“Innovative, adventurous, and increasingly essential.” The New York Times

 

(Westhampton Beach, NY August 10, 2009) The Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center is proud to present New York City Opera in an encore performance on Saturday, August 29 at 8:30 p.m.

 

The Opera returns to Westhampton Beach for its fourth season. Presenting a glorious evening of favorite selections from opera and musical theater, this revered company is sure to delight. The performance will include works from the likes of such renowned composers as Stephen Foster, Aaron Copland, Gian-Carlo Menotti, John Philip Sousa, Scott Joplin, Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber, Cole Porter and Kurt Weill. For opera devotees and novices alike, this elegant, yet relaxed recital will showcase the company’s rising stars, accompanied by Maestro Jerry Steichen on the piano, who will also provide his lively and always amusing narration.

 

Generously sponsored, in part, by Kristin & John Miller

 

WLIU 88.3FM and Hamptons Magazine

 

Tickets: $200 (includes pre-show cocktail party), $100, $85, $60

Box Office: 631-288-1500

Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center

76 Main Street

Westhampton Beach, NY 11978

Hours: Seven Days a Week, Noon – 8pm and later on show nights.

On-Line: www.whbpac.org

 

 

**New York City Opera was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera available to the widest possible audience, and to promote American opera and artists.

 

**In its early years, the NYCO's home base was at City Center on West 55th Street. True to the company's goal to make opera accessible to the masses, tickets were priced at just 75 cents to $2 while the company operated on a budget of $30,500.

 

**Today, New York City Opera is the second largest opera company in New York City, after the Metropolitan Opera.

 

**The company’s wide-ranging repertory of 274 works spans five centuries of music and includes 29 world premieres and 61 American and/or New York premieres of such notable works as Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shostakovich’s Katerina Ismailova, Busoni’s Doktor Faust, Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges and The Flaming Angel, Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten, Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron, and Glass’ Akhnaten.

 

**In 1983 City Opera made operatic history when it became the first American company to use supertitles, (translated or transcribed lyrics/dialogue projected above the stage or displayed on a screen) an innovation that has revolutionized the way opera is produced and appreciated in this country.

 

**In February 2009, George Steel, former Executive Director of Miller Theatre at Columbia University, began his tenure as the company’s new General Manager and Artistic Director. Building on the company’s core mission of artistic excellence and accessibility, Mr. Steel’s plans include broadening the company’s adventurous approach to repertory, supporting the careers of promising young singers, and continuing to develop the company’s acclaimed education and outreach programs.

 

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WEBSITE & LINKS

Official Site: http://www.nycopera.com/

2009-10 Season Preview on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVx05MqAiJg