Opera at the Anchor!

Eat Drink & Be Merry while supporting
Kentucky Opera!

On Monday, July 9 from 5-10pm come to the Village Anchor Pub and Roost (11507 Park Road, Anchorage, Kentucky 40223) for dinner and Kentucky Opera will receive 10% of dinner sales.

Make reservations by calling at 502-708-1850 and tell them you’re eating for the Opera!
Bring your friends (100 people is a lot. If you come with one other person that’s only 98 we have to bring!) Carry out orders count too! – Just tell them you’re eating for the Kentucky Opera!

If 10% proceeds to your favorite opera company isn’t enough to entice you, how about cold hard cash?

Thanks to US Bank The Private Client Reserve, we will be giving away three $100 gift cards as door prizes!
You must eat to be entered to win!

A Delicious Opportunity!

From the Guild of Kentucky Opera:

The witch's house on stage.

Hansel and Gretel is fun. It's got cute kids, a sandman, a dew fairy and the mean ole witch who lives in a gingerbread house dripping with candy to entice her victims! The Guild of Kentucky Opera is always looking for new ideas to raise funds and found this opera wrought with possibilities!

Since Hansel and Gretel takes the stage at the Brown Theatre the weekend before Thanksgiving and the advent of the holiday season, Kitty Shaw, the Guild Treasurer, had the wonderful idea of finding a local baker to make us a gingerbread house. The original thought was a charming, standard gingerbread house. Then, when the challenge was brought to the talents of Helen Friedman, the owner of the exceptionally decadent Desserts by Helen offered to make a house based on actual witch's house that will be in the production. This was an opportunity NOT to pass up. So the Guild brought the master baker photographs of the set, and off she and her talented staff went. In a little over two weeks, Desserts by Helen crafted a tabletop version of the witch's house adding snow covered trees, gingerbread men, and a snow covered base. Although all of the elements are completely edible, we doubt you will want to consume this piece of gingerbread art!

The gingerbread house crafted by Deserts by Helen.

The Guild of Kentucky Opera is raffling tickets for the house at $10 apiece. The drawing will be on December 8 at the Guild's holiday party. Tickets are available at both performances (11/20 & 11/22) of Hansel and Gretel AND the final dress rehearsal for students tomorrow (Wednesday 11/18). You can also contact Tracy Terry at 561-7935 or tracy_terry@kyopera.org.

For more information on Hansel and Gretel go to the website! KYOpera.org.

Posted for The Guild of Kentucky Opera

Dearest Opera Lovers,

Another season is upon us! It is such a delight to be involved in a vibrant community of Opera enthusiasts waiting patiently for the curtain to rise once more and reveal passion, artistry, mastery in the art of great singing (thank you Fadel!!), dramatic plots, breathtaking music, drama, comedy and my list can go on and on…because Opera is a golden junction, a whirlwind of fusion where fine arts from singing to dancing, from costume design to stage design, from theatre to intricate lighting come together to create a spectacle, an art form, a divine intervention in the hearts of an audience that can do nothing less but weep uncontrollably when such a stimulant for the senses appears before them in flesh and blood.

Some of you reading this piece are probably already in tears laughing at my over-the-top, extremely emotional, maybe even ridiculous rumblings. My intent, however, is not to be eloquent or dazzle you with my use of the English language; I will leave that to English scholars and respected art critics in our community who make a living from their writings. In my poor writing form, I merely try to convey my inner exuberance, utterly frantic emotional state and deep love for our Kentucky Opera and the upcoming Brown-Forman 2009 Fall Season. Isn’t after all love supposedly a state of emotional distress, one of madness, lunacy if you would like? I would not be true to my feelings if I provided you with a well polished piece while trying to express how much love and anticipation I harbor inside me (to the point of madness) as we move day after day, hour after hour towards the opening night gala…it would not be a true Opera lover’s piece; it would just be another page among the many that get published every minute of every day.

Thus, my dearest Opera loving consumers, I will keep this short! I do not even need to go into detail about the phenomenal performers that are going to parade through our elegant, vibrant Brown Theater stage providing us with sensations beyond our wildest dreams or even try to persuade you of the amazing scores and productions that have been chosen for this season. You have your own notions and appreciation of this company’s superhuman efforts to provide us with the best Opera in the region. Your heart and ears will solidify what you already know about this company; whatever it does, it does it right, to the maximum, with elegance, style, knowledge and with US, the Opera audience always in mind. Never lose sight of this because then you will lose sight of how much toil and tears go into the grandeur and beauty the rest of us enjoy. Our Kentucky Opera is a beacon of artistic excellence, uprising star promotion and constantly pushing its audience to new pathways, to new roads of operatic discovery (DO NOT MISS “OF MICE AND MEN”; you will miss more than just an Opera).

So, join me, Christos “The Wagnerian” Dimitriadis in another season of emotional, musical, and vocal growth through the nostalgically beautiful walls of the Brown Theater as we celebrate our own Kentucky Opera. I would also like to invite you to our Guild of Kentucky Opera events and membership. Be among Opera lovers who enjoy more than a performance at the theater; be among Opera lovers who without Opera will breathe no more. To all of you VIVA VOCE!! VIVA BROWN THEATER!! VIVA BROWN-FORMAN 2009 FALL SEASON!! VIVA KENTUCKY OPERA!!

Christos “The Wagnerian” Dimitriadis

Did you miss it??

In case you have missed any of the auxiliary events surrounding Kentucky Opera's LA TRAVIATA there is still time!!! Don't miss any of these great opportunities to learn about the talented cast, the gorgeous production and the amazing spectacle that is grand opera!

Sights & Sounds at the Speed:
Speed Museum Auditorium, 2035 South Third Street
Sunday, September 13 at 1:30pm
The Bad Girls of Art and Opera

Lunch & Listen:
Metro TV (Insight Channel 25)
Sunday, September 13 at 9pm

Lunchtime Arias
Vincenzo's Italian Restaraunt, 150 South Fifth Street
Tuesday, September 15 at 12pm
$20 RSVP by calling Tracy Terry at 502.561.7935

Art of Great Singing
Classical 90.5 FM WUOL
Sunday, September 20 & 27 at 8pm

If you haven't gotten your tickets for the Brown-Forman 2009 Fall Season Opening Night Gala on Friday, September 25... first, shame... second, you had better do so soon, as I just overheard we may sell out! 502.584.7777 or KYOpera.org.

The Studio Artists have arrived!

This morning we had a little meet and greet with our new Studio Artists. There were some familiar faces like soprano Heather Phillips who recently took first place at the 2009 National Opera Association Vocal Competition; and pianist/coach Naoko Suga (who was able to work hard in L.A. this summer) both of whom were with us last season.


New to the ranks include baritone, Eric Brown from Washington D.C.; Sarah Klopfenstein, a mezzo-soprano from Fort Worth, Texas both of whom are University of Kentucky Graduates. Craig Philip Price a bass- baritone who got his masters from Manhattan School of Music; Johnathan Stinson, a baritone whose work with Lyric Opera of Kansas City included a World Premiere of John Brown. Also among the new singers, is tenor Clark Sturdevant who will be the new Artist in Residence for Dayton Opera. We have also enlisted the talents of University of Louisville masters student Lydia Cepeda as an apprentice.

You can read their full bios on Kentucky Opera's website here.

Along with these talented young professionals, Kentucky Opera's Studio Artists program has deepened its educational role by developing a third tier to include four interns from the Youth Performing Arts School who will participate in the Kentucky Opera chorus.

Their first tour of duty will include performing at the Guild of Kentucky Opera's event, Viva Voce on Thursday, August 28. Get your reservations now by calling 502.584.4500!


They will be working hard through the season with Traviata, Of Mice and Men and Hansel and Gretel. Beyond the main stage commitments, they will also be responsible for a Madama Butterfly concert with Owensboro Symphony as well as the Opera Bound program and the multitude of other school tours.

Where's David Roth??

Last weekend, we were all very busy with the car raffle drawing and the Guild of Kentucky Opera held a birthday party for David.

The winner of the 2009-10 Car Raffle is (drum roll please) Ruth Ann Compton of Washington DC! Congratulations to Ruth who decided to take the $50,000 in lieu of the Porsche. All in all, the Opera exceeded their goal for the car raffle netting about $80,000.
The Guild's birthday party also raised a little coin for KYO. Donations in David's name are still rolling in but we are over $1000 at this point which isn't bad for a little birthday gathering. The invitation only event was held at the studio of Bryce Hudson and was well attended by Guild, Board, and friends.

Now that we are getting into summer, we see more sun and less David. Already, Kentucky Opera's General Director has gone to France to enjoy opera with friends, today he is in Toronto where he will see La Boheme and Mid Summer Nights Dream, and in a couple of weeks he will be in St. Louis. All to hear the artists that may make it to our fair city. Pick some good ones David!

KYO BB-Q Day!

There is just something about Mark's Feed Store's Honey wings. I LOVE them! They are so succulent and juicy, it seems unreal. I was there this weekend and was reminded what a great place it is to just have some BBQ, Iced Tea and watch the crazy people on Bardstown Road.

On Wednesday, July 16, if you bring the attached voucher to the Mark's Feed Store on Bardstown Road and the Kentucky Opera Guild will get 15% of the bill! Now that just makes yummy sense! Kentucky Opera Guild members will be eating together at 6pm, so you can gather with fellow opera lovers if you want to mingle and discuss the finer sides of opera and bar-b-q.

TRY THE HONEY WINGS!

Posted by Heather