The Opera House at Enosburg Falls presents Echoes from the Opera House, a celebration of song from Opera to Broadway in the ongoing Mentors Series, on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The program features Sarah Sheperd and Eduard Oprea with oboist Kathleen Evans Oprea, accompanied by Marcia Perry. ECHOING FORTH
"It's going to be a nice night of a pretty eclectic bunch of music," said opera singer Sarah Sheperd. The program will include Donizetti, Handel, Mozart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Poulenc, Rossini, and more.
She will sing from Handel and Rossini. "I'm also doing some standard music theater, Rodgers and Hammerstein including some pieces from 'Showboat' and 'Carousel,' so there will be some lighter things in the second half," she said. Mr. Oprea will perform folk songs and some lighter traditional pieces.
"We'll do Mozart [together], the happy moments with 'Marriage of Figaro'," Mr. Oprea said. "We will do duets from 'Don Giovanni' and I'm ready with 'Lucia d'Lammermoor' and 'L'Elisir d'amore'."
Oboist Katie Oprea will perform the Sonata for Oboe by Poulenc.
Ms. Sheperd grew up in Enosburg. "I danced and when I got to college I got into classical singing," she said. "I was more interested in doing Broadway and being an actor. I sort of fell into Opera. I did my graduate work and have been working professionally out of Chicago for six or seven years."
"I've been pretty fortunate," she said of a hard career to succeed in, let alone succeed financially. She numbers several modern operas among her successes including the world premiere of Philip Glass' new opera Galileo Galilei by the Tony award-winning Goodman Theater of Chicago. "We took that to New York to the [Brooklyn Academy of Music] Next Wave Festival and then to London."
Mr. Oprea is from the former Soviet Union. He and Katie Oprea originally of Bakersfield "met in Romania because she played there in the Opera House orchestra and I performed in the opera chorus. We traveled throughout Europe performing 30-something titles of opera. We decided to return to my wife's homeland. She performs in the VSO and I used to be in the VSO Chorus." They now live in St. Albans.
"Dinny Hawksworth asked if we could perform," Mr. Oprea said. "I look forward to performing any time" because he has found it difficult to maintain a professional schedule in Vermont.
Admission is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, and $5 for children under 12. Tickets are available at the All Arts ticket centers: Enosburg Pharmacy and Merchants Bank in Enosburg Falls, at Swanton Rexall, and at Better Planet and at the Kept Writer in St Albans.
123 Depot Street
Post Office Box 1250
Enosburg Falls, Vermont 05450
802.933.6171
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