Kentucky Opera in PRINT!

Lookie lookie who made the cover of Opera America's "Year in Review"

Yes folks, you got it right! That's Elizabeth Futral and Sebastian Gueze in the opening production of Kentucky Opera's 2009 Brown-Forman Fall Season, La Traviata! This beautiful photo was taken by O'Neil Arnold.

You may also recognize the handsome Adam Diegel (under the Traviata image) performing in Florida Grand Opera's Carmen with Kendall Galden (photo by Gaston De Cardenas). Adam closed our 2010 Brown Forman Fall Season as B.F. Pinkerton in our two sold-out performances of Madame Butterfly.

Also on this cover: Roberth Orth and Sally Dibblee in Vancouver Opera's 2010 Production of Nixon in China (photo by Tim Matheson) and Katherine Whyte with David Daniels in Orfeo and Euridice for Atlanta Opera (photo by Tim Wilkerson).

What a great gift to be recognized by the industry leader in this way. It's a great image, and O'Neil has done great work for us.

Kentucky Opera also has images in The Daily Book of Classical Music where O'Neil's Traviata image is featured along with John Fitzgerald's Cenerentola, Pearl Fishers and Salome images and J. David Levy's Otello and Hansel & Gretel images. These still shots are a testament to the high quality performances for which Kentucky Opera is becoming known.

Support our Butterfly Reviews!

Yunah Lee as Madame Butterfly, photo by J. David Levy

Kentucky Opera closes out the 2010 Brown-Forman Fall Season with Madame Butterfly this weekend (November 19 & 21). We heard a lot of rave reviews from a lot of great people who attended the opera on Friday. Here are a couple that are actually in writing and available online.

The Arts Louisville, a website dedicated to the promotion of all the arts in our community, has given actor and historical interpereter, J. Barrett Cooper the task of reviewing Kentucky Opera. He has willingly been transported this season with us and we are grateful for his final 2010 review. Find it here.

Another online resoruce for stories and reviews is Louisville.Com. This valuable website is the digital sister of Louisville Magazine, and is their way of being more timely when it comes to events and news. Louisville Magazine/Louisville.com have been developing the digital brand by investing time and resources and is really becoming the GO TO site to find out where to go, what to do, where to eat and what to see. For Kentucky Opera, Louisville.com gives us the very talented writer, Selena Frye. Her previews and reviews are a valuable resource for the community to learn more about the Opera. Her Butterfly Review can be found here.

Charles Parsons is the regional reviewer for Opera News, and was working last night. While we don't often get reviewed by Opera News, when we do, it's usually their on-line version. If you get the magazine, you can get the on-line reviews. Keep an eye out and if you see it, let us know.

From my tone, you maybe able to tell, I am asking for something. I am asking that you support and visit the media that supports & vistis Kentucky Opera. These sites find value in clicks, so when you see a link, click it. If they can tell that people are visiting their sites through Kentucky Opera's blog, website, FaceBook page or tweets, they will see the value in supporting KYO with reviews and previews.

Madame Butterfly Previews are in!

Yunah Lee as Cio-Cio San in Kentucky Opera's Madame Butterfly. Photo by J. David Levy.

Tonight is the Final Dress Rehearsal for Madame Butterfly and we are expecting a full house. We invite schools and donors to join us for this rehearsal which makes the experience mutually beneficial. Middle & high school students get to see live opera in its grandest setting and our singing actors and musicians have the opportunity to get a live response from an audience. I have heard many stage directors say these students are the best audience. They aren't afraid to react when something is funny or surprising. They are honest and outright with their experiences.

I would like to encourage anyone who wants to see the final opera of the 2010 Brown-Forman Fall Season, don't wait. We honestly only have 100 vacant seats (as of Tuesday 11/16) available for the entire weekend. GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!! 502.584.7777!

Our dear friends at the LEO have given us a great write up after Bill Doolittle spoke with Maestro Joe Mechavich and Soprano Yunah Lee.
Read the article here.

If you missed it, Selena Fry of Louisville.Com spoke with our fabulous wig & makeup designer, Sue Sittko Schaefer. Read her article here.

We were expecting a story yesterday from the Courier Journal. Andrew Adler was going to write a guest spot for us. He spoke to David Roth who is stage directing this piece, and our Cio-Cio San, Yunah Lee. Here it is Wednesday, and no story. Do let us know if you see it~

We have video!!

This video is from Kentucky Opera's 2005 production with Ailan Zhu as Cio-Cio San and Stephen Mark Brown as B.F. Pinkerton.

Madame Butterfly

Madame Butterfly is by far one of the most popular operas in the entire repetiore. There are a million reasons to love this opera, the story, the music, the history.

The Kentucky Center for the Arts posts "Staff Pics" on their blog, This month, Madame Butterfly is Jeffery Jamners' Staff Pic. Here's why...

Remember these??

I knew about this commercial that popularized the I Pagliacci aria:

But I had no idea it was a big campaign... Imagine. Using opera to give strength to your product...

A note on Owensboro

Lisa Hasson, Thomson Smillie and Clark Sturdevant rehearse for Madama Butterfly at Artspace in Louisville.

Many may or may not know that Kentucky Opera went to Owensboro recently to perform a semi staged version of Madama Butterfly with the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra. It seems as though other Orchestras are coordinating with opera companies to produce smaller less expensive semi staged concerts like this. Check out Nicks Notes here.