Hi Everyone!

The season opened with great success, well received by audiences and critics alike. The deluge of promotions for The Pearl Fishers not only helped make for a great opening night, but let the public take part in the process of the artists putting the show together, ranging from the witty discussions of Zandra Rhodes design process at a Vita.mn sponsored event to the singing artist singing all over town for many social events to making commercials!

The opening night gala was a huge success, too, as the four Resident Artists males sang their hearts out in renditions of Unchained Melody and My Way, waggishly in the manner of a certain all male opera group.

Yes, the season has opened, but the work has just begun. We have already started work on the comical Casanova’s Homecoming and are looking forward to putting that production together with so many Twin City locals and favorites!

Catch Pearl Fisher if you haven’t yet!!

Good evening readers! Resident artist Michael Nyby here, updating from the first Pearl Fishers orchestra run at the Ordway. I’ve always felt that opera is best viewed from the balcony, where one can best assimilate the full visual and auditory value of a production. As viewed from seat 28 of balcony row 2, this is quite a visually striking production. Anyone familiar with the design of Zandra Rhodes would not be surprised.
Along a similar vein, I am always fascinated by the transformation of voices once a production enters the performance space. Sure, all the soloists sound good in the small rehearsal spaces, but the acoustics of a well-designed performance hall have a way of adding a richness and warmth to the voice, and the design of the Ordway makes excellent use of this effect. The design is essentially that of the classic European opera house–tall, shallow, and steep–as opposed to the wider, deeper design of many North American houses. The classic design was tailor made for opera, whereas the larger American houses were often built as multi-use venues, where the unique acoustical requirements of the human voice tend to take a backseat to economic efficiency of design. With that in mind, the Minnesota Opera and the residents of the Twin Cities are fortunate to have such a wonderful space for opera. I’m excited to observe the onstage experience firsthand when I sing my role in Casanova’s Homecoming in November!

Hi Everyone!

This is Brad Benoit. I am a second year Resident Artist program singer, excited to be back and ready to have another productive and fun season with The Minnesota Opera!

With only three weeks into the season, we have already had plenty of promotion events, previews, and staging rehearsals for our first production of Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers.

It is full season and I plan to keep all of you fellow bloggers involved in all of the work and fun of the season!

until next post…