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.

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 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

Pirates Cast Staff Lunch

This post was sitting in my drafts pile for a while so its a little late. Sorry

Pirates of Penzance Cast/Staff Lunchon.

I learned A LOT at the lunch today. I sat next to our Mabel, Jamie-Rose Guarrine. She has just moved to Fairbanks Alaska, and LOVES the fall weather here in the 'Ville. Just before her move, she had a gig in Arizona where it was too hot. She was in Alaska for a month during which time she had to take a course to prepare for encounters with Moose and ice fog. She is grateful for the temperature and the view of the river from her room at the Galt House.

I was also sitting next to Anne-Carolyn Bird, who isn't in our show, but is the fiance of Matt Burns who is our Pirate King. She is actually on her day off from Nashville Opera's Don Giovanni. It always facinates me when opera singers get married. I suppose they live such hectic schedules this city one month another city the next, only another opera singer could cope with that kind of schedule. These two had a great getting together story.
It was in Opera Grand Rapids production of The Marriage of Figaro where they met. There was a photo shoot, the photographer noticed a great connection and what great actors these singers are, when infact, they were falling in love. The photographer saw it before they did - the eye of an artists! Turned out their next show was the following month at Daytona Opera with the Barber of Seville and thats where they figured it out. They will be taking a cruise and Matt is VERY excited about it!


Thomson Smillie was a fountain of wisdom as well, but his information was more about the show at hand...
For those who may not already know, Thomson is the Stage Director for Pirates of Penzance, and the former Director of Kentucky Opera. The last time the company performed this piece was in 1991 at the Brown Theatre with Thompson directing and Bob Bernhardt leading the Orcehstra. The duo will be reunited back home to the Brown...

Thompson told us about the miniature dopplegangers that will be in the show (more on this another time) and the use of monochromatic palate until the ladies arrive. The first 20 minutes everything is in black and white. Then when the maidens arrive, the pirates start adding color and the sets become more colorful. This is supposed to signal the pirates evolving into gentlemen.

From what I know, Opening night is selling very well, but we have a lot of room still for the Tuesday October 28th performance. Get your tickets here or call (502)584-7777!

Oh if you have a moment, Anne-Caroline Bird is a fellow opera blogger. Find her here.

Notes from Saturday, August 3rd 2008.

I have an easy day planned today. My flight out of Albuquerque leaves at 2:55pm which allowed me the pleasure of sleeping late, past 9:00am, and planning a leisurely morning prior to my drive to the airport at about 12:30pm. One tradition in Santa Fe that I have not enjoyed in recent years is a weekend breakfast at the Tecolote Café on Cerillos Road. With a generous supply of strong dark coffee and the tallest, fluffiest pancakes you’re likely to find, this is one place you gladly wait for the next table to open. Fortunately, this morning I was solo and given an immediate place at a large table in the middle of the café specifically reserved for single diners. Huevos Rancheros with beans easily complimented a morning read of the newspaper and small talk with a lovely group of fellow Tecolote admirers gathered around like a big, extended family. Satiated and satisfied with another productive trip to the summer pilgrimage to the adobe capitol that draws so many of us each year, I headed south to my connection back home to Louisville.