Opera Carolina, the largest professional opera company in the Carolinas, has selected Corder Philips as its creative agency for its 2008/2009 operatic season. In the agreement, Corder Philips will update current promotional materials for the new season's five operas.
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Some people would say that schools nowadays are less education and more test preparation. At the elementary level, state-required end-of-grade tests lurk like an ominous storm cloud that gathers strength throughout the year. Yet we are lucky to live in an area where many educators still believe kids learn in a variety of ways.
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Don't miss Opera Carolina's first production of the New Year – Verdi's spectacular masterpiece, Aida. Bound by captivity and tortured by love, Aida, falls in love with her captor, Radames, an Egyptian commander torn between his love for her and his duty to his pharaoh. As they fight for their forbidden love, they finally find freedom only in paying the ultimate price.
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Prepare for an opera spectacle unlike any Charlotte has ever seen. Opera Carolina presents Aida, Verdi's extravagant masterpiece, in an elaborate portrayal of forbidden love. Set in ancient Egypt, a young Ethiopian princess, Aida, is condemned to slavery by the Egyptians.
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Opera Carolina presents a season of impassioned repertoire that explores the comic and tragic sides of love.
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Ailyn Pérez will make her Salzburg debut as Juliette in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette Opera Carolina during the 2008 Festival. (Her fiancé Stephen Costello will also be there that summer as Cassio in Otello.)
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We're about to talk about time-honored music and great ballets. When you talk to kids, though, don't use the word "masterpiece." Sounds like a vitamin pill. Focus on the fun. Point their attention toward the singing, dancing, love stories and spectacle of these with Opera Carolina, Charlotte.
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The jester truly is the unfortunate fool in Opera Carolina's production of Giuseppe Verdi's tragic opera Rigoletto. Playing March 1, 3 and 4 in the Belk Theater, Rigoletto transports audiences to the 16th century court of the licentious Duke of Mantua. Known for his frivolity with women, the Duke seduces the young daughters and wives while his hunchbacked jester, Rigoletto, jeers at the unfortunate noblemen for their cuckoldry and powerlessness over the Duke's sensual appetite.
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When it comes to verismo operas (works about everyday characters and situations), most opera houses generally pair I Pagliacci of Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1858-1919) and Cavalleria Rusticana of Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945). Record companies have mirrored that packaging. But there are a number of short or one-act operas that merit exposure.
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Opera Carolina's infidelity-and-bloodshed double bill, "La Vida Breve" and "Pagliacci," has those in its favor. But where do the singers and players work? A theater. This is opera, not a concert. And it's a pale affair. The sets are skimpy. The staging is limp. For all the electricity the principals try to generate individually, there's a limit to what they can do.
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Too bad a script doctor couldn't hook up with Spanish composer Manuel de Falla and Simonize the libretto of La Vida Breve. The music of the score was a rare Spanish treat for Opera Carolina, spiced with proud flamenco rhythms and dancers, prodded by elegant guitar licks and the distinctive clink of castanets. Choruses brought out the dignity and the sufferings of the peasantry.
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