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Community Corner

A Midsummer Night's Dream Romantic Arias and Delicious Desserts




Connecticut Summer Opera Foundation teams up with Connecticut Lyric Operafor August 17th Operatic Spectacular. Metropolitan Opera tenor Carl Tanner to highlight event. On Saturday, August 17th, Connecticut Summer Opera Foundation (CSOF), the Woodbury-based non-profit arts organization now in its second season, will team up with Connecticut's only remaining professional opera company, Connecticut Lyric Opera (CLO), and the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, to present a star-studded evening of beloved operatic arias.  Entitled "A Midsummer Night's Dream: An Evening of Romantic Arias and Delicious Desserts", the performance will feature internationally-heralded Metropolitan Opera tenor, Carl Tanner, and renowned Polish soprano, Jurate Svedaite. Mr Tanner's own personal narrative into the world of opera is fascinating. A Virginia native from modest means, Mr. Tanner worked as both a trucker and a bounty hunter to make a living. While stopped in traffic in his truck on I-95 during the summer of 1989 , he was overheard by a motorist next to him while he was singing along with Placido Domingo in a Met radio broadcast of Tosca.  As Mr. Tanner tells it, “This lady in a red convertible was blowing her horn at me, so I yelled something colorful back at her. She asked why I was driving a truck. She told me that I had missed my calling.”   He returned to the trucking office, where his boss had coincidentally heard the same Met broadcast, and casually asked Mr. Tanner when he was going to pursue his love of singing. These were two of several more serendipities during a day that changed his life, and the rest is history. Mr. Tanner made his triumphant Met Opera debut singing Dick Johnson in Puccini's La fanciulla del West  as a stand-in for Marcello Girodani in 2010. Mr. Tanner saved the day at the last minute for an ailing Marco Berti to sing Radames in Verdi's Aida this past December at the Met, and is currently singing the role of Otello to worldwide audiences.

A Midsummer Night's Dream  will take place on Saturday, August 17th, at 8 PM, at the Westover School, 1237 Whittemore Road, Middlebury,CT.  Tickets are  $75 .Checks should be made out to CSOF and sent to:  CSOF  PO Box 112 Woodbury CT 06798
--For more information, please contact:Ms. Maria JablonVice-President, CSOF203-577-2161

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