The Academy of Vocal Arts, located in Philadelphia, Pa, will conclude its 2008-09 season with a production of Donizetti’s most famous opera, Lucia di Lammermoor. Performances are scheduled for May 2, 5, and 7 in the Helen Corning Warden Theater at AVA. May 9 at the Gordon Theater at Rutgers/Camden. May 12 and 14 at Centennial Hall, Haverford, and May 16 at Central Bucks South High School in Warrington. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m.
Maestro Christofer Macatsoris conducts the AVA Opera Orchestra and award-winning resident artists. Among them are soprano Angela Meade, who made her Metropolitan Opera debut last season in Ernani. Tenor Michael Fabiano, who debuted at La Scala Milan last spring, will make his Metropolitan Opera debut next season in Verdi’s Stiffelio. Joshua Major is the stage director for this production. For more information about The Academy of Vocal Arts click here.
To read more about about Donizetti and Lucia di Lammermoor click here.
Viva Verdi! Opera New Jersey is set to perform one of Verdi’s magnificent masterpieces. Rigoletto abounds with countless familiar arias such as La Donne e Mobile, Questo e Quello, Caro Nome and the wonderful famous quartet Bella Figlia. You can listen to these arias by clicking on the highlighted text. There are three performances scheduled in three different venues. The first performance is on Feb 1 at 8 P.M. in Morristown, NJ. The second performance is Feb 8 at 7:30 P.M. at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, and we finish on Feb 10 with a matinee at 3 o’clock at the State Theater in New Brunswick. To read more about the exceptional cast click here.
I look forward to playing Rigoletto again. This is my second time tackling this mighty work. It is really an outstanding piece of art with many heavenly moments. The word we hear over and over again is maledizione. Maledizione in Italian means curse, doom or malediction. While living in Italy for a summer playing at the Spoleto Festival, I came across an interesting story. There is a 13th century aqueduct in Spoleto that spans the valley imbetween two beautiful hills. It is a breathtaking site. One of the best foods I have ever tasted there was wild boar-cingale. These cingale live underneath this ancient aqueduct. It just so happens that the people of Spoleto have believed for centuries that this area under the aqueduct was cursed. The curse is what lures the cingale to live there. I said jokingly to my Spoletino native friend Lorenzo in Italian “C’e un maledizione la?(There is a curse there?) He replied “Si Giovanni, c’e un maledizione”(Yes Giovanni, there is a curse.) I was just joking about Rigoletto. However it turns many of the Spoletini will not go under the aqueduct. They wait for the cingale to venture out before they hunt them. It was like living inside Rigoletto. A real life curse. Awesome. I tip my hat to those who still believe in these ancient spells. Cingale anyone?
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About John Grillo
John started playing Double Bass at the age of 11. He attended The Julliard School during high school and was a scholarship student at Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana where he studied with Lawrence Hurst. After graduating from IU, he attended the Manhattan School of Music completing his Masters Degree. (more)
