Friends of Music Concert Featuring Eric McCluskey
The second program in the FRIENDS OF MUSIC CONCERTS 2011/2012 season of free Sunday afternoon concerts will take place on Sunday, December 11 at 3:00 p.m. in the comfortable atmosphere and excellent acoustics of Eliot Unitarian Chapel at 100 South Taylor (at Argonne) in Kirkwood.
We dedicate this second concert to the memory of Lee Werner, who led us for more than twenty years and nearly a hundred concerts. In addition to organizing the concerts she shared her lovely soprano voice with us in many of these programs. We would not be listening to the outstanding performances in this our Thirtieth Season without her dedication and perseverance in presenting so many of the St. Louis’ area’s talented performers. By this dedication we wish to honor Lee’s memory and express our gratitude for all she did for music in St. Louis.
The program will feature baritone Eric McCluskey and pianist Yuko Cato, both faculty in the School of Music at SIU-Carbondale, performing an aria by George Friederick Händel, excerpts from Robert Schuman’s Dichterliebe and from Gerald Finzi’s Till Earth Outwears, and Maurice Ravel’s Don Quichotte à Dulcinée.
After intermission, the program will conclude with the Quartet for Piano and Strings in G minor, Op. 25 by Johannes Brahms, performed by Lorraine Glass-Harris, violin; Leonid Gotman, viola; Beverly Field, cello; and Jeffrey Kurtzman, piano.
For further information, phone (314) 862-5354, or contact us by e-mail at jgkurtzm@wustl.edu or kskurtzm@sbcglobal.net
TIME CHANGE!!!
Sunday’s Performance is now at 4PM
Winter Opera recieved a phone call from Chaminade School (where the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts is and where we are performing Rodgers and Hammerstein) that due to unforseeable circumstances we are going to have to move back the time of our performace on Sunday to 4pm. So the performance on Sunday, November 6th is now at 4pm. I will try to contact everyone individually who have purchased tickets for the performance that day about the time change. We are kind of scrambling over here to get the word out about the time change, and we really appreciate your patience and understanding! If you have any questions or concerns about it, please feel free to email me at admin@winteroperastl.org.
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s A Grand Night for Singing
Friday, November 4th at 8pm (same)
Sunday, November 6th at 4PM (CHANGED!)
Skip Viragh Center for the Arts
Chaminade College Preparatory School
425 S. Lindbergh Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63131
Hello Winter Opera Patrons and Friends!
New office on the Hill!
My name is Caetlyn and I am the new Administrative Director at Winter Opera Saint Louis. If you’ve gotten an email from Winter Opera within the last couple of weeks, it was probably from me. I am so excited about our upcoming season that I am driving myself to distraction trying to make sure everything is in place: we have set up a new ticketing system that allows you to buy tickets online and pick out your own seats (http://winteroperastl.tix.com), we are moving into our new office at 2105 Marconi Avenue and we will be mailing our 2011/2012 season brochure this week.
This season is going to be a doozy; grab your season tickets and join us for the ride!
See you all soon,
Caetlyn Van Buren
Administrative Director
caetlyn@winteroperastl.com
The New Warehouse is Awesome!
Hello Everyone,
After five and a half hours of moving props, set pieces, costumes and three Ibuprofen later, we moved everything into our new warehouse. I swear we filled 2500 square feet of the 10,000. I could not believe how much stuff we have acquired over the last four seasons. So many things that I forgot about; our beautiful set from Samson and Dalilah painted by Jane Saunders, our little stage from I Pagliacci at the Missouri History Museum and we received a nice donation from my Parents; some of my grandmothers beautiful antique furniture. We are really starting to have a nice collection of things for our stage. I really hope to be able to fill that warehouse someday and be able to rent out our own props and costumes to other theater and opera company’s. It is really exciting!
I thank everyone that helped yesterday, Jennifer Vago, Jimmy, Brian and Jeff Walker and Alex. Great work yesterday! I hope you are not as soar as I am today. I look forward to growing in our new warehouse and making it something really special for Winter Opera.
Enjoy the beautiful weather!
Gina
Great News!
Hello Everyone,
Some of you might already know this but, since we have never have had a home of our own we have had to put our opera props, costumes and set pieces in different places. Namely, my attic, spare bedroom, my Dad’s restaurant’s attic, Jennifer Vago’s (Signora tutto fare…translation: Madame who does everything for Winter Opera) basement and our wonderful friend, Harry Swanger with the Compton Heights Band’s warehouse. Nevertheless, this can be very confusing at times and it is very hard to keep track of what we have and where we we have it. It would honestly take a genius to figure all of this out, which none of us are!
Our prayers have been answered! Dr. Phillips and Mark Tempkin own a 10,000 square feet warehouse that we can now store all of Winter Opera’s stuff in! Amen! I am so excited I can’t begin to tell you.
We are moving everything on Sunday. If you have any extra hangers. shelves, clothes racks or strong arms, we could really use them. Our next goal is to have a real office so I can finally get my house back! My spare bedroom currently is the office/storage room. Maybe I could actually have company over again someday. You never know, things seem to be on the up and up!
Have a great day!
Gina
Cavalleria Rusticana a great Success!
Hello Everyone,
We had a great ending to our fourth season with Winter Opera’s production of Cavalleria Rusticana. We had a very strong cast and our orchestra lead by Maestro Ed Benyas was terrific. St. Ambrose was a beautiful setting for this opera and we managed to have big crowds despite all of the events around town this past weekend. The opera was staged by Allyson Ditchey who captured the true drama of the music.
Joe Tucci the accordion player welcomed all of our guests into the church with his lovely playing and we had costumed chorus members giving out Italian treats from DiGregorios. It was about as Sicilian as you could get. I was able to get my hands on three Sicilian Carts from DiGregorio’s which we used in our production. They added a some real color and character to the setting.
I would like to thank all of our patrons for attending our 4th season. We will be announcing season five in a week and we are very excited about our future. Thank you for your support and your generosity.
Gina
La Traviata Opening night – Sold Out!
Hello Everyone,
La Traviata started out with a bang opening night. We we were sold out had and standing ovation after our performance. It was a very exciting night for us with many great compliments. The Woman’s club is a beautiful venue for Winter Opera and we hope to return there in the future. The orchestra led by Maestro Steve Jarvi sounded wonderful along with the singers.
We had many compiments on the wonderful dinner that was served before hand by Chef Leon Dubinovskiy on the first floor. Our patrons had a chance to meet the artists and they raved about the food and service.
We hope to be sold out again today. We have about 20 seats left. This is your last chance to see this great production of La Traviata.
Thanks and We’ll see you at the Opera!
Gina
Hello Everyone,
I feel like we live in Antarctica! I understand it will be much warmer next week for our production of La Traviata. Thank goodness.
We are well on our way to being fully staged for our production of La Traviata and I have to say it will be one of our best shows yet. All our our artists arrived to St. Louis safely and they sounds terrific. Our stage manager Marie King is a an expert on interpreting the score, has given the cast great incite into their character and has brought out the true drama of the piece. Steve Jarvi our conductor/music director has wonderful ideas musically and will be a great inspiration to both the orchestra and singers. He is a great asset to Winter Opera and we are excited that he is a part of our organization.
Things are coming together. Costumes are being fitted, props and being made and we are all working hard to produce this show. Tell you friends and family about this production because it is one that you will never forget!
Have a great day.
Gina
Get your Traviata tickets!
We just sold out of Premium Admission tickets for Friday, February 18th. General admission tickets are still available for $35 and as well as $150 Dinner & Opera packages!
However, we only have about 20 Premium tickets left for Sunday, February 20th, so call or order online today to reserve yours before we run out!
Snow day
Wow! So much snow! I actually gave myself a snow day yesterday since my car tends to get stuck on hills in the snow. I had a great day relaxing with my puppy and fiancé. But I am back to work today!
Gina has been out-of-town singing professionally for the past week and a half, so I’ve been on my own! I’ve been taking the time to reorganize the small room we call an office and start working on the program for our operas in February and March.
The program has to be done by the end of January so it will be printed in time for the first performance on February 18th. Even though I am very organized, it is challenging to get together advertisements, bios and headshots from the artists, write synopses, compile donor lists, create cast lists, edit…and generally make it look awesome! I’m still searching for a graphic for the front cover, which can be the hardest part! Gina and I usually go through at least three covers before choosing one! Often the final product you – the audience – receives has been revised so many times that it looks nothing like the one I first show to Gina.
Be on the lookout for our beautiful postcard! You should get one in the next few days if you’re on our mailing list. If you’re not and you would like one (we have lots of extras), email me at admin@winteroperastl.org with your address and I will mail you one.
Holley
Administrative Director
The New Year is starting out with a bang!
The New Year is starting out with a bang! We just found out that Volpi Foods is sponsoring our headline tenor, Hugo Vera, who will be singing Alfredo in our upcoming production of La Traviata. We thank Volpi Foods for their generousity and support of Winter Opera St. Louis and we encourage all of our patrons who are craving real Italian food to shop at Volpi’s on the Hill.
Now a little about Hugo Vera… Hugo has just made his debut singing the role of Trin in La Fanciulla del West at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and recently sang the role of Radames in Aida for Opera Memphis. He has sung at New York City Opera, Lyric of Kansas City, Glimmer Glass and many other prestigious companies nationally and internationally. Hugo sang the role of Werther our 2010 production of Werther for Winter Opera last year and we are really lucky to have him back.
On a more personal note, Hugo and I went to The University of Kansas together studying under the same voice teacher, John Stephens. Actually, Hugo sang with me on my Masters Voice recital, but we have never sung in an opera together. He is the greatest colleague Winter Opera could ever ask for! Welcome back to St. Louis Hugo!
Happy New Year!
Gina
Happy New Years
Hello Opera Lovers,
Today has been a very exciting day! I have just hired a new accompanist to play our rehearsals for Cavalleria Rusticana in March. His name is Jason Oestenstad, he has come highly recommended from Webster University. Studying with Daniel Schene, the head of the piano faculty at Webster University, he is finishing up his thesis at Webster University and has some free time in March to play all of our rehearsals. Yay! A load has been lifted.
Jason has been playing piano since the 3rd grade and is a very accomplished clarinetist and violinist. Wow! He has aspirations of becoming a conductor and has studied abroad in Prague. A native of Minneapolis St. Paul, Jason loves opera and seems to be very excited to be joining our team. We are proud to welcome Jason Oestenstad to Winter Opera St. Louis!
Have a Healthy and Happy New Year!
Gina
Winter Opera’s First Blog
Hello Everyone,
This is my first ever blog! I can say I am so proud of Holley Sherwood, Winter Opera’s only employee for thinking of this for the company, I hope someone reads it! I know everyone is blogging, so Winter Opera Jumped on the band wagon. We are getting excited about the new year.
Our production of La Traviata is shaping up to be one of our finest productions. We have lots to plan! Each day is filled with excitement and lots of chaos. Our big goal for La Traviata is to sell 25 dinner packages per performance. This will cover the cost of using the Woman’s Club. Then of course we want very much to be sold out! We can fit about 350 people in the ballroom and if we can sell out we will be in great shape financially for our production of Cavalleria in March.
Today I am working on scheduling our pianist, Nancy Mayo for all our rehearsals when our artist arrive on Feb. 5. Along with writing many thank you notes to all our wonderful patrons who have donated to Winter Opera over the holidays. Thank you everyone for your support and check back soon for more news!
Gina