Dining in the Tent

Stars of Tomorrow

Mainstage Opera Update

DesMoinesMetroOpera.org

Here's what's coming up this week:

Stars of Tomorrow: Thursday, July 15, 7:00 pm at Sheslow Auditorium at Drake University, Des Moines

Masterclass with Catherine Malfitano: Saturday, July 17, 1:00 pm at Lekberg Hall at Simpson College Campus in Indianola

One of the things that makes an evening at the opera so special is the chance to enjoy a meal at LaVal Alfresco, DMMO's very own restaurant! Dinners will be located in an air-conditioned tent right next door to the theater. It makes having a delicious dinner before the show ever so convenient!
Chef Michael Lavalle, the culinary director of the Des Moines Embassy Club, has created themed dinner menus to coordinate with each opera! The dinner for The Marriage of Figaro features grilled summer vegetables with manchego cheese and root vegetables, grouper with grilled artichokes and dry sherry sauce and strawberry flan with churros. Macbeth's pre show dinner brings you lamb and vegetable pasties, carved Scottish angus beef filet with wild mushrooms and Scottish drunken rhubarb crumble with vanilla scotch sauce. Susannah features Southern fare like fried green tomato salad with BBQ toast, collard greens and southern fried chicken thighs. These dishes are only PART of each delicious meal Chef Lavalle has created for us! Your only problem will be finding enough room to fit all this delicious food!
Water, iced tea and coffee are served with all dinners. A wine list is available for extra charge and corkage fee is $20.

Visit here to reserve your dinner! Or, as always, call 515-961-6221.

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The Des Moines Metro Opera has a full week ahead! We hope you can yet attend one special activity before the Season is over!

For this, our final week of the 38th DMMO Summer Festival Season, we have productions planned for Tuesday (The Marriage of Figaro - a sell out!), Wednesday (Macbeth - tickets yet available), Friday (Susannah - a sell out!), Saturday (Macbeth - tickets yet available), and Sunday (The Marriage of Figaro - a sell out again!)

We also have our annual "Stars of Tomorrow" event on Thursday, July 15 at Drake University's Sheslow Auditorium in Des Moines. It's not too late to order tickets - see the article below for all the details!

To complete the week, we will host Catherine Malfitano who will share her talents through a Masterclass for the James M. Collier Apprentice Artist Program, working with individual singers on their musical and dramatic interpretations. If you're interested in learning how to improve your talent too, join us! The class is free and open to the public.

It's also not too late to support Des Moines Metro Opera by giving a gift toward the special James M. Collier Gift Challenge. Help us reach (and surpass) our goal of raising $25,000!

Don't hesitate to contact us if you need help with tickets, directions or any other information. You can reach us by phone at (515) 961-6221 or you can reach me by email at lgarman@dmmo.org.

See you at the Opera!
Leslie Garman
Editor, OPERAzzi

The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart

One of the most remarkable opera scores of all time, The Marriage of Figaro combines the elegance and wonder of Mozart's music with a rococo comedy of wit and brilliance, but tinged with the sweet sadness of a changing world. It contains an intricate network of fantastic situations in which royalty is foiled by the imagination and wit of two lovable servants. The very nature of the theme, at the time when monarchs were uneasy on their thrones, was responsible for a ban on the play's performance in France.

Read the Des Moines Register's review of The Marriage of Figaro here!

Macbeth by Verdi

Verdi's passion for Shakespeare was intense and when the press accused him of not knowing the bard he replied, "I may not have rendered Macbeth well, but that I do not understand and feel Shakespeare, no, by heaven, no. He is one of my very special poets, and I have had him in my hands from my earliest youth, and I read and reread him continually." The opera was very dear to the composer when he wrote it and remained so throughout his career. It is probably the strongest of the works preceding Rigoletto-a summation of all he did before it and a harbinger of the great works of the future.

Read the Des Moines Register's review of Macbeth here!

Buy your tickets for Macbeth here!

Susannah by Carlisle Floyd

Susannah was premiered at Florida State University in 1955 where the composer was on the staff. The story, despite its symbolic parallel to Susannah and the Elders, is a tale about the South in the 1930s. Its dramatic appeal is simple and its musical inspirations strongly influenced by American folk idioms and country music. Floyd received the New York Critics' Circle Award for Susannah as the "Best Opera of 1956." Among his several other operatic works are Wuthering Heights, Of Mice and Men, The Passion of Jonathan Wade, Bilby’s Doll and, most recently, Cold Sassy Tree, which premiered in Houston in April 2000.

Read the Des Moines Register's review of Susannah here!

Don't Forget about the Jim Collier Gift Challenge!

We are proud to announce that one of our most loyal supporters, James M. Collier (sponsor of the James M. Collier Apprentice Artist Program), has found a creative way to challenge us all to meet the fundraising goal for this year! Jim has issued a special CHALLENGE to all DMMO supporters to give a gift prior to August 31st. Any gift made by this time will be matched by Jim, DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR, up to $25,000!

Please help DMMO continue to meet and surpass its goals! Make a gift today by calling DMMO at (515) 961-6221 or by making your gift online at www.desmoinesmetroopera.org.

DMMO thanks Jim for his continued support and leadership! If you'd like to help in a creative way too, just call the DMMO office. Thank you in advance for your support!

A Dream Fulfilled: The Saga of George Washington Carver

This new opera for children, by Michael Patterson, will be recorded at IPTV July 13 at 1:30 pm. Commissioned by the Des Moines Metro Opera in cooperation with the State Historical Society of Iowa, A Dream Fulfilled traces the life and career of George Washington Carver from Winterset and Indianola, Iowa to the halls of Congress, to the prestigious Tuskegee Institute. Opera Iowa has performed this production at several schools around Iowa and at the State Historical Museum. If you'd like free tickets for the July 13 performance, please call the Friends of IPTV office at (800)728-2828 or send an email to darla@iptv.org. A kid-friendly cookie reception will follow the opera and the cast will be on hand to talk wtih audience members. Kids and adults of all ages will enjoy this look at history!

Friday, July 17, 1:00 pm at Lekberg Hall. Simpson College Campus, Indianola

World renowned soprano Catherine Malfitano will present a masterclass for the James M. Collier Apprentice Artist Program, working with individual singers on their musical and dramatic interpretations. This class is free and open to the public.

Catherine Malfitano, singer, actor, director, and teacher, was born in New York City to a dancer/actress mother and violinist father. She has sung an eclectic, wide-ranging, and glamorous repertoire of over 70 roles, encompassing the entirety of operatic history from the 17th to the 21st century. Her more than 1400 performances have been seen and heard at all the major opera houses of the world, and on television.

Celebrated as a unique music theater performer, Ms. Malfitano is acclaimed for her commanding vocalism, impeccable musicianship, elegant stage presence, and riveting dramatic abilities. Her portrayal of Tosca, broadcast live from the actual Roman settings and at the actual times of the opera, was seen by more than one billion television viewers worldwide in 1992, and garnered her an Emmy Award.

Click here to learn more about Catherine Malfitano.