Chautauqua Opera Company studio artist Lwazi Hlati, tenor, performs a selection from Pablo Sorozabal’s “Zarzuela La Taberna del Puerto” during the Moschel Annual Memorial Concert July 20, 2025 at the Everett Jewish Life Center.
LAYLA VINSON
Staff Writer
Baking challah by day and fighting fires by night, Richard Moschel and his legacy will be honored by Chautauqua Opera Company at 1 p.m. Sunday in the very building developed on account of his planning — Everett Jewish Life Center at Chautauqua.
The annual Moschel Memorial Concert began five summers ago, curated by friend-turned-family of the Moschels, Miriam Charney. As the pianist for the recital, Charney has worked at Chautauqua Institution since the summer of 1995 and initially met Moschel and his wife, Lynn, in result of their passionate involvement in Chautauqua Opera Company.
“The connections were really deep and many, so the first year I wanted to do stuff that he loved, in particular,” Charney explained, noting his love for the opera program.
Alongside his work as a volunteer firefighter for Chautauqua and an EMT, Moschel also supported the community as president of the Hebrew Congregation of Chautauqua, maintaining daily involvement in the development of the EJLCC.
“Each program morphs according to ideas that I have, but even more, the repertoire that comes out from the singers,” Charney explained. “It’s kind of like a jigsaw puzzle, to me, programming a concert sometimes. Just take all of this stuff and throw it up in the air and see what happens when it comes down, and look for patterns or ideas and push it a little bit.”
Sydney Dardis, Gabriel Chona Rueda and Lindsey Weissman — soprano, tenor and mezzo-soprano, respectively — have each prepared solos and duets in addition to a rare but popular trio meant for a soprano, tenor and mezzo. The jazz standard by Jerome Kern, “All The Things You Are,” pays homage to the developing theme chosen for this year’s recital, “All The Things You Are: Perception, Misconception and Reevaluation.”
“It’s about how people get into relationships and don’t even know with whom they’re actually having the relationship,” Charney said. “Or a misperception of who they are. Or a situation with which they think is one thing and it’s the other. Any of those things.”
The smaller and more personal setting of the EJLCC makes the performance comparable to a parlor recital, often resulting in the doors being opened as people line the porch and spill out onto the street.
“It’s usually easier to kind of let yourself get wrapped up in the theater just because it’s the way it is, just a big old square. And at least as a performer, looking out into the dark abyss and you can’t see anyone’s face, it’s really easy to focus on where you are at that moment in time and your colleagues,” Chona Rueda said, highlighting the technical challenges and touching support of such an intimate setting. “… But also at the same time, it’s really engaging to see someone who’s completely all in and just completely fixated the entire hour.”
Having performed in the recital last year, Weissman expressed great excitement for her colleagues to immerse themselves in the performance and the community at large.
“After the concert it was just beautiful and I got emotional,” Weissman said. “And I remember Steve (Osgood) came over and gave me a hug and said, ‘Now you’re a part of the fabric of Chautauqua. You’re officially a part of that.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I feel like I am.’”
