This is happening at our church. If you’re available to come and sing or to come and listen please stop by. It sounds like great fun.
For Immediate Release- Tuesday, March 11, 2014, starting at 7:00 pm, at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 838 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, the weekly “Tuesday Nights” concert series presents Open Mic Opera. Local opera singers, younger and older, amateur and professional, are invited to sing their hearts out. Collaborative pianist Juliet Cunningham, who has accompanied opera, oratorio and musical theater singers (and produced operas with her Janus Opera Company) will play whatever you bring. Suggested donation of $10 at the door. For more information about the weekly “Tuesday Nights” concert series please visit www.saintpeterscambridge.org/news-events/announcements/tuesdaynightconcertseries
Open mic opera? In Boston – the home of the Red Sox, the Bruins, the Celtics? Yes, and it isn’t new either. Many lovers of Italian food will remember a restaurant near Quincy Market that used to feature singing waiters. In other parts of the country, such as California, there have been restaurants with nights given over to singers performing opera arias and scenes for the past two to three decades, according to Duff Murphy, host of The Opera Show on Los Angeles’s radio station KUSC. In case you thought opera was just for the old folks, Murphy also has observed that it has become popular with many 20- and 30- somethings. Robert Hansen, executive director of the National Opera Association has been quoted to the effect that open mic opera is growing in popularity because “there is a huge population out there now of singers who want some sort of opportunity to sing, whether they make a living doing it, for pocket money or just for the love of singing.” Boston is brimming over with opera singers. This is an opportunity for them to strut their stuff in public, with encouragement and at no risk. All singers are welcome to participate, and you can bring your accompanist and audience with you.
Me, I’d probably bring some Musical Theatre just to shake things up a bit.
~Kelly