Focus on February, part 1

January 23, 2010 - So OV has very full month coming up in February, so I'm going to do a short series of posts giving more details. First up, Club OV's cabaret in honor of Valentine's Day entitled My Foolish Heart.

Club OV is the cabaret arm of Opera Vivente. Cabaret gives people a chance to enjoy great music sung by fantastic singers in a truly relaxed atmosphere: table seating, candlelight, food and drink throughout the performance, laughter and comment encouraged. For My Foolish Heart, we have OV favorites Joy Greene (most recently Lady Anna in Lord Giovanni), Jessica Renfro (our hysterically funny Tisbe in Cinderella), Ken Gayle (Pelléas in our upcoming production of Impressions of Pelléas) and Chris Austin (most recently Lord Magnifico in Cinderella) accompanied by Dana Scott at the piano, singing love songs by composers as diverse as Gershwin, Sondheim, and John Lennon. The program starts with a set extolling the praises of love, followed by a "new love" set which includes the cabaret cult classic "Taylor the Latte Boy", a "trouble with love" set, a "love lost" set, a "love the second time around" set, and closes with a "true love" set.

With tickets priced at $30 including food, this is a great way to celebrate the season of love with your special someone. Or take advantage of the informal "talking encouraged" atmosphere (and the cash bar) to make a connection with a "stranger across a crowded room". Seating is limited so don't wait. Fall in love with love by clicking here.

Club OV and I Hear America Singing

July 17, 2009 - So tomorrow afternoon at Corpus Christi Church in Bolton Hill, Opera Vivente, wearing its cabaret hat (henceforth to be known as Club OV), will present a program entitled I Hear America Singing; a program which, with the exception of "Make our garden grow" from Bernstein's Candide, contains no opera. Several OV fans have wondered why an opera company is presenting a program of folk songs, patriotic songs, broadway songs, pop songs, and even one rock song, so here's my answer for what it's worth.

For me, and for the vast majority of people who work at OV, "opera" is about story-telling, an elucidation of the human condition brought about through a magical combination of words and music. In that light, all the music in I Hear America Singing is "operatic" because it all speaks to the story of America and Americans. For better or worse, until recently, the more traditional concept of opera has been one that has eluded American composers, but the works of George M. Cohan, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Frank Loesser and many, many others have told this story as eloquently as any 19th century Italian composer told the story of the unification of Italy.

So, come check out Club OV's offering tomorrow afternoon at 2 and 5:30pm. Come hear America singing, because she sounds amazing.