Opera Excerpts
As an encore to our regular season of fully staged, complete performances, we are pleased to bring you a free evening of selections from some of the worlds best-loved operas. Join us Wednesday, March 24 and Thursday, March 25 at 8 p.m. for scenes from Tosca, La Traviata, Aïda, LElisir dAmore and La Cenerentola. No need to book tickets just turn up, take a seat, and enjoy yourself! (Performances are at Bickford Centre Theatre, 777 Bloor St. West, across from the Christie subway station.)
Aïda
Sung in Italian. Act 2, Scene 1 the dramatic confrontation scene between Amneris, daughter of the Egyptian pharoah, and Aïda, her slave. Both vie for the love of Radames, leader of the Egyptian army. Aïda will be sung by Grazyna Matusiewicz and Amneris by Elizabeth McLeod.
La Cenerentola
Sung in Italian. Rossinis version of the Cinderella story. Act 1, Scene 1 Don Magnifico, an old man, hopes to better the family fortunes by marrying off one of his daughters to Prince Ramiro, who is to select the most beautiful girl in the kingdom at a ball to be held at the palace. Angelina (Cinderella) knows she wont be able to attend shes been treated as a servant all her life. Her less than beautiful sisters, Clorinda and Tisbe, do make the invite list and each feels sure she can win the princes heart. But fate has different plans, when Prince Ramiro turns up at the house in disguise...
Featuring the voices of Elizabeth McLeod as Angelina, Yevgeny Yablonovsky as Alidoro, Angela Di Serio as Clorinda, Karin Fairbairn as Tisbe and William Parker as Ramiro.
LElisir dAmore
Sung in Italian. Duets from Acts 1 and 2. Donizettis comic gem involves a simple village lad, a beautiful country girl and some quack medicine that turns out to do more or less what it promised! Nemorino, the country bumpkin, is sung by William Parker, and Adina, with whom he is hopelessly in love, by Sharon MacDonald.
Tosca
Sung in Italian. Duet from Act 1. Puccinis thriller keeps us on the edges of our seats as Scarpia, the evil head of the Roman secret police, plots both to destroy the revolutionary Mario Cavaradossi, and win Tosca, Cavaradossis lover, for himself. In this first act duet, however, Cavaradossi is at pains to persuade the always jealous Tosca that the beautiful woman in the portrait hes been painting is not his secret lover. Tosca is sung by Grazyna Matusiewicz and Cavaradossi by Angelo Guzzo.
La Traviata
Sung in Italian. Duet from Act 2. Violetta has abandoned her life as a courtesan, and is living in the country with the one man who really loved her, Alfredo Germont. While he is away, she is visited by Alfredos father, who begs her to leave the man she loves because their scandalous relationship is destroying any chance his daughter might have of making a suitable marriage. One of Verdis most heart-rending duets. Violetta is interpreted by Serena Kemball, and Giorgio Germont by Yevgeny Yablonovsky.