Season's Preview- Music and Dance

An Opera Overture
Opera's got everything," says Ron Bowman, director of the Naples Opera Society. "It combines music, singing, literature and the theatrical arts. No wonder opera lovers become addicted."

This year, Southwest Florida opera lovers will find plenty to feed their habit. In Naples, the Philharmonic Center for the Arts is not only welcoming two acclaimed opera companies with performances of three operas; it's also inaugurating an opera society in response to the growing emergence of aficionados. Special discounts, invitations and the chance to meet like-minded fans are among the benefits of membership in the Opera Guild.

About those performances: On Nov. 21, Moscow's Stanislavsky Opera Company will present Puccini's masterpiece, Tosca. This story of devotion and duplicity contains some of the most unforgettable arias in all of opera. On Jan. 15, the Teatro Lirico D'Europa presents Rossini's comic opera, The Barber of Seville, hailed by Verdi as the ultimate opera buffa. The Teatro returns to the Philharmonic stage on March 7 with Bizet's Carmen. The seductive Spanish mystique of Carmen, considered scandalous in its day, has helped make it among the most popular works in the opera pantheon.

There's more. Mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade will add further distinction to the debut of music director Jorge Mester at his opening night gala Nov. 6. And New Year's Eve at the Phil may be the hottest ticket in town, with the Metropolitan Opera's Harolyn Blackwell performing with the orchestra in a program including arias from Donizetti's Don Pasquale.

Dawn Upshaw, considered by some the finest American soprano of her generation, visits in recital March 25; another Met star, Grammy-winning tenor Ben Heppner, makes his Phil debut Feb. 1. And come spring, when you're panting for one last ounce of opera oxygen, don't overlook Doc Severinsen's "A Night in Old Italy," April 8 and 9. Vesti la giubba from I Pagliacci, Napoli, with the Severinsen cornet should be just what the doctor ordered.

Beyond the Phil, opera fans will want to check out the Naples Opera Society. Now celebrating its 10th season, it began as a monthly gathering in the living rooms of locals who see opera as one of life's essentials. It's rapidly becoming a thriving nonprofit arts organization, under the leadership of educator-musician Bowman, who also serves as dean of students at International College in Naples.

With the completion of the Norris Center on Eighth Avenue South in Naples, the society now has a home, where it meets the first Tuesday of every month. The group also travels to the Florida Grand Opera in Miami this season for performances of Madama Butterfly, Britten's Paul Bunyan, The Magic Flute, Lucia Di Lammermoor and Verdi's Masked Ball. If you're interested in making this operatic journey, contact Bowman at 513-1122, ext. 110, or visit www.naplesoperasociety.org.
-Bernadette La Paglia

Introducing
It may seem too easy to compare the preparation of an orchestral season to mixing a delectable meal, but when new Naples Philharmonic music director Jorge Mester does so, it sounds believable. After all, when he spoke with us, he was planning to cook dinner for 25 people the next evening.

The Hungarian-born Mester, who's been hailed as a conductor of "passionate vision" by the Los Angeles Times, particularly enjoys the cuisine of his home country and that of Mexico; but when it comes to music, his tastes are broad. Although Mester, who's in his late 60s, has a reputation as a champion of contemporary music, "I don't compartmentalize," he says. "If it's really good, I tend to program it."

The maestro, who has served for 20 years as music director of the Pasadena Symphony in California (and continues in that role), says he was seduced by the quality of the Naples orchestra and by the synergy between musicians and management when he first served as guest conductor in May 2003. "There are very warm feelings there," he says. "I think Mrs. Daniels [Phil CEO Myra Daniels] has an almost maternal feeling for the orchestra, and it is reciprocated. She's a visionary, but unlike many visionaries, she can really make things happen."

Mester says that his approach to programming is fairly democratic. "If the orchestra is excited, the audience will sense it," he says. Orchestra members give him lists of suggestions for pieces to play. And like any good chef, he tries to incorporate some of those new ingredients in his creations.
-Kay Kipling

Top Tickets
Beyond its operas and opera stars, the Phil has more to offer in musical performances this season. Linda Ronstadt turns up with a 40-piece orchestra to perform the Nelson Riddle Songbook and some of her greatest hits on March 5. Broadway stars Bernadette Peters (Jan. 31), Audra McDonald (April 10), Bebe Neuwirth (Dec. 28) and Patti LuPone (Jan. 25) also lend their talents in shows that highlight the best of Broadway and songsmiths from Kurt Weill to Jule Styne. You might also want to journey Over the Rainbow with Broadway's Faith Prince and Tom Wopat in their salute to Harold Arlen on Jan. 13.

The dance scene heats up with the Columbia City Ballet's Off the Wall and Onto the Stage: Dancing the Art of Jonathan Green, inspired by the paintings of the Naples painter and South Carolina native. That's March 6.

On the classical side, the Naples Philharmonic kicks off its season under new music director Jorge Mester with the breathtaking (and breathtakingly difficult) Third Piano Concerto by Rachmaninoff, employing the considerable talents of pianist Howard Shelley, Nov. 18-20. And another virtuoso, violinist Midori, performs April 17 at the Phil as well.. The Southwest Florida Symphony presents A Night at the Opera, with excerpts from favorite operas performed by current and future stars from the Met, Vocal Artists Institute and more on Nov. 19 and 20. And the Sanibel Music Festival welcomes such international musicians as the Amadeus Trio, the International Sejong Soloists and others in concerts beginning March 1 and continuing through March 22.