SUNSET PARK — Brooklyn-based Regina Opera Company recently opened its 2024-2025 season with a two-hour “All-Puccini Concert” commemorating the 100th anniversary of Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s death.
The Oct. 6 performance, which took place at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Academy at 5902 Sixth Avenue, boasted various selections from his more famous works.
They included “La Boheme,” a story set in Paris in 1830 documenting the Bohemian lifestyle of a poor seamstress and her artist friends; “Madame Butterfly,” the tragic tale of Cio Cio San, a young Japanese girl who falls in love with American naval officer Pinkerton which initiates devastating consequences; “Tosca,” a melodramatic piece set in Rome in 1800, with the Kingdom of Naples’ control of Rome threatened by Napoleon’s invasion of Italy; and others.
The show featured sopranos Nicole Magallón and Sara Beth Pearson; mezzo-soprano Anna Viemeister; tenor Paolo Buffagni; baritone Eliam Ramos Fuentes; flutist Richard Paratley; and pianist Catherine Miller.
Fran Garber-Cohen, president of the Regina Opera Company and the opera and concert producer, told the Brooklyn Eagle that after this particular performance, she hopes that spectators will come to see the rest of Regina’s season, which runs through August 2025.
“I want spectators to be enthusiastic about opera,” Garber-Cohen said. “The ultimate goal is to further the love of opera, because it’s universal. It’s welcoming to everyone no matter what the language, nationality or the beliefs of the audience. We all love music, and it’s the love of music that unites people.”
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