Opera

  Giuseppe Verdi’s chestnut La Traviata is, at heart, a three-character chamber opera with a classic plot. Alfredo, a callow country boy from Provence falls

When the Chautauqua Opera Company held their second Opera Invasion on Thursday at Sharpe Field, it was a head-to-head battle of girls vs. boys and

In the standard opera canon, few characters engender more sympathy than Violetta Valéry. “What’s so devastating is that is such an incredibly emotional, sensitive, really

  In last Thursday’s afternoon art song recital, a 17th-century poem by Robert Herrick served as inspiration for the program. At 3:15 p.m. Thursday in the

  When Chilly Billy’s Ice Cream truck rolled down to Norton Hall Sunday afternoon, the party was just getting started. The Chautauqua Opera Guild sponsored

“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying.” Thus opens Robert Herrick’s 1648 poem, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time.”

Young, thriving, playful, athletic and surprising. That is how Steven Osgood describes opera, and that ebullience is exactly what he wants to share with Chautauquans

This week’s Artsongs recital, held at 4 p.m. today in Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, will feature songs of famous Russian composers, as well as those of Benjamin Britten, a legendary 20th century British composer. The program will showcase the voices of three Young Artists: bass Heath Sorensen, mezzo Courtney Miller and soprano Kasey King, all new to the Chautauqua Opera Company.

Opera is part of Jay Lesenger’s soul, but his soul has been burdened lately. At 2 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy, Lesenger, the general and artistic director of the Chautauqua Opera, will explain the challenge the arts are facing right now. His lecture is titled “Opera as a Spiritual Journey: My Confession.” “I also will talk about the time that we’re in right now, which is a very difficult time,” Lesenger said. “Our souls are burdened now because of the economy and because of the lack of exposure to the arts in schools. So the focus will be on how we got there and the impact of what’s going on today.”

Growing up in the segregated south, Barbara Smith Conrad knew firsthand the pain racial discrimination brought. She also knew firsthand the healing power of music. “Music absolutely saved my life,” Conrad said. Conrad grew up in a very musical environment, and singing was her passion. She came to the forefront of national attention in 1957, when she was forcibly removed from the cast of an opera production at the University of Texas.

The works of John Adams, Leonard Bernstein, Jonathan Dove, Benjamin Britten and Lee Hoiby, among many others, will be featured in the Opera Highlights concert, held at 8:15 p.m. Saturday in the Amphitheater. The performance will feature eight Apprentice Artists from the opera company’s Young Artists program and members of the CSO, under the baton of Steven Osgood.

At 4 p.m. today in the Hall of Christ, three Opera Company Studio Artists will present the latest in the weekly Artsongs recital series. This week, the songs will have a distinctly modern feel. All but two of them were written in the 20th century.

Following last season’s grand Norma, the Chautauqua Opera Company achieved even finer results Saturday evening with a fine but under-appreciated Giuseppe Verdi work that represents a midpoint between the bel canto style of Norma and the full-out “music drama” Verdi and Wagner were to develop later in the 19th century: 1849’s Luisa Miller. While, it’s never been a crowd-pleaser like Rigoletto or La traviata, it’s a passionate story — full of melodrama, but also full of feeling — and the music is wonderful, culminating in a third act that ranks among the great single acts in Verdi’s huge output.

Sex, rivalry, secret identities, extortion, poisonings, sword fights and murder. Sound like a typical evening in Chautauqua?

When the average person thinks of American musical theater, the names Rodgers and Hammerstein no doubt come to mind. However, in the Musical Theater Revue, put on by Studio Artists of the Chautauqua Opera Company at 10:30 p.m. tonight and next Tuesday in Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Richard Rodgers will be nowhere to be found.

Love, death and the meaning of existence are all themes that will be sung about in this week’s Chautauqua Opera Studio Artists Artsongs recital at 4 p.m. today in the Hall of Christ. Three singers, all Chautauqua first-timers, will be singing: soprano Alize Rozsnyai, baritone Nickoli Strommer and tenor Joshua Baum.