 Issue 10.7.2 ..........
Newsletter of the Colorado Opera Network .......... 12 July 2010
  Dana Vachharajani (formerly Dana
Bhatnagar) holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University (BFA '97) and
The Juilliard School (MM '01). She has had a career defined by singing
at top venues, public education, and creating and running a private
music school. She has been a soloist in Alice Tully Hall (Mira Bai Songs), played many opera
roles while commanding an extensive oratorio repertoire (Cantatas in Context), and has
appeared at major music festivals around the country. Dana and her
sister, Geeta Novotny, as a
duo, “The Bhatnagar Sisters,” have sung the solos from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream numerous
times, including with the Aspen Chamber Symphony (2001) and at their
2002 Carnegie Hall debut. They later sang for the New Jersey Symphony
and were the 2003 winners of The Young Artist Peninsula Music Festival
Competition in Palos Verdes, CA. Dana was the 2005 winner of the
Boulder Chorale Young Artist Competition, performing with both the
Boulder Chorale and Philharmonic Orchestra. She also performed as a
soloist with The Boulder Bach Festival and The Boulder Chamber Ballet.
In 2007, Dana presented a special recital for the Shriver Foundation at
the Baltimore Museum of Art with Cellist Evan Drachman and pianist,
Richard Dowling. She has been touring with the Piatigorsky Foundation
since 2000.Dana applies her performance experiences to her passion for teaching. Her goal is to make learning music and art a memorable, positive, and fun experience. She has taught in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, Mount Vernon Schools (NY), Naropa University, and Boulder Country Day School (CO). In Mount Vernon, she taught music to over 720 inner-city students per week. She now teaches privately, sings, and runs a music school, with her colleague Katie Fillius, in Louisville, Dana V. Music, which offers private voice and piano to over 300 students per week. The school’s 14 programs include the Flatiron Youth Chorales, preschool musical, master classes, group keyboarding, and a large summer camp with visiting Broadway artists. Her "Bring it to Broadway… and Beyond" series has drawn many successful collaborations from Broadway. Margaret Anne Gates (Miss Saigon), Erin Quill (Avenue Q), Lawrence Street (Urinetown), Catherine Walker (Mary Poppins), Alex Geminani (Les Miserables, Sweeney Todd), and Nancy Anderson (Kiss Me Kate) have all been artists who have educated Dana V. Music students over the past few years. Dana and her studio always welcome collaborations and connections with other artists and teachers and look forward to lasting relationships for positive music education in Colorado.  Charles
Taylor sings Germont in La
Traviata with Utah
Festival Opera July 16 to August 7.Vale Rideout will
be tenor soloist when the Berkshire
Choral
Festival presents a concert
of Haydn's most popular setting of the Mass text, Missa in tempore
belli, July 24.Ruth
L. Carver will sing Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival,
Alaska, July 23, and will perform in Opera Scenes on July 31.Emily
Murdock is The Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel with PORTopera of
Portland, ME, July 29 and 31. Emily is a member of the company's Young
Artist Program this summer.Alex Richardson will be Il Duca
di Mantova in Rigoletto with Lyrique-en-Mer/Festival de
Belle-Île July 27 through August 16. Richard Cowan is the founder and
director of the festival, now in its 13th season.  Puccini's La Bohème,
starring Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón
Vargas, will be
encored by the Metropolitan Opera in 14 Front Range theaters, starting
at
6:30
pm on
Wednesday, July 14. It also will be shown in nine theatres on Thursday,
July 15, at different times; see the Fathom
Events website for particular times, theatres, ticketing and
additional
information. Nikki Boxer will host the broadcast
on Aspen Public Radio of The Barber of
Seville from the Aspen
Music
Festival on Saturday, July 17. Listen to the broadcast on line from
this
website
page. Rocky
Mountain
PBS will telecast Great Performances at the
Met: Hamlet starring Simon
Keenlyside and Marlis Petersen.
Sunday,
July
18,
1
pm.
Jordan Shanahan is Horatio and Richard Bernstein is the first
grave digger. DLOG Party: On Thursday, July 15, the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Summer Party at Mt. Vernon Country Club, high above Denver, Marcia Ragonetti traces her course to singer stardom in "Mad to Mild to Merry" with Kevin Kennedy accompanying.  Figaro
in
Aspen: Aspen Opera Theater
Center will perform The
Barber of Seville July 15, 17 and 19, The Marriage of Figaro July 31 and
August 2 and 4, and The Ghosts of
Versailles August 19 and 21. See the Aspen
Music
Festival website for information and ticketing. Nikki Boxer will host broadcasts
on Aspen Public Radio of The Barber of
Seville on Saturday, July 17; The
Marriage
of
Figaro on Monday, August 2; and The Ghosts of Versailles on
Saturday,
August 21; all at 7 pm.Western Slope Mikado: The High Desert Opera Summer production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado opens in Montrose at the Pavilion with a performance at 7:30 pm on Friday, July 16, co-sponsored by The Montrose Arts Council and The Magic Circle Players, and then moves to Grand Junction for an opening night performance in the Avalon Theatre at 7:30 pm on Saturday, July 17, with a second performance at 7:30 pm on Saturday, July 24. Click the Box Office link at the HDO website to purchase tickets on line or by phone. An Invitation to Meet the Artist at Central City: On Saturday, July 17, join us for champagne honoring Joyce Castle who is starring as Madeline in Three Decembers, marking her 40th year in opera. Joyce has performed numerous times in Central City including as Queen Elizabeth I in Gloriana and Augusta Tabor, the spurned first wife in The Ballad of Baby Doe. See this page for a collection of video clips celebrating Ms. Castle’s past productions. Williams Stables at 4:45 pm; $35 per person. Recital: Pablo Romero will present a recital, "Immigrant Voices: A Musical Journey to the New World," July 17 at 2 pm, in Larkspur, at the residence of Doug and Hannah Krening (4922 Delaware Dr.) The program is free to the public, with donations greatly appreciated as it is a fund-raiser for Pablo's semester costs. Please go to this website for program notes and to state how many people are coming. Reservations are necessary in order to arrange for best seating.  Griffey
Recital: CU
NOW Guest Recital with tenor Anthony Dean
Griffey Sunday, July 25, 2 pm, Boulder Public Library,
Canyon
Theater, 1001 Arapahoe Ave. Tickets for the performance are $30
(General Admission). Call 303.492.8008 for tickets or more
information at CU
Presents. Here is a must-see video-- people you know in motion
making a great promotion-- click now for CU Now.Aria Concert: Arias@Avos featured singers are Graham Anduri, Stephani Kavas, Alexandra Diessner, Andrew Diessner, Chaazi Munyanya, and Zac Wilson, on Sunday, July 25, 4 - 6 pm, Avogadro's Number, 605 S. Mason Street, Fort Collins. Sponsored by the Opera Fort Collins Guild, Arias@Avos showcases outstanding regional classical singers. Recital: Lyric Soprano Elizabeth Murphy will present a chamber recital at Bethany Lutheran Church in Cherry Hills Village on Sunday, July 25, at 4 pm, in conjunction with the Festival of Faith and the Arts. Elizabeth will perform works by Rameau, Mozart, Clarke, Wolf, Cage, and Britten accompanied by Kevin Kennedy on piano and Rebecca Burchfield on violin. A free-will offering will benefit the music program at Bethany Lutheran. National Convention: The 2010 National Association of Negro Musicians Convention in Colorado Springs will feature music master classes, workshops, seminars, roundtable discussions, competitions, live music performance of jazz, classical and opera, and a gala awards banquet, with special guest musical performers (including jazz songstress Dianne Reeves); lecturers and presenters (including Cliff Jackson, Chapman Nyaho, Robert Sims, Rollo Dilworth, and Julius Williams); and honorees (including George Shirley, John Bowen, Charles Burrell, Martile Rowland, and Arthur Jones). A World Premiere of a Chamber Opera by Julius P. Williams will occur on Monday, July 26, and the William Warfield Voice Masterclass will be taught by George Shirley on Tuesday, July 27. Various locations in Colorado Springs with major gatherings held at the Antlers Hilton Hotel, 4 S. Cascade Ave., July 25-28. Tickets, registration and general information: Shivers Fund at Pikes Peak Library District and Nation Association of Negro Musicians websites. Crested Butte Opera: La Bohème will be performed July 25, August 3 and 5. Conducted by David Syrus, Head of Music for the Royal Opera of Covent Garden, London, and directed by Metropolitan Opera Stage Director Sarah Meyers, with Keith Miller playing the role of Colline, Gregory Gerbrant will be Marcello, Alok Kumar will be Rodolfo and Sara Stewart will be Mimí. Children's Opera Days: The Central City Opera Guild presents "Take a Child to the Opera Day" on Tuesday, July 27, for Madama Butterfly and on Tuesday, August 3, for Orpheus in the Underworld. Both events take place from 11:45 am to 2:30 pm, prior to the Central City Opera Family Matinee performance. All roles in the family matinees are performed by members of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program. Ticket prices are $37 for adults and $32 for children ages six and older. All participants will receive a family study guide in advance. Call Central City Opera Box Office at 303.292.6700 to purchase tickets. Opera 101: Todd Queen will speak about opera basics Wednesday, July 28, 5:30 pm, at Avagadro's Number, 605 S. Mason St., Fort Collins, in an Art Cafe of the Beet Street Culture Cafes series. Eaglen in Boulder: Colorado Music Festival presents Jane Eaglen in Epic Opera on Thursday, July 29 and 30, 7:30 pm at Chautauqua Auditorium, Boulder. Ms. Eaglen and the CMF Festival Orchestra perform Wagner’s Prelude and Love-Death from Tristan und Isolde and Lorin Maazel's arrangement of The Ring Without Words. CU NOW: In the New Opera Workshop at the University of Colorado, Boulder, College of Music singers will perform well-known pieces by composers Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein followed by an excerpt from Sister Carrie, a new adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's 1900 novel of the same name. Following the performance will be live commentary from the composers. Thursday, July 29, and Friday, July 30, at 7:30 pm, and Saturday, July 31, at 2:00 pm; ATLAS Black Box Theater. Single tickets: $15 at this page. Opera Concert: Rocky Mountain Opera will offer a concert at the Broadway Music School, 1940 South Broadway, Denver, on Friday, July 30, beginning at 7:30 pm. The program will include arias and scenes from Verdi's Il Trovatore, Puccini's Turandot and Wagner's Siegfried among others. Featured artists will be John Carpenter, tenor; Annette Germinario, soprano; Sara Green, baritone; Nancy Harris, mezzo soprano; and Karen Tucker-Patterson, Wagnerian soprano. The music director and accompanist will be Dr. James Meyers. Tickets are $12 for seniors 65 and older and $15 for others. A reception "Kick Off" celebration and meeting with the artists will follow the concert. (See Guest Commentary next.)   The Rocky Mountain Opera
Company
was organized on June 8th, 2010, by a
group of singers over the age of 45 who want to create an arena for
themselves to perform and share their talents with appreciative
audiences. The focus of the company is taking opera to peripheral
populations, senior organizations, as well as educating youth, thereby
increasing awareness and appreciation of this wonderful art. A second
part of our mission is to create performances of bigger, more demanding
works requiring mature voices, and operas that are not often produced
in this area, partly due to the expense and operating costs associated
with their production and the scarcity of local artists with
appropriate voices for this literature. Some of the projected operas
will be the heavier Verdi and Wagner works. Otello has been performed only once
in our area, by Colorado
Opera
Festival under Donald
Jenkins in 1971, and La forza
del destino has never been performed here. There is also the
possibility that we will perform some 20th century works from composers
such as Menotti and Britten.The board of directors includes, John Carpenter, General Director, Karen Tucker-Patterson, Communications Director, Nancy Harris, Artistic Director and Sara Green, Public Relations Director. We collaborate on all areas of company business so these titles are loosely assigned. Our inaugural event will be a concert of opera arias and scenes at the Broadway Music School on July 30. John Carpenter, Tenor
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