One of the greatest partnerships in musical theater was gravely wounded by a fight about carpet. What a shaggy predicament. Sir William Schwenck Gilbert and Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan. The duo of librettist W.S. Gilbert and composer Sir Arthur Sullivan was a collaboration that lasted a quarter century, creating a body of work, according to... Continue Reading →
Stage combat choreographer Teresa E. Gallar discusses how to safely create fight scenes. Caught In the Act: How did you get started in this line of work? Teresa Gallar: Like any other physical endeavor, there is a thrill from a well-executed fight. Similar to a home run or field goal. It is even more satisfying to have a fight you choreographed... Continue Reading →
Ahoy, me hearties! As you might have come to recognize, we love celebrating national days here at The Straz, and September 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. And being in Tampa, this is one holiday we cannot pass up, since no one knows and loves pirates quite like those from the home of the legendary Jose Gaspar. Oh, and those Buccaneers. The... Continue Reading →
Just because the Straz stages are on intermission during the COVID-19 pandemic, doesn’t mean our Opera Tampa singers are home resting on their laurels – well, not all of the time. About a month ago we caught up with Annie Scott, Alec Brown and Dana Clark, who also are roommates here in Tampa. Scott is... Continue Reading →
Last Monday, March 9, the Straz Center said goodbye to Opera Tampa’s founding artistic director and one of the most colorful characters to grace our halls and stages. Here, we recount some of our favorite things about Maestro Anton Coppola. On March 21, 1917, Anton Coppola arrived to Italian-American parents in a country that was... Continue Reading →
Opera Tampa, the resident opera company of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts, celebrates its 25th anniversary season with three electrifying main stage performances. This article first appeared in the Jan/Feb 2020 issue of Tampa Bay Magazine. We are happy to have permission to reprint it for our blog, in honor of the upcoming... Continue Reading →
The 2019 D’Angelo Young Artist Vocal Competition honors Opera Tampa’s dedication to nurturing new artists. On a more personal note, the competition represents Opera Tampa League Board Chair Gina d’Angelo’s commitment to continuing her parents’ love of music through philanthropic support. When Straz Center donor and Opera Tampa League chairperson Gina d’Angelo was in college,... Continue Reading →
The Straz Center’s Manager of Special Events Nicole Stickeler dons a bum roll to change into her next role for Opera Tampa. In show business, you’re considered a triple threat if you can sing, dance and act. In the performing arts, you’re considered a triple threat if you can sing, act and raise money. The... Continue Reading →
Longtime Opera Tampa and Straz Center photographer Rob Bovarnick reveals the secrets behind capturing that Pearl Fishers photo. Cardboard box. Plastic bag. Three thousand white beads ... What sounds like either the making of a Mardi Gras costume or the making of a very bizarre murder comprised the basic backstage ingredients of one of the... Continue Reading →
Die Fledermaus soprano and Opera Tampa returnee Rochelle Bard explains life in opera. One of the great injustices to opera is the enduring stereotype involving a strident woman in a blonde braid wig and a Viking hat. It’s not a very sexy image, and let’s face it: opera is sexy. The canon teems with gorgeous... Continue Reading →
Halloween lurks and looms. Witch means (see what we did there?) it’s time to take a look at some really great harpies, hags, conjurers and spellcasters from stage and screen. Here’s a Ten List since we had too much toil and trouble trying to figure out how to rank the best witchy stories and characters... Continue Reading →
North Carolina soprano Jill Gardner’s musical ancestry and training led her to killing the role of Lady Macbeth. On Friday the 13th, Opera Tampa unloads quite the murderfest with their debut performance of Verdi’s Macbeth. The bloody story of a Scottish nobleman’s immoral rise to power, Macbeth was for Shakespeare, and here, for Verdi, really... Continue Reading →
Giuseppe Verdi’s version of “more cowbell” looks something like an entire chorus of witches in Macbeth versus the Bard’s three. In 1597, King James of Scotland wrote a work of what he considered to be definitive scholarship: Daemonologie, a paper on witchcraft. James, widely regarded by self and others to be an expert on the... Continue Reading →
Opera Tampa Singer Vanessa Rodriguez reveals the four parts of the body to “place” the voice. Plus, she shows how to hit those high notes with no microphone. “It’s the Tweety Bird end of the spectrum,” says Vanessa Rodriguez. We’d asked her to explain what she meant when she told us she was a coloratura... Continue Reading →
Seth Black-Diamond and the new Straz web series, Milkshakes & Opera On January 12, Opera Tampa launched its first-ever web series geared towards kids. The idea? Take a well-loved local 11-year-old performer, give him a hosting gig and sit him across from equally well-loved opera conductors to gab about opera and drink milkshakes donated by... Continue Reading →
Just in time for Tosca, Opera Tampa’s Emmy®-winning hair designer divulges trade secrets about one of the great characters in opera—the wig. Dawn Rivard’s impressive résumé of hairstyling and wigbuilding gigs spans from the ‘90s television series Animorphs to this year’s breakaway series The Handmaid’s Tale. She’s worked on the major motion reboots of Total... Continue Reading →
Tosca slays, creating some great legends Early critics sometimes panned Puccini’s Tosca, tossing it on a slagheap of criticism that included dismissing it as a “shabby little shocker” that was, in a word, vulgar. But what are you going to do? Haters gonna hate. Audiences love this opera, and it contains three meaty main roles... Continue Reading →
Maestro Anton Coppola celebrates his 100th birthday. We are throwing one heck of a party. 1917 was a big year. The first woman was elected to Congress and the U.S. Navy appointed its first female petty officer that year as well. President Wilson declared war on Germany and Congress agreed, thus entering the United States... Continue Reading →
An intimate interview with Opera Tampa artistic director and conductor Daniel Lipton We are hot and heavy in the thick of opera season at The Straz, with Romeo & Juliet and Cinderella (La Cenerentola) behind us and the grand dame Tosca in rehearsals for April performances. We are fortunate to be able to boast that... Continue Reading →
Folk and fairy tale scholars estimate there may be 1500 different versions of the Cinderella tale, the earliest originating in Greece and China. In Greece, the story is called Rhodopis, in which an eagle snatched Rhodopis' shoe and transports it to the lap of the king of Egypt. In China, it is the story of... Continue Reading →
