After all, it isn't every day that one gets to enjoy real opera singers performing real arias at a hospital. (Unless it's a hospital for opera singers, I guess. But they probably don't have any of those around here. Italy, maybe.)
.jpg)
This was a special presentation of Opera in a Box: Follow Your Dreams, a community outreach touring show from the Dallas Opera and the SMU Emerging Artists Program. Using props and colorful costumes, the three young opera singers -- Dee Donasco, soprano; Juan Jose deLeon, tenor; and Thomas Cannon, baritone -- performed before a gathering that began with a handful of patients and their families but quickly grew as more lunch-goers stopped to watch and listen.The performance was also broadcast on the hospital's closed circuit television system that allowed patients and their families all over the hospital to tune in in their rooms. For most patients it was their first brush with real opera (as opposed to what they might have encountered in other places).
.jpg)
Not that the broadcast was entirely necessary. Opera singers are trained to perform in cavernous theaters -- even outdoor amphitheatres -- without much in the way of microphones. We're talking serious lung-power here. The performance may have taken place in the Dallas hospital, but I'd bet that patients at our hospital in Plano could probably have enjoyed the show, too, just sitting by their windows.But the music was beautiful, including selections from the Spanish zarsuela Doña Francisquita, Mozart's Magic Flute and Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman. The performers were talented and enthusiastic, and the crowd roared its approval at the end -- some patients even managed a few "Bravos!"
It was a great show and a great way to begin the weekend -- especially for those kids who will be spending the weekend at the hospital.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment