Meet Kelsey Fahy, a mezzo-soprano and engineer based in San Diego County.
Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, she decided she wasn’t cold enough and so spent her college years in Minnesota, where she sang in the St. Olaf Choir and performed in Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, and The Coronation of Poppea. Since relocating to California, Kelsey has performed in chorus roles with Pacific Lyric Association and Lyric Opera of Orange County, has worked as a supernumerary in Otello with Pacific Symphony, and sings regularly with the Southern California Damekor. Her most recent performance was as Mercedes in PLA's production of Carmen. In addition to opera chorus work, Kelsey has understudied the roles of Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors. Fun fact: listening to the Fellowship of the Ring score was what prompted her decision to pursue singing. La Traviata, Oct 19, 20 and 21 2023 at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido, CA Buy your tickets here: www.pacificlyricassociation.org/pla-traviata2023.html
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Swedish soprano Emma Berggren is making her role debut singing Violetta with Pacific Lyric Association.
Ms. Berggren recently sang the title role in Tosca with Guild Opera Company. Other operatic roles includes Mimì in La Bohème (Puccini), Angelica in Suor Angelica (Puccini), Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte (Mozart), Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart), the Celestial Voice in Don Carlo (Verdi), Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto (Verdi), and Papagena and the Second Spirit in Die Zauberflöte (Mozart). Ms. Berggren has covered roles such as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly (Puccini), Rosaline in Die Fledermaus (Strauss), the mezzo soprano soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Johanna in Sweeney Todd (Sondheim). Organizations that Emma has performed and covered roles with in Southern California includes Guild Opera Company, Ridgecrest Opera Guild, Riverside Lyric Opera, California Philharmonic and Golden State Pops Orchestra. Ms. Berggren was a finalist in the 2022 Burbank Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hennings-Fischer Foundation Young Artist Competition and was featured last summer as a soloist in the Falsterbo-Skanör music summer program in Sweden. Emma is passionate about introducing children to opera and has performed the role of Queen of Hearts in Robert Chauls’ Alice in Wonderland as part of Guild Opera Company’s community outreach program at many elementary schools in Los Angeles County. Upcoming operatic roles for the 2023/2024 include singing Angelica in Suor Angelica with Guild Opera Company www.pacificlyricassociation.org/pla-traviata2023.html PART 2
Did you know Bizet had never actually been to Spain when he wrote “Carmen”? Yet, his opera has become the touchstone interpretation of life in Seville. Speaking of life in Seville, let's hash out the plot of "Carmen." The story goes like so: The year is about 1830. The plot deals with the unbridled love and jealousy of Don José, who gets very distracted from his soldier duties, not to mention his existing love, Micaëla, by the gypsy* Carmen, who works at the local tobacco factory makes cigars. The male lead, Don José, had trained to be a priest. During his teenage years, he got into a rather heated tussle over a sports game and killed a man. To avoid prison, he fled his country and enlisted in the military. Don Jose’s job as corporal of the dragoons is to oversee and confirm that the factory women are not stealing tobacco. Don José spots Carmen on a break and she shameless flirts with him. Things get rather complicated when Carmen, though making flagrant moves on Don José as a tease, makes it emphatically clear that she is enamored with someone else, a bull-fighter named Escamillo. As the plot goes on, Don José is persuaded to join Carmen’s cronies the smugglers, but as with all things opera, gets afflicted with outrageous jealousy when he learns about Escamillo. In the final act of the program, Escamillo enters the bullfighting arena with Carmen. Don José, who was waiting for Carmen to appear, and definitely not about to let her live happily ever after with Escamillo, stabs her to death just outside the bullring. Only in opera can you witness this type of relentless display of love, affection, rage and fury in one evening! But when it’s put to wonderful music, then it’s lifted to art! *The term "gypsy" is the term used to describe the free-spirit nomadic folks who spread over Europe, North and South Americas, typically of Romani descent. PLA recognizes it is considered a perjorative by some nowadays and is using the term only to be in sync with how opera described the character of Carmen from its point of story origination. How a story about a sultry Sevillian woman working in a cigarette factory who just happened to be the object of unflinching affection for a military man became one of the most iconic, if not performed operas of the planet is a rather interesting journey. Let’s go down the path of how “Carmen” became one of the top 3 most performed titles in operatic literature.
THE SPARK It began with a short story, “Carmen” written by French author Proper Mérimée, one of the true pioneers of the novella form of writing. It was a little bit spicy for a story line, but nonetheless the composer, Georges Bizet, was looking for something that would be different than his previous opera efforts. He had a few performed operas to his name, but none of them really was a standout. Parisian audiences of the time were more interested in conventional, established fare instead of branching out into more modern pieces. All this time, Bizet was also providing piano lessons to supplement his income. He was the true starving artist. A STORY CONSIDERED TOO INDECENT Still and all, the folks at Paris Opéra-Comique reached out to Bizet and commissioned him to write new material for their 1874 season. The directors at POC were a little hesitant about the storyline attached to Bizet’s new opera. They thought it was just a little too racy for public consumption. One of the company directors, Adolphe de Leuven thought it was far too risqué a story for his family-friendly audience and quit the company in protest. Bizet and his libretto collaborators, Ludovic Halévy and Henri Meilhac, agreed to tone down the Rabelaisian nature of the story. TORCHES AND PITCHFORKS That wasn’t even the half of it. Lots of drama crept into the rehearsals. The chorus complained that they genuinely had to act and fight onstage. Given that during this period of history, the chorus was rather relegated to simply standing in position and singing, this was asking them to step outside their comfort zone. Down in the pit, the orchestra found parts of the score unplayable and let their displeasure be known. Lots of unhappy folks in the company rank and file, to be certain. STAY TUNED FOR MORE DRAMA… |
AuthorPacific Lyric Association Archives
February 2024
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