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Mercury Opera Rochester News Mercury Opera Collaborates with Little Theatre Mercury Opera Rochester and The Little Theatre have announced a collaboration that will feature Mercury Opera Rochester speakers in a 10-minute pre-screen introduction to the operas entitled Opera Overture! The introductions are presented before the International Opera and Ballet in Cinema series at The Little. Similar to the pre-opera talks at our own productions although much shorter, the series will give opera patrons the context for an informed viewing of the opera. Tickets for the Opera/Ballet series at The Little are $20 for the general public and $18 for Little members, seniors and students. There is no additional charge for the Opera Overture! presentation. Tickets are available one month in advance of the show date at The Little Box Office or by calling 585-258-0400. For more informatiion visit The Little Theatre's opera page online. Mercury Opera Guild Lecture Series featured in OVI newsletter Our Guild lecture series will get a write up by Roy Fisher, the Education Chair of Opera Volunteers International (OVI) in their OVI Newsletter. Click here to read the complete write up. Mercury Opera is now on Facebook Click here to visit our page and become a fan! Remembering William H. Hearne (1947 - 2009) We at Mercury Opera Rochester were saddened to learn of the death of our friend and colleague, Bill Hearne. Bill was a member of the Chorus of Mercury Opera Rochester and Treasurer of the Board of Directors. Click here to read more. Tosca Wins Regional Award Each year OperaBuffs of Western New York recognizes an organization they feel has made an exceptional contribution to the art of opera. This year they chose Mercury Opera Rochester as the recipient of their “Organization of the Year” award. The award will be presented at the OperaBuffs annual awards luncheon. Calling the production January’s “jewel of the month,” current OperaBuffs president Andrea Pope says, “The voices were terrific; three outstanding leading artists, Jill Gardner, Dinyar Vania, and Jake Gardner combined vocal polish with good acting, lovely sets and tasteful costumes. Top this off with the fine playing of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Benton Hess in an energetic reading of Puccini’s score, and it added up to one great, January afternoon.” Fred Meli, past OperaBuffs president, said it was one of the best Toscas he had ever seen. Click here to see exciting photos from this production, as well as reviews, photos and bios of the cast and more. Grants Awarded to Mercury Opera In some highly competitive fields, Mercury Opera Rochester was recently awarded several grants. The Arts and Cultural Council awarded the company a capacity building grant of $4600 to upgrade our accounting systems and document “best practices” for the company’s financial operations. Mercury received $2500 from the Rochester Area Community Foundation’s Arts and Culture fund for general operating support. The Theatre Development Fund, a non-profit created in 1968 to help strengthen Broadway and Off Broadway, awarded $4500 to provide supertitles for our 2008-9 season as part of its TAP Plus program. The City of Rochester supported our production of Tosca with a $5000 grant and distributed 50 student tickets through city recreation centers. The New York State Council on the Arts has awarded a grant to Mercury Opera for the third straight year; this year we received $11,800. And of course, the Guild of Mercury Opera continues to support our productions through all its programs, and gave a donation of $4000 to the company this season alone. We are grateful for the confidence in our work that all this community support shows. Collaborations with Local Organizations The Chorus of Mercury Opera Rochester recently opened “A Taste of Song,” the Prism Concert by the Greater Rochester Choral Consortium in the Eastman Theatre. The Mercury Chorus performed the Shepherd’s Chorus from Amahl and the Night Visitors. The house was filled to capacity to hear the 15 choirs that participated. The 90-minute performance closed with all the singers (some 500 people) performing Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” under the direction of Roger Wilhelm. Mercury was also represented in the TheatreROCS gala fundraiser at Geva on April 20. Mercury singers performed the final quartet from Verdi’s Rigoletto, sung magnificently by soprano Jeong Eun Joo, mezzo-soprano Quinn Patrick, tenor Aaron Lundy, and baritone Evan Jones. Both Evan and Quinn had leading roles in our Barber of Seville. TheatreROCS is a new consortium of local theater groups sponsored by Geva. |