Festival Opera

For Halloween: Festival Opera invites you to "Come As You Are! Hey, nobody should ever pressure people to dress up for Halloween. It's great if you do, it's fine if you don't, just grab a drink and some candy. Similarly, we at FestOp want to debunk the myth that to experience opera, you need to pretend to be an 18th-century count or an Oscar-nominated actor/actress at the Met Gala. Especially with the shift to verismo opera (or as we like to call them, the "get real/real wo...rld" operas), people just like you with daily life struggles were the inspiration for these masterpieces. No, seriously. Our rules are no different than your favorite convenience store: "No shirt, no shoes, (no mask), no service" Interpret that as you like and come as you are. All we want are your open eyes and open ears (or reception of accessible supports for our vision- and hearing-impaired friends), open mind, and cell phone on "silent". HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! : Angela Cadelago as Luica in Festival Opera’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor, 2010.

So, when you think opera, do you think scandal, iconoclasts, sexual revolution and rebellion? Didn’t think so. While opera certainly has complicated roots in european aristocratic patronage and the social elite, opera was also a pretty sneaky medium through which to create buzz, drive trends and introduce social change. Remember, opera was predominantly written and performed by non-aristocrats or the aristocratic adjacent, many of whom tasted desperate poverty at least once ...or twice in their lives, and all of whom knew that their place as artists in society was considered socially unsavory no matter how admired they were by their audiences and patrons. Poets, philosophers, writers, composers, painters, musicians, dancers and performing artists, who eventually became known as the Bohemian class, did a lot of thinking about a better life. They wrestled with the problems of hunger, living with illness, being socially disadvantaged, marrying for love instead of status, being able to own land or their own bodies for that matter, and how to cope with the emotions of living hard while hoping those who lived soft might notice them and elevate their work. Opera, in fact, became quite the barometer of the broader social zeitgeist. Don’t believe me? Walk this way - Blake Hill-Saya Read the full article on our blog! www.festivalopera.org/blog : Met Opera Marriage of Figaro with Bo Skovhus as Count Almaviva and Danielle de Niese at Susanna.

Flip the Script: when oppressed characters rebel... Poll: What was your most surprising "flip the script" opera moment? Bonus points: Why did this scene stick in your mind and how did it reframe your thoughts on rebellion and injustice? ... Some examples: - the Count being held accountable after getting caught in his game (Mozart's The Marriage Of Figaro) - Tosca stabbing Baron Scarpia for his coercion and misuse of power (Puccini's Tosca) - Liu, a slave girl, refuses to give Calaf's name when coerced by Princess Turandot and orchestrates her own death (Puccini's Turandot) - The prank-like ambushing of Falstaff during his farcical "tryst" with Alice (Verdi's Falstaff) - In her quest to rescue her imprisoned husband, Florestan, from prison, Leonore (disguised as a man, Fidelio) infiltrates the prison and pulls a gun on Don Pizarro, the governor of the prison (who clearly brought a knife to a gun fight). (Beethoven's Fidelio) Share your own favorites in the comments below! : Festival Opera 2018. Philip Skinner as Scarpia, and Shana Blake Hill as Tosca. @leshercenter

This week we explore ways opera has been used to effect change in society from its early days to now! The theatre has been a place where shared experiences create bonds of empathy and compassion. Through the stories we tell, and the characters put on display, we get big moments of pause, connection, and understanding. Bonus points: what opera is this scene from? ... Why is this story significant to this week’s motif? Extra points for naming the artists pictured and their roles in this opera! : The Met

On #worldoperaday we celebrate our our outstanding chorus! This group of wonderful, dedicated, talented folks add so much excitement, and a strong sense of community to our productions. Really excited to bring them together again for CARMEN in 2021! Here’s a moment from #Susannah with Philip G Skinner as Blitch, and Shana Blake Hill as Susannah. Maestro Bryan Nies conducting the Festival Opera Orchestra. Chorus Master: William Sauerland Directed by Mark Foehringer... Set/projections: Peter Crompton Director of Production: Frédéric O. Boulay #opera #meetopera #operachorus #festivalopera #bayarea #performingarts #walnutcreek #leshercenterforthearts

Hopeful for our 2021 Mainstage Season! We look forward to bringing opera to you next summer, safely!

Once upon a time a group of super opinionated dudes got together in late Renaissance Florence and created the art form called opera. Little did they know that their experimental art form would one day lead to the billion-dollar enterprise that is the modern-day motion picture. Sound unbelievable? They would have been pretty shocked too. - Blake Hill-Saya, Author FO has a new website, and a new BLOG! Check out our first post, rounding out our week’s theme: Opera and the Cine...ma! www.festivalopera.org

Earlier this month, information was shared regarding an upcoming study, which discussed how trained singers demonstrated reduced airflow during phonation (voicing/singing) as compared to silent breathing. Many in the opera community saw this as a glimmer of hope to return to stage safely with adjustments. However, previous scientific research revealed that particles emitted during singing travel farther than in speaking and other voicing tasks, impacting the risk of COVID-19 ...transmission. Given inconsistencies in research findings and limited studies, Festival Opera must reiterate our commitment to the safety and well-being of our artists and audience members. We value cultivating a consensus of evidence-based practice to keep our valued singers, orchestra members, crew, and opera patrons healthy and dedicate ourselves to revitalizing the art form in novel and safe ways. See more

Honoring Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we recognize the Native Lands on which we live and work. The East Bay has been home to a rich history and culture of Native Peoples for many generations before the first Spanish settlers came to the area in the 1700s. The study and acknowledgement of history is so vital in the pursuit of artistic excellence - as we know from producing operatic masterpieces that are sometimes hundreds of years old - but also as a key to understanding, and mutual care among all peoples. Included here is a link to a short educational brochure created by the East Bay Regional Park District, on Native Peoples in the East Bay! https://www.ebparks.org/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx

#MotifMondays - This week we discuss how opera became cinema, the use of opera in cinema, and operatic stories remade as film. Comment below with your favorite opera on film moments!

On National Mental Health Day, we highlight mental illness/health in opera characters, with specific attention to Carmen's Don José. When many think of opera, they often recall "mad scenes from Lucia, Anna Bolena, Hamlet, and Peter Grimes. We want to explore multifaceted variables of the expression of mental illness and emotional instability in opera. With Don José, his character can be minimized to a man whose great love, ultimately spurned by Carmen, drives him to stab he...r in a crime of passion. This erroneously casts him in a sympathetic light. A more layered analysis reveals that Don José’s self-perceived sacrifices, transforming from a Catholic soldier to a bandit, are evidence that Carmen owes him love, devotion, and subservience on his terms. Such a "love" is borne out of narcissism, entitlement, misogyny, and obsession, which leaves him with a distorted view and an inability to take responsibility for his actions. It leaves the audience to wonder how much trauma, problematic social coding, and unhealthy or codependent relationship experiences/examples built the road that led to Don José murdering Carmen. When Festival Opera analyzes and revitalizes classic operas like Carmen, we hope to facilitate the audiences understanding of the complexities of these characters and hopefully encourage empathy and even an impetus to seek help for our own difficulties without shame or stigma. Here we include video of a classic production with Agnes Baltsa and José Carreras in the final scene.

In line with our weekly motif Illness in Opera as a Conduit for Empathy, we discovered this study, Diseases, Doctors, and Divas: Cultivating Reflective Capacity in Preclinical Medical Students through a Critical Examination of Opera. This study discussed pre-medical and medical students opting into a course involving opera viewing and reflective exercises with regard to building empathy and evaluating physician-patient interactions. Participants discussed the validity of... stereotypes reinforced regarding gaps in patient care standards, the trustworthiness of physicians, and stigmas regarding mental health. Please read here: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1183592.pdf AUDIENCE POLL: In your opinion, should opera-literacy courses be available as electives, especially in fields related to service provision? Why? Comment below! ***Bonus points: What’s your most memorable operatic empathy-building moment? Which opera? Comment Below! Study: UC Irvine Journal for Learning through the Arts (Levin, S., Cai,F., Noronha, N., et al., 2017). : Opera Australia - Traviata

Building on our motif, "Illness in Opera as a Conduit for Empathy", we wanted to highlight publications that discuss the impact of exit arias in opera on our emotional processing of mortality. Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim in her July 2020 New York Times article, "Exit Arias: What Opera Can Teach us About Dying": "The aria still echoed in my bones the following day, when I visited my father in his nursing home just outside the city...As I sat with my hand gripped by his, I fo...und myself thinking of Purcell’s Dido in a new light pity now mingled with envy. I was struck by the clarity and purpose of her farewell to life, the eloquence with which she shaped what she knew would be her last words. Compared with the mute and muddled twilight of Alzheimer’s disease, Dido’s death like so many others in opera seemed preciously clearsighted." Please read the entire article here and share your perspectives below:

Festival Opera is kicking off a new program of content, built to transcend the challenges of our current moment and engage our community in uplifting ways! Follow our weekly themes, join in the discussion, and look for our polls to help us innovate how opera fits into your life! #motifmondays #festivalopera #opera #meetopera