What’s brewing for Really Spicy Opera’s 2016 season? Take a peak at this excerpt from Simply Tonal, recorded by Opera on Tap-Minneapolis in February.
This snippet features Deb Gilroy as the bombshell soprano Maeve West, baritone Gerry Schmidt as composer Joshua Hicks, and Emily Urban on piano.
Really Spicy Opera will return to the Minnesota Fringe Festival in 2015 for a special performance of The Clever Artifice of Harriet and Margaret by Leanna Kirchoff. This award-winning opera features an all-female cast and will be staged with an all-female creative team and crew.
Performances will take place at the New Century Theatre in downtown Minneapolis:
The Clever Artifice won the National Opera Association’s 2014-2016 Dominick Argento Chamber Opera Composition Competition. Tickets will be available at the door and through the Minnesota Fringe Festival website.
For immediate release.
Really Spicy Opera’s Artistic Director Basil Considine has been named the National Opera Association‘s Regional Governor for the North Central Region. The North Central Region encompasses the US states of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, plus the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Dr. Considine takes office immediately, and will lead a regional opera initiative for this artistically fertile but geographically dispersed area.
Dr. Basil Considine holds a PhD in Music and Drama and a Master’s in Sacred Music from Boston University, and a bachelor’s degree in vocal and piano performance from the University of San Diego. The founding director of Really Spicy Opera, he is an active church composer and president of the Walden University Music Society.
For press inquiries, please contact: spicyopera@gmail.com.
Really Spicy Opera’s artistic director Basil Considine will give the opening lecture for Greensboro Opera‘s production of Gaetano Donizetti’s La fille du régiment on January 9, 2015. Dr. Basil Considine is a noted Donizetti scholar, and has presented his research on La fille du régiment in books and at domestic and international conferences.
The well-known Twin Cities theater blog Cherry and Spoon reviewed Sunday’s performance of The Frat Party. Here’s some of what they had to say:
A well-voiced cast of eight sings about college woes and joys, including needing money to buy beer, convincing their R.A. to let them have a party, avoiding campus security, drinking, and love. It’s quite amusing to watch this all play out as an opera. Each of the eight ensemble members get an aria and do well with it (one character even sings, “I haven’t had my aria yet”). Michael Burton has an everyman, or everydude, quality as Dan, the main orchestrater of the party, Amanda Weis has a strong voice as the young woman having her first drink…
Jennifer Zabelsky sings passionately about Chemistry, and Eric Peters is adorkably [sic] charming as the requisite nerd in love with Fiona (reminiscent of “Johanna“)…
…this is a fun, tongue-in-cheek, well-sung show, and a promising debut of a new-to-Minnesota opera company.
Now playing at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities’ Rarig Center for the Arts through Saturday, August 9th!
The Frat Party opens at the Minnesota Fringe Festival today. Purchase your advance tickets online or day-of at the box office on-site! Showtimes are as follows:
All performances take place at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities’ Rarig Center for the Arts.
