Longwood Opera, May 15, 2009


Longwood Opera

The Longwood Opera will present a concert “Around the World in Ninety Minutes” at PACC on May 15 at 8 PM. This is a concert of well-known and less well-known operatic arias and duets for soprano and mezzo-soprano. The two very fine singers, long stalwart artists of LO are Sol Kim Bentley (who has graced our recent PACC Xmas choir concerts) and Emily Marvosh. This program, which will include selections from Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, Weill’s Threepenny Opera, Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann, and Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame, among others, will be like going on a trip around the world, but without jetlag, missing luggage or malaria.

Our next staged production is a double bill of two works by the late Gian Carlo Menotti (of Amahl and the Night Visitors fame): “The Medium” and “The Old Maid and the Thief”. These will be performed only at our home base, Christ Episcopal Church, Needham, on June 5-7.

Tickets for the PACC concert are available at the door: $8 for Adults, $6 for Seniors, Students, Children 10 and under. This is really quite a good deal, a bang for the buck. An even better deal, the Longwood Opera Stimulus Program, is that the purchase of tickets for a Menotti performance gets you the PACC concert for free. Tickets for the Menotti alone are $23 Adults, $18 Seniors, $15 Students, $13 children 10 and under and may be purchased by mail in advance (Longwood Opera, 42 Hawthorn Avenue, Needham, MA 02492)

LO has appeared at PACC not only presenting last season’s delightful “Don Pasquale”, but as well, we were very happy to be included in the PACC concert series. The combination of voices and our Steinway grand piano in the warm acoustical embrace of our sanctuary makes for a most delightful aural and musical experience. As your Music Director and Organist as well as LO Music Director I find that the marvelous PACC acoustics make for an always pleasurable experience. I most sincerely hope you will join us in our operatic 90-minute world tour and I look forward to seeing you all.

Jeffrey Brody
Longwood Opera Conductor
PACC Music Director