Celebrating 78 Years of Sin

The origin of sin is oftentimes traced back to Eve’s time in the Garden of Eden, but on this date (June 7th) in 1933, a new look at sin was introduced at the famed Parisian Théatre des Champs-Elysées with the premiere of Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins.

This satirical opera of seven scenes was the last collaboration of Kurt “Mack the Knife” Weill and librettist Bertolt Brecht. The story follows the split personality of Anna (who is known as Anna I, the singer, and Anna II, the dancer) as she travels through seven American cities over seven years. Anna gathers money during her travels to send to her family so that they can build their dream home. However, she is confronted with a different Biblical sin—sloth, pride, wrath, gluttony, lust, envy, and greed—at each stop along the way.

Though originally received with amazement in Paris, especially since the opera was in German, the opera went only to London in 1933. The Seven Deadly Sins then went unperformed until the 1950s when it was revived by Weill’s widow, Lotte Lenya, who originated the role of Anna I, the singer.

Below, check out the Prologue in this unnamed film version of The Seven Deadly Sins:

After Central City Opera’s July 16 and July 24 performances of The Seven Deadly Sins, be sure to indulge in a progressively sinful experience—SinFest. 

Follow the alluring fire-dancer Melinda Rivers to an indulgence of edgy dance from Ballet Nouveau Colorado, slam poetry from Ken Arkind and LuciFury, experiential art like the sin graffiti wall and a photography exhibit of the sins directed by Mark Sink, co-founder of the MCA Denver. The night then unleashes gluttonous fare including decadent desserts and tasty bites from Kevin Taylor and sips of the 7 Deadly Zins wine from Michael David Winery.

On July 16 and 24, SinFest starts with the opera at 4 pm and continues through 8:30 pm. Tickets are on sale now for just $50 (including the opera) and a party bus is available for an extra $20. Jump on the bus at the Four Seasons downtown for a glass of bubbly or beer and head up to sin in style. The bus heads up to Central at 1:00 pm and leaves Dostal Alley at 9:00 pm. For tickets, please call (303) 292-6700 or visit www.centralcityopera.org/sinfest for more information.
 

Eve may have been the first to sin, but she certainly won’t be the last. Make your way through the temptation with Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins and the alluring SinFest.

AMADIGI DI GAULA Armour from Aurora, Colorado

Back Porch F/X, a local company in Aurora, Colorado, is making the armour for the sorcerer Melissa in our North American premiere of Georg Friedrich Händel's Amadigi di Gaula. They recently posted some in-process photos on Facebook.

Fresh out of the mold - bronze armour for the Central City Opera sculpted by my student intern Jonathan Rash, USMC, Ret. and modeled by my student assistant Crissy Bender. (Description by Back Porch F/X)

Same bronze armour trimmed and painted. Well done, Marine! Sure looks like bronze, even though it's rubber and only weighs 1 lb. (Description by Back Porch F/X)

The armour above is for Melissa's Roman costume.  As we're setting this opera in the Renaissance (imagine a Harry Potter-like world of science, magic, and cool clothes), she'll also have an Elizabethan costume, as seen below.

Preliminary costume rendering of Melissa the Sorceress in this summer's production by designer Madeleine Boyd.

Melissa is played by Kathleen Kim, who recently played Zerbinetta in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Ariadne auf Naxos.  She also played the magical Armida in our 2009 production of Händel's Rinaldo.

Kathleen Kim (Armida), center, surrounded by her servants in Central City Opera’s RINALDO (2009).
Photo by Mark Kiryluk.

Do these costumes inspire you (or your kids) to dress up in magical attire, too?  Well, you're in luck! Our August 4th, 2:30 p.m., Family Matinee of Amadigi di Gaula includes a costume contest!  All kids are welcome to dress up in a magical/wizard or princess costume and be eligible for prizes from the Wizard's Chest. There will also be a wizard and magic show before the matinee, for even more mystical fun. For additional family-friendly activities this day, add-on our Take a Child to the Opera package, where you'll gain inside information about the opera accompanied by pre-performance fun activities, theatre games, and a post-opera talkback. You can also meet the cast afterward for an autograph session.

Watch for this locally-made armour when you're watching Amadigi di Gaula this summer!  We can't wait to see what costumes YOU create!

Watch the video trailer and view more information on Amadigi di Gaula, opening July 2nd.

Update July 15, 2011: Read this Aurora Sentinel feature on the effects shop that built the armour.

New Festival, New Look and New Life in Central City

[Editor's Note: Here's the first blog post from our new Public Relations Assistant and 2011 Festival Staffer, Jake Sinatra.]

Just as the trees begin to bud in Central City, new life abounds thanks to the Central City Opera Guild. The Guild swept over Central City this week for their annual “Planting Day.” All of the Central City Opera properties were refreshed with colorful flowers, serving as a reminder that the 2011 Festival is surely approaching.

The beginning of June also marks a sort of death and rebirth for the opera world—on June 3rd in 1875, Georges Bizet passed away at the age of 36 and exactly three months after the premiere of his legacy, Carmen. Much speculation circled around Bizet’s untimely passing, but it is almost certain that his death was due to heart failure. Regardless, Bizet remains well known today through the consistent performances of his masterwork. Even though Carmen was not initially well received, its return to Paris five years after Bizet’s death marked the beginning of the opera’s long-running success and establishment as a beloved staple to the opera repertoire.

With death comes new beginnings, some say, and this remains true as June 3rd also marks the date of the premiere of The Breasts of Tiresias, which opened in Paris in 1947. Poulenc based this comic opera on the play of the same title by Guillaume Apollinaire, which was first performed in 1917.

Don’t miss Bizet’s Carmen and Poulenc’s The Breasts of Tiresias, both of which are a part of this year’s Festival. Carmen will open on June 25 and The Breasts of Tiresias will be featured as a triple bill with other one-acts Gianni Schicchi and The Seven Deadly Sins, starting July 9th.

Below are some photos of the “new life” in Central City, courtesy of the Central City Opera Guild’s “Planting Day”:

Credit: Nancy Parker.

Credit: Nancy Parker.

Credit: Jake Sinatra.

Carmen Like You've Never Heard It Before

And now for something completely different...

You know that sultry "Habanera" from Carmen?  Once you hear the music, you'll never forget it (even if you might forget the name of the tune or the fact that it's from an opera).  It's also one of those "ear worms" that can stick with you for most of a day if you let it.  Well, I bring you a NEW way to hear it...



Maybe this will come into your mind the next time you hear a traffic horn, and bring a smile to your face!

Fashion, Fun and Sin with Central City Opera's Young Professional Events

The following post comes from our Young Professionals (YP) Project Manager, Heather Brecl.

It might not even be fair that I have the most fun job ever! The last two nights were incredible as we unleashed our Central City Opera energy at two fantastic happenings in Denver and Boulder.

Mondo fashion night: Wednesday night, we joined forces with vitaminwater at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in a celebration of fashion and design, two of the many elements that make opera what it is! Eight young local designers created fashions inspired by the colors of this hip vita-drink. Their designs hit the runway for a crowd of 300 revved and happening Young Professionals to watch Project Runway's Mondo Guerra pick the hottest, edgiest design. The winner walked away with Mondo's stamp of approval and $1,000 from vitaminwater. The crowd also left as winners. Drinks that whet their appetite for fashion were served all evening from the bar, along with tasty bites from Three Tomatoes (including a decadent spread of desserts in the enormous elevator at the MCA. Hmmmm.... wonder how I knew about that!).  They also received colorful gift bags that included our Central City Opera Festival brochure, and tasty vitaminwater to take home.

YP Project Manager Heather Brecl with Mondo of Project Runway

The crowd applauds the winning design.

Central City Opera staff struts their stuff on the runway, too!

Central City Opera representatives Erin Joy Swank, Heather Quiroga, Valerie Hamlin and Heather Brecl

Ignite Boulder: After what seemed to be just a short break from the night before, a new Central City Opera YP friend and local Boulder comedienne, Robyn Krueger, lit up the stage at Ignite Boulder on Thursday night at the Chautauqua Auditorium. If you haven't been to an Ignite Boulder, you won't want to miss the next one. What is it? It's a cult of epic proportions. Every event is sold out. Last night, wrapped in our coats or whatever wasn't packed away for the winter, 1,300 (yes, there really were THAT many YPs out to listen to "presenters") people packed into the enormous barn to listen to "geeks" present on their favorite topics. Now, I don't know about you, but most of us can say that we are all too familiar with sin. Robyn brought the audience a little closer to "getting in touch with their inner sinner" in a hilarious and all-too-familiar glance at sin and pop-culture. Perhaps you were at home and tucked into your bed watching the live stream. If not, be sure to check out Ignite Boulder's YouTube channel in the next week or so to see what Robyn had to say. Then, go forth and sin. Where???? My best suggestion... SinFest this summer "up on the hill" in Central, July 16 and 24 from 4-8pm. Enjoy a touch of opera and a big splash of sin. [Details]

The crowd.  Also check out the line of folks waiting to get inside!

YP Project Manager Heather Brecl and Director of Marketing Valerie Hamlin

Ignite Boulder organizer, Ef Rodriguez, on guitar.

Central City Opera sponsored the evening with witty ads all night.

Presenter Robyn Krueger

Robyn, Heather and Valerie

Next time we invite you to a Young Professional event, I hope we'll see you there!!

Central City Opera On The Road

One of the fun aspects of being a part of the year-round Central City Opera staff is "loading up the opera bus" and presenting our school shows around the state.  

The Central City Opera Ensemble recently headed to Leadville, Colorado 

where, with the financial sponsorship of the Breckenridge Music Festival, we performed  En Mis Palabras (In My Own Words) for Lake County middle and high school students.  A bilingual (Spanish and English) opera commissioned by Central City Opera, En Mis Palabras is a story that every student, no matter what his or her cultural background, can relate to - the adolescent dilemma of finding your own voice, learning who you are – and the adult dilemma of knowing when and how much to let go so that a young adult may safely develop that sense of self.

Central City Opera's EN MIS PALABRAS (IN MY OWN WORDS),  Pictured (L to R): Steven Taylor (Esteban), James Baumgardner (Rodolfo) and Chelsea de la Cuadra (Ana Maria). Photos by Erin Joy Swank.

In addition to the performance, we did get to spend a little time enjoying the sights of Leadville,

including the Tabor Opera House, built in 1879 by Colorado mining magnate Horace Tabor.  This building is featured in the opera The Ballad of Baby Doe, which Central City Opera premiered in 1956.  Tabor had his hand in nearly everything in Leadville and we found ourselves singing the opera lyrics out loud:

Tabor owns the op'ry house, Tabor owns the big hotel, 

Tabor owns the honkey tonk, Tabor owns the whole darn town! 

Tabor owns the groc'ry store, Tabor owns the bank as well. 

Tabor also wants to own that old Matchless Silver Mine.

In our traveling troupe that day was baritone Steven Taylor, who has portrayed Horace frequently over the years, including performances in the Tabor Opera House.  He pointed out that the 5th side window in the picture below is a little lower than the others, as there had previously been an upper walkway there to the Clarendon Hotel next door.  Apartments above the Opera House could be accessed this way as overflow for the hotel.  These days you can no longer ask Horace, "Can you direct me to the Clarendon Hotel," as it has been torn down.  Somehow "Yonder is the Kum & Go" just doesn't have quite the same ring, does it?

We had a great time both presenting and reminiscing about opera on our day-outing to Leadville. If you want to learn more about the story of Horace Tabor and his wife Baby Doe, you can check out a recording of The Ballad of Baby Doe.  You can also see selections of it (as well as the story of other Colorado pioneers including the "Unsinkable Molly Brown" and "Aunt" Clara Brown) in one of our other school performances, How the West Was Sung.

Seven Deadly Sins Meets Facebook

A friend of mine posted the following warning on Facebook today:

Attention! How to spot virus links on Facebook: Hackers are smart, they know what type of posts will get people to click. Think of the seven deadly sins - Envy and Pride (OMG SEE WHO VIEWED YOUR PROFILE), Wrath (OSAMA DEATH PHOTOS), Lust (PORNISH PHOTOS), Greed (FREE IPAD!), Laziness (PEOPLE NOT THINKING BEFORE THEY CLICK!).

If you want to experience the seven deadly sins IN PERSON, call the Central City Opera Box Office at 303-292-6700 and indulge in an evening of sin for just $50! Get in touch with your inner sinner on July 16th and 24th during SinFest, a progressively sinful experience. See the one-hour Kurt Weill opera The Seven Deadly Sins, followed by edgy dance, experiential art, gluttony at our very own Lucifer’s Lair Bar, and much more.