Feature: ONLINE VIRTUAL OPERA TOUR N0. 51 at Home Computer Screens

Have you watched Los Angeles Opera's digital short Brown Sounds yet? Brown Sounds celebrates Black history by beginning with the Garden of Eden. Conceived by Raehann Bryce-Davis, a rising star in the LA firmament, it's a stunning vocal piece. Composer Ayanna Witter-Johnson set poet Henry Dumas's evocative verses to music with Bryce-Davis's ravishing mezzo-soprano in mind.

LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22OR3ygygqg

Los Angeles Opera is beginning a new recital series on April 9, 2021, with a program by tenor Russell Thomas. One of today's most prominent tenors, Thomas is Los Angeles Opera's Artist in Residence. On April 9, he gives an online recital together with pianist Mi-Kyung Kim. They present Robert Schumann's song cycle, Dichterliebe (Poet's Love), one of the towering masterpieces of Romantic-era song repertoire. Part of the On Now platform of digital programming, it will be available for on-demand viewing from five P.M. PST on April 9 through July 1.

LINK https://tickets.laopera.org/booking/production/bestavailable/5791

We suggest that tour members bring cameras to photograph the gorgeous wild flowers now blooming throughout California as we begin to embark for San Luis Obispo and another performance of Puccini's Suor Angelica. Some of this week's tour members are driving to Santa Barbara, however, so they can have their cars there April 10 for the drive-in Don Pasquale. Manon is ridding with a French-speaking lady, We pick up about half the tour members at Santa Barbara. Manon finds the car ride refreshing for a change. The French lady says Manon uses the back seat for a cat box, and ... you know that story.

Our next stop is the city of Saint Luis the Bishop, or Obispo. In 1297, Louis was consecrated Bishop of Toulouse by Pope Boniface VIII. As bishop, Louis rapidly gained a reputation for serving the poor and feeding the hungry, often ignoring his own needs.

In his honor, we are asking tour members who can afford it to donate to their favorite charitable causes. For dinner we offer fish tacos and salad. After bussing to San Luis Obispo's virtual opera house, we enjoyed a fascinating performance of Puccini's Suor Angelica.

LINK Story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suor_Angelica

LINK Opera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJQMcOq5Stg

In the morning after a hearty Mexican breakfast, we take off for San Francisco where a trophy bride turns into a monster headache in Donizetti's comedy Don Pasquale. Pompous, aging Don Pasquale is infuriated by his nephew Ernesto's chosen bride, Pasquale has decided to disinherit Ernesto and produce his own heir. To do that, he needs a wife. That fact gives Don Pasquale's long-suffering friends and family an opportunity to teach him that love makes a fool of us all.

Maurizio Muraro, Lawrence Brownlee, Heidi Stober and Lucas Meachem star in an imaginative stage production by director Laurent Pelly, directed for the screen by Frank Zamacona, with musical leadership by former resident conductor Giuseppe Finzi. Stream it for free the weekend of April 3, starting Saturday at 10 A.M. Pacific Time.

LINK: https://sfopera.com/opera-is-on/streaming/

After a nightcap of wine and Viennese seven layer cake, we take off for Baylor University in Waco, Texas. We land at Waco Regional Airport, five miles northwest of the city where we have a Texas sized breakfast waiting for us. Magnolia Table's take-out order included fluffy buttermilk pancakes, avocado toast on special bread from Waco's Heritage Bakery, and vanilla lattes, while Taqueria El Crucero's order included breakfast burritos, migas, and queso, along with hibiscus and peppermint teas.

We bus into town to see the Art of the Landscape and other exhibitions at Baylor University and tour members are free to enjoy the town and the university until we meet for the opera.

LINK: https://www.baylor.edu/martinmuseum/index.php?id=976104

LINK: https://www.baylor.edu/martinmuseum/index.php?id=928675

Baylor Opera Theatre presents Tom Cipullo's Lucy and Samuel Barber's A Hand of Bridge filmed at Baylor University's Black Box Theater. Composed in 2009 with a libretto by the composer, Tom Cipullo's Lucy makes stunning use of the short opera to tell the touching story of an elderly woman's relationship with her past and future.

The elderly Lucy is on the phone with her nephew, discussing all the fun they could have if he could slip away for a visit. While talking, she has a few memory slips, and finally reveals to her nephew that the strange visitor who has been appearing to her was present again the previous night. She says that she, of course, told the doctor about the visitor, but she is reticent to reveal the doctor's response to her nephew. After the conversation with her nephew is over, the visitor appears again. She tells him that she knows he is a figment of her imagination. Eventually, however, Lucy admits to being lonely so she invites the visitor to stay and keep her company. Lucy is Emily Wood and the visitor is John Jovicich.

With a running-time of about ten minutes, A Hand of Bridge is one of the shortest operas regularly performed. Composed in 1958 by Samuel Barber with a libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, the opera is a tableau in which two couples play a game of bridge, with each character singing an aria revealing true thoughts only to the audience. Menotti's libretto makes frequent use of word play, often using a term from the game of bridge to allude to a character's secret desires. After a few moments of game play, time stops and the audience becomes privy to the inner thoughts of Sally, who dreams of owning a new hat. Time resumes and the game continues until Bill reveals to the audience his obsessive thoughts of his lover, Cymbeline.

After more game play, time stops again to reveal the heart-rendering thoughts of Geraldine, who sings the now-famous aria, "Who is there to love me?" lamenting the inevitable loss of her mother. Finally, the audience becomes privy to the inner workings of David's mind, which are much darker than his wife and neighbors would suspect. David is Evan Welliver, Geraldine is Hannah Hyden, Bill is Kyle Felkins, Sally is Gigi Bautista. Again the director is Dr. Jen Stephenson and the pianist is Prof. Joseph Li.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFewJrEzwkA

After the double bill we leave for Barcelona Spain with glasses of Rioja in our hands. Manon and I sleep through the overland part of our journey and wake to the textured darkness of the night Atlantic. The clouds are not heavy but if there are ships on the ocean we do not see them. I wonder how many creatures are looking at us from beneath the waves. Could a shark see our plane and wonder how we might taste? Manon just wants to be petted and hopes I drop that conversational thread.

The Liceu Theater in Barcelona is playing Mozart's Don Giovanni. Helped by his shrewd servant, the Don flaunts society's rules until he brings about his own downfall. Mozart's opera combines enchanting music with a central character of fascinating psychological complexity.

Don Giovanni is Christopher Maltman, Il Commendatore is Adam Palka, Donna Anna is Miah Persson, Don Ottavio is Ben Bliss, Donna Elvira is Véronique Gens, Leporello is Luca Pisaroni, Masetto is Josep-Ramon Olivé, and Zerlina is Leonor Bonilla. Josep Pons conducts the Symphony Orchestra of the Liceu Opera Barcelona. The director is Christof Loy. Streamed on OperaVision, Don Giovanni is available until June 4.

LINK https://operavision.eu/en/library/ Click on performances, operas, and Don Giovanni.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1MNN-d87CE

We leave for California after the opera because it is a very long direct trip. The Flying Opera Magic Carpet is already aloft as we salute Barcelona, Santa Barbara, and Spanish Culture with Spanish red wine and a huge strawberry-topped tres leches cake made with cream, whole milk, and evaporated milk. Nobody goes to bed hungry and we all sleep rather late.

It is still raining upon our arrival at our regular spot in the general aviation airport north of San Francisco.. Thus, I phone Waterbar and order an assortment of their delightful dishes for us to eat on the Carpet.

Gordon Getty's Usher House and Claude Debussy's The Fall of the House of Usher offer two visions of madness, two visions of decadence, two visions of decay in a spine-tingling double bill. Usher House and The Fall of the House of Usher are both based on Poe's short story. Baritone Brian Mulligan sings with Edward Nelson and Joel Sorenson. Sir David Pountney directs this double feature, under the baton of conductor Lawrence Foster. Usher is available April 10 and 11, 2021.

LINK: https://sfopera.com/opera-is-on/streaming/

In a pouring rainstorm, we land on the coast near Santa Barbara for an early dinner of pastrami sandwiches on rye bread with Russian dressing for dipping. There is plenty of coffee to help us wake up, but Manon insists on more beauty sleep. We try to run between the drops as we board the bus that takes us to our own cars. Manon is riding with me this time and there is a cat box on the back seat.

The rain stops just in time. Opera Santa Barbara presents Donizetti's Don Pasquale, A Live Drive-In Opera. On April 10, 2021, at 7:30 P.M. Live opera returns to the parking lot at the Ventura Fairgrounds, thirty minutes south of Santa Barbara and forty-five minutes north of Los Angeles. Each ticket is valid for one car. The number of passengers must not exceed the number of safety belts seats in the vehicle, however. The event follows all CDC and State of California guidelines. Attendees can enjoy the live stage performance from the safe and socially-distanced comfort of their vehicles. Attendees can stay inside or next to their vehicle on folding chairs but must wear face masks and maintain social distancing. Sound will come to the cars via FM radio. The opera will be sung in Italian with English titles projected on screen.

When it comes to combining beautiful melodies and vocal pyrotechnics with laugh-out-loud comedy, few can match Bel Canto master Gaetano Donizetti, the composer of The Elixir of Love, and Lucia di Lammermoor. This hilarious new version is directed by the irrepressible Josh Shaw, founder of Pacific Opera Project. With Shaw's direction, Don Pasquale becomes "Donald Pasquale," a film mogul in the Santa Barbara silent film business of the early 1920s.

Soprano Jana McIntyre, bass Andrew Potter, and tenor Matthew Grills will make their Opera Santa Barbara debuts, effortlessly tossing off Donizetti's sentimental tunes and vocal acrobatics. Former OSB Studio Artist baritone Efraín Solís returns as the cunning Dr. Malatesta. Opera Santa Barbara Artistic and General Director Kostis Protopapas conducts members of the OSB Orchestra.

LINK: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/opera-santa-barbara-presents-don-pasquale-a-live-drive-in-opera-tickets-144243445027

NOTE: Patrons have to buy tickets and drive up to the Ventura County Fairgrounds to see the show from their cars.

For those who cannot get to Ventura, Livermore Valley Opera presents a FILM of Donizetti's Don Pasquale as a rootin' tootin' romp in the Wild West!

This company saddles up for Robert Herriot's 2017 staging of Don Pasquale, an ornery old guy whose desire to be married soon fades when his young wife takes the reins and drives his life out of control. It is a classic "spaghetti western" complete with gun-totin' cowboys, saloon gals, bubble baths and even a Mariachi band to help set the stage for this evening of light-hearted fun. Music Director Alexander Katsman leads Peter Strummer as Don Pasquale, Alex DeSocio as Dr. Malatesta, Erin Sanzero as Norina, Marco Stefani as Ernesto, and the Livermore Valley Opera Orchestra.

The Magic Opera Flying Carpet is half empty as it returns to Los Angeles, but we will all meet soon again for another Virtual Opera Tour with links and hi-jinks.

Photos of Jana McIntyre and Matthew Grills courtesy of Opera Santa Barbara. Both will appear in Don Pasquale.

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