

August 13th

Festival Finale

Saturday, 7 PM

2233 North 1st Street

The concluding program of the Bonner Auditorium Summer Opera Series, the evening stops in Italy honoring the opera works of Giuseppe Verdi, including highlights of Othello, Aida, Un Ballo in Maschera and Don Carlos, celebrating the culminating summer accomplishments of featured festival artists, under the direction of internationally acclaimed trainers and directors.

August 14th

Cosi fan tutte

Sunday, 2 PM

Mercedes Edwards Theatre

902 Fifth Street, Clovis, CA

The opera festival finale ends meeting Mozart in Austria for the Mainstage Performance of the fully staged opera Cosi fan tutte originally set in Naples, presented at the Mercedes Edwards Theatre in Clovis. Complimentary VIP Passes will be made available to all audience members of any of the Bonner Auditorium Summer Opera Series events.

Summer Opera Arts & Education Festival

2010 Performance Event Schedule

California Opera Association presents Fresno’s Festival Fan Favorites for the annual Summer Opera Festival in Fresno. Surveys collected indicate that Fresno has its favorites. Contemporary premieres top the list, along with Menotti, Puccini and Verdi. Of course, one fabulous fan favorite is that all summer opera events are free to the public, sponsored in part by the Community Enrichment Program of the Fresno Arts Council and the Bonner Family Foundation, to promote the education, exposure and appreciation of the art form. Join us this summer; and for the Festival Finales, Enjoy Opera at the MET!

July 25, Sunday 4 PM
St. George Greek Orthodox Church
6 PM Dinner Event and Reception
Meet & Greet The Artists
2219 N. Orchard St., Fresno CA 93703
Meet & Greet the 2010 opera festival participants, singers, staff and faculty at the first opening dinner and public concert event. The evening will honor the recently departed California Opera Vice-president Matthew Marovich, founding California Opera member Marie Torigian, and dedicated California opera members, Fresno voice teacher Harriett Gladys Aloojian, and CSU Fresno Armenian studies professor and translator of Armenian music Dr. Arra Avakian!

July 30, Friday 7 PM
Fresno Art Museum, Bonner Auditorium
2233 North First St., Fresno CA 93703

“Lady Macbeth”
Thomas Pasatieri

A 2007 "monodrama," featuring Allison Saleh by modern day composer, Thomas Pasatieri, best known for his many operas that have become standards in American vocal repertoire. The text draws its inspiration from the monologues of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Heartfelt, dramatic, Pasatieri brings the words of Shakespeare alive in a ravishing new setting.

“Padrevia”
Thomas Pasatieri

Through the eyes of a present-day narrator, we are introduced to the ruins of the domain once known as Padrevia. With libretto based on a story from the Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio, isolation becomes loneliness for a young princess, until she meets a young gardener. Cambridge graduate, British soprano Angelina Billington returns to Fresno from performances throughout Europe to portray Gismonda. Baritone Nikolaus Schiffmann, returns as Tancred. Introducing to Fresno audiences tenor Christopher Anderson West as Guiscardo. Local charmer Constantine Pappas and Nicaraguan tenor Rick Garcia are guards. Greek opera historian, soprano Ioanna Sfekas-Karvelas narrates this performance which is the first of the work to be recorded. Thomas Pasatieri, an accomplished pianist and performer by the age of ten and a composer at age fifteen, was born in New York, entered The Juilliard School at age sixteen and eventually became the school's first recipient of a doctoral degree.

July 31, Saturday

Fresno Art Museum, Bonner Auditorium
2233 North First St., Fresno CA 93703

7PM Performance

“The Telephone”
Gian Carlo Menotti

Menotti weekend brings the return of festival favorite and romantic, Ben (Baritone Constantine Pappas) who would desperately like to ask Lucy (Soprano Suzanna Mizell) to marry him but she is distracted by a technological love rival. The fully staged one act opera is accompanied by scenes from Menotti operas, including The Consul and The Old Maid and the Thief.

August 1, Sunday
2PM Performance

Fresno Art Museum, Bonner Auditorium
2233 North First St., Fresno CA 93703

“The Medium”
Gian Carlo Menotti

Madame Flora (Featuring Ioanna Sfekas-Karvelas from Lesvos, Greece) with the help of her daughter Monica (California Opera Soprano Suzanna Mizell) and a mute servant Toby (Nicaraguan artist Ricky Garcia), tries to cheat her clients through faked seances. She is touched herself by a hand during one of them, an occurrence she cannot explain. University of Virginia newcomer, Soprano Lisa Newill-Smith, Kirsten Anderson, and Fresno Baritone Constantine Pappas complete the cast. The Broadway production of The Medium and The Telephone made Menotti a household name.

5:30PM-7 PM Summer Sing Reception

Dean’s Gallery, CSUF Music Building

7 PM Performance, Wahlberg Hall

California Opera Presents: “Magic to Mayhem”

California Opera presents our junior through teen summer opera participants in the annual young artists festival showcase, featuring beloved opera scenes along with youth inspired operetta, Broadway and musical theatre favorites.

August 6, Friday 7 PM Performance

Mercedes Edwards Theater
902 5th Street, Clovis, CA 93611

“La Traviata” (Verdi)

A party - jealousy - a dizzy spell - undying love - tossing away the family fortune - being as vindictive as possible - longing for reconciliation - dear old dad - rekindling the flames of love – a melodramatic operatic ending – where would opera be without such a slice of life? The day after the first 1853 performace, Verdi wrote to his friend Muzio in what has now become perhaps his most famous letter: "La Traviata last night [was] a failure. My fault or the singers'? Time will tell." La Traviata continues to remain among the top ten most popular operas performed. At the top of the Festival Fan’s Favorites, audiences appealed to opera staff for the return of Jamie Bonetto as Violetta in La Traviata, boasting Fresno’s favorite tenor, Zachary Sheely, and introducing audiences to Visalia Baritone Limuel Forgey as Giorgio Germont. Newcomers to the California opera festival perform supporting roles including Heidi Harger (Annina), Christopher Anderson West (Gastone). Leanna Sterios-Primiani conducts the chamber opera orchestra of this fully staged production.

August 7, Saturday 7 PM

Fresno Art Museum, Bonner Auditorium
2233 North First St., Fresno CA 93703

California Opera Presents:

“A Celebration of Life - Summer Nights”

Ioanna Sfekas-Karvelas presents the song cycle by Hector Berlioz, Les nuits d'été (Summer Nights) op. 7 joined by opera faculty and staff as we honor our recently departed California Opera Vice-president Matthew Marovich, founding California Opera member Marie Torigian, and dedicated California opera members, Fresno voice teacher Harriett Gladys Aloojian, and CSU Fresno Armenian studies professor and translator of Armenian music Dr. Arra Avakian!

August 8, Sunday 2 PM

Mercedes Edwards Theater
902 5th Street, Clovis, CA 93611

“Madama Butterfly” (Puccini)

Did American naval officer, Pinkerton, just abandon his Japanese wife? Butterfly is convinced that he will return to her and his child. But is that American woman Pinkerton's new wife? Will Sharpless and Suzuki persuade Butterfly to give up her child? Ranking highest on the survey of festival fan favorites, baritone Limuel Forgey of Visalia makes his Fresno audience debut this summer as Sharpless, tenor Zachary Sheely performs the role of Pinkerton, Northern California mezzo-soprano Bryn Riley transforms into Suzuki, featuring Miwako Isano of Japan as Cio-Cio San. Featuring Fresno’s own Jose Hernandez as Goro, along with festival artists joining the Fresno opera festival from around the world. Nicola Iacovetti conducts the chamber opera orchestra of this fully staged production.