Concert Choir to sing opera's greatest hits.Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard Opera fans take note: There's going to be a whole lot of Puccini going on this weekend at the Hult Center. Oh, and Verdi and Bizet and Donizetti, too. The Eugene Concert Choir Eugene Concert Choir is a non-profit choral organization based in Eugene, Oregon, United States. It consists of two mixed-voice choruses: the 100-member Eugene Concert Choir (ECC), and the semi-professional chamber group Eugene Vocal Arts Ensemble (EVAE). will stage a "Night at the Opera" on Saturday, featuring among other works two famous opera songs by Giacomo Puccini, that master of 20th century opera, as well as his "Messa di Gloria." A mass? This is a night of opera. "Well, even though - in name - it is a mass, it really is practically an opera," says Diane Retallack, the choir's artistic director. Puccini, it turns out, was required to write a mass as a terminal project when he was studying music as a young man. The young composer had already fallen in love with the sound of opera, so he wrote a mass that sounds distinctly operatic op·er·at·ic adj. Of, related to, or typical of the opera: an operatic aria. [From opera1. . "That was the last thing he did in sacred music," Retallack says. `He just wrote an opera anyway. It has the text of the mass, but there are places where the the music sounds like, `Oh my darling, I'll love you forever!' ' Soloists for the performances will be Constantinos Yiannoudes, a baritone baritone or barytone (both: băr`ĭtōn), male voice, in a lighter and higher range than a bass but lower than a tenor. who sang in Eugene Opera's "Barber of Seville", tenor Eric Fennell, and soprano soprano [Ital.,=above], female voice of highest pitch. The three basic types of solo soprano are coloratura, lyric, and dramatic. The coloratura has a great range and impressive vocal agility; the lyric soprano has a light, pretty voice; and the dramatic soprano has Lisa Hylton, who used to be the choir's general manager. The 90-voice choir will be accompanied by the Oregon Mozart Players Oregon Mozart Players is a professional chamber orchestra based in Eugene, Oregon. The orchestra presents six concert sets in a typical season, in addition to numerous small ensemble performances and recitals by guest artists. . Also on program: Two numbers from Puccini's ``Madama Butterfly''; the "Toreador Song," from Georges Bizet's ``Carmen''; ``Cortigiani,'' from Giuseppe Verdi's ``Rigoletto''; "Brindisi" from Verdi's "La Traviata La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It takes as its basis the novel La dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils, published in 1848. "; and others. "For those opera lovers who may be missing enough opera this year, this will be really fulfilling and fun," Retallack says. "And for people who are not already familiar with opera - this is opera's greatest hits." CONCERT PREVIEW A Night at the Opera What: Eugene Concert Choir does opera's greatest hits When: 8 p.m. Saturday Where: Hult Center's Silva sil·va also syl·va n. pl. sil·vas or sil·vae 1. The trees or forests of a region. 2. A written work on the trees or forests of a region. Concert Hall, Seventh Avenue and Willamette Street Tickets: $11 to $29 (682-5000) |
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