Save the Date:
February 1--The Ames Guild hosts a Mardi Gras party with cocktails, dinner, music, dancing and lots of prizes. $60 per person. Contact Shirley Shaw for reservations.

March 1--The Mascheranda Ball, DMMO's  gala fundraiser for 2008, will be held at the elegant Scottish Rite Consistory in downtown Des Moines. Buy your tickets online now!

Soprano Lauren Flanigan

On March 1, 2008, the elegant Scottish Rite Consistory in downtown Des Moines will be transformed into a sumptuous world of revelry with cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and a Venetian-themed dinner created by Michael LaValle of the Des Moines Embassy Club. Well-known philanthropist and community leader, Melva Bucksbaum, will act as the Honorary Chair of the event.

The evening’s entertainment will feature world-renowned diva Lauren Flanigan, who had her professional debut in Des Moines Metro Opera’s Of Mice and Men in 1985, and counts performances of more than 70 operas in her diverse repertory. Recently praised by The New York Times as a “great singing actress” whose portrayal of the title role in New York City Opera’s Vanessa was “vibrant, alluring and powerful,” Ms. Flanigan has also appeared with La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, among others. She has been honored by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and the Center for Contemporary Opera for her commitment to performing the works of living composers like Philip Glass and Thomas Pasatieri. Ms. Flanigan was also seen in the film Death to Smoochy as the Ice-skating Opera Diva.

Tickets to this unique event are $200 per person and are available from Des Moines Metro Opera’s box office at (515) 961-6221 or online at www.desmoinesmetroopera.org.

If you would like to volunteer at the event, send an email to McB Smith. Be sure to include your name, phone number and email address!

The cover of DMMO's book features a photo from La Rondine in 1997.

Des Moines Metro Opera A 35-Year Retrospective is now available! If you have already ordered a copy, it will be shipped in the next few days. This hard-bound, 140-page, coffee table book includes photos from each of the Company's productions and memories from scores of individuals who have been a part of DMMO's journey over the last 35 years. The cost is just $50 (plus $6 shipping and handling). To place your order, contact McB Smith at (515) 961-6221 or click here to download an order form. Return the form to 106 W. Boston Avenue, Indianola, IA  50125 or fax it to (515) 961-8175.

OPERA Iowa is launching its 22nd season with a preview performance of Donizetti’s comedy Don Pasquale at 2:00 pm on January 26, 2008, at the Iowa Historical Building in Des Moines. Don Pasquale will be presented by the six members of the touring troupe, accompanied on piano by the group’s music director, Benjamin Blozan. In order to share this hilarious musical farce with families, the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs and DMMO have joined forces to offer free tickets to the performance. Please note that due to limited seating reservations will be required. Please call (515) 961-6221 to make reservations. A very special announcement about OPERA Iowa will be made at this performance.

Don Pasquale shines as one of the great comedies by bel canto composer Gaetano Donizetti, who is perhaps best known for his celebrated tragedy Lucia di Lammermoor. Don Pasquale combines a love story with elements of classic Italian commedia dell’arte, the theatrical tradition that places stock characters in amusing situations creating comedy meant to entertain the masses.

OPERA Iowa will hit the road for its 2008 tour on January 28, 2008. During the ten-week tour, the group will perform John Davies’ The Billy Goats Gruff and Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale in some 65 schools in 34 Midwestern communities for approximately 25,000 school-aged children. The school performances are presented in conjunction with interactive and engaging workshops that meet the National Standards for Arts in Education guidelines.

by McB Smith

Aaron Sorenson is a bass originally from Omaha, Nebraska. He returns to DMMO this month for his second OPERA Iowa tour and will be with us again this summer as a member of the Apprentice Artist Program. He has a degrees from the University of Nebraska-Omaha and the University of Houston.

You were a member of the OPERA Iowa troupe last year, too. What do you enjoy about the tour? I enjoyed developing close relationships with the other singers on the tour and it was as close as I’ll ever come to being on a reality TV show (you know, “eight strangers picked to live together…”). Plus I got paid to sing, which is my dream! 

What brings you back to DMMO? I can’t stay away! I really like it here, there is a definite sense of family and I really enjoy that aspect of the work environment. 

What are you learning from the Apprentice Artist Program? Why do you think DMMO’s program has been good for you as a singer? I am learning patience as my voice matures. This program is a great opportunity to hone my craft as a singer and a performer. I’m also finding that I have a lot more to learn in this business! I think that the AAP is a great way to develop as a singer while making contacts to build a successful career. Plus there is so much to learn in the various languages and other areas of stage craft and the coaches and directors are so knowledgeable. I’ve also found that if you can survive at DMMO you can survive as a singer anywhere! 

The OI tour can be really grueling for a singer. I think you’re visiting about 65 schools in 34 cities in 3 states over just 10 weeks. What can you tell us about your preparation? Getting a flu shot was really important for me this winter! I also spent the holidays with my family, including my three small nephews, working on my patience! That is definitely the most important thing to get through that much traveling.  

What was the last book you read? The Life of Pi by Yann Martel was the last book I read. (I’ve re-read it three for four times…it is just phenomenal!) Right now I am reading Oscar Wilde’s The Portrait of Dorian Gray. 

Complete this sentence: I cannot go onstage without…taking at least one or two minutes to meditate and center myself. 

What is your favorite opera? Why? It’s a toss-up between Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt and Verdi’s Rigoletto. I think Korngold is underappreciated. His music is just beyond moving to me…it’s like a combination of Puccini and Strauss, with a hint of Wagner. Rigoletto has just amazing music and some of the best story lines in all of opera. It grabs your attention and holds it right to the end. 

What is playing in your CD player right now? It's actually a mix of my favorite music, including Radiohead, Missy Elliott, Portishead and the Diva Song from the soundtrack to the movie The Fifth Element (it’s really Lucia’s Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor).

The Ames Chapter met last night to hear Jean Meek's presentation on "The Counter-Tenor Voice." The next meeting will be February 12 at 7:30 pm at St. John's Episcopal Center when WOI Radio personality Hollis Monroe will present a program entitled "Enter Sneering: In Praise of Villainy in Opera." The chapter's annual fund raiser will be a Mardi Gras party on February 1, 2008. Tickets are just $60 per person. Make your reservations today by sending a check to Shirley Shaw, 5527 Oak Lane, Ames, IA 50014.

The Indianola Chapter will host its annual potluck dinner to welcome the OPERA Iowa troupe on January 21 at 6:30 pm at Julia and Dale Hagen's home.

Des Moines Metro Opera's three Guild chapters are dedicated to supporting the Company, learning more about opera and having fun with other opera lovers. Each chapter has great programs, events and fundraisers lined up for the coming year!

Click here to learn more about joining the Guild.

by Jenn Pfeifer

It was third grade, about 1984, and my class members had to trade in the usual scuffed jeans, t-shirts and the newest velcro tennis shoes for pretty dresses, button-down shirts, dress pants, and shiny dress shoes. For most of us it would be the first theatrical event we had ever seen. 

We filed off the bus and into what we all thought at the time was the world's largest theatre, Pote Theatre at Simpson College with our tickets in hand. We felt just like grown-ups, with tickets and assigned seats. My homeroom class trekked our way up the stairs to the very top row of the seating area. The cast was playing to a full house of elementary students from throughout the metro. 

We sat there in anticipation of our first big performance as the large burgundy curtains opened to the world of Hansel and Gretel. It took a story we all knew and brought it to life right before our eyes. To this day I can still see the elaborate sets, with the candy house that at the time really did look good enough to eat.  Plus, nothing would prepare us for Anne Larson popping out of the gingerbread house with an evil cackle and voice that took us from the last row to the best seat in the house without moving a step. It was one of those memories that has made me realize how lucky we were to be given the opportunity to experience a performance like that at such an early age.