Wednesday, December 21, 2011

La Vie Parisienne! La Vie Masion Rose!

“It’s said that St-Jean is the prettiest of the countless pretty villages in the Perigord.  It’s also said, to our embarrassment, that Maison Rose is the most beautiful house in the village.  There’s some stiff competition for both of those titles.  All we know is that we feel unbelievably privileged to have found a house here, and to be able to share it with our friends.”  --Jim and Mary Oppel, owners of Maison Rose in Dordogne, France
(Photo by John Nation) - The back terrace; people who visit in the warm weather months say this is the best part of the house.

Kentucky Opera has printed just 30 raffle tickets and the lucky winner and five friends/family members will have a week in this beautiful home.  There are three bedrooms so go in with two other friends and the $500 ticket price is only $166 each.  What a wonderful vacation!  Those who have visited Maison Rose describe it as a gorgeous home in an equally gorgeous setting, convenient to many day trips and activities.

The second prize is a wonderful dinner for eight with French food and wine at the beautiful Cherokee Triangle home of Tanja Eikenboom and Rick Albrink here in Louisville.  Not quite Maison Rose in France, but a prize more than worth the price of a raffle ticket.

The winners of these two fabulous prizes will be drawn at Kentucky Opera’s black tie event--Carnevale. . .la vie parisienne! at the Louisville Marriott Downtown Hotel
at 10 pm on Saturday, January 21, 2012. 
The winners need not be present to win.  Airfare and ground transportation are not included.  Commonwealth of Kentucky Charitable Gaming License #0534.

To be one of the 30 entries in this raffle, contact Michael Miller at Kentucky Opera at 502.561.7934 or via email at Michael_Miller@KYOpera.org.
More information on Maison Rose can be found here.
Read a Wall Street Journal review here.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

The Weddings were a Great Success!

We had sold out audiences for the Marriage of Figaro!
 
 Check out the review from Arts-Louisville.com - where reviewer J. Barret Cooper says, "All are strong in voice, showing that Kentucky Opera does not scrimp on getting the best available talent in Opera today."

Selena Frye of Louisville.com stated "All in all, I think the night was a success -- and something of an experiment for both artists and audience." You can read her full review here




We were overwhelmed with the great support from the community and our loyal subscribers who let us know they understand our situation by showing up! We received a lot of anecdotal feedback about the lack of an orchestra in the pit. Most of the patrons who spoke to Opera staff acknowledged the difficult decisions that had to be made. We heard multiple times, "I expected to not enjoy this performance, but by the beginning of the second half I was won over." Or “at a certain point I forgot the orchestra wasn’t there.”

We gave the opportunity for people put pen to paper to tell us how they felt. While only a small number actually wrote out their comments, the written responses were varied and honest for the most part. 


"A wonderful effort! It would have been superlative with an orchestra."

"A Mozart Opera without an orchestra despite the stellar performances of the cast, is simply an incomplete opera."

A surprising number of people seemed to think that Kentucky Opera has 
influence over the contract between the Louisville Orchestra and it's musicians with statements like:


“The LO is entitled to a contract”

“Pay the musicians and orchestra their due. Give them their unemployment benefits.”

"I wonder where are the 'benefactors' for our orchestra like Louisville has for its sports programs."

But the majority of our patrons made statements like:

"We were comforted by the beauty of the music, our laughter and the strength of the performances today."

“Mozart is probably somewhere applauding wildly! What a masterpiece - masterfully sung, staged, acted.”

“The piano & harpsichord seemed appropriate accompaniment for this particular opera.”

“We appreciate the hard decisions that must be made. - You have our full support.”


Did you see Marriage of Figaro?  What did you think?  Leave a comment here or email us at info@kyopera.org.