Ridgefield Opera Company Announces Its Fall Schedule

RIDGEFIELD — Ridgefield Opera Company will enter its second Fountain Music Series season with an exciting production celebrating the music of Leonard Bernstein on Friday, November 14. The performance will begin at 7:30 at First Congregational Church of Ridgefield at 103 Main Street.

A quartet of talented young versatile professional singers who are equally at home in a wide variety of repertoire, ranging from Monteverdi and Puccini to Bernstein and Rodgers & Hammerstein will delight audiences with songs from On The Town, Peter Pan, Wonderful Town, Candide, West Side Story and more. The singers will be accompanied by Ridgefield Opera’s Musical Director Brent McMunn, an acclaimed conductor and accompanist with performances at New York City Opera, Kentucky Opera, Arizona Opera, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Los Angeles Opera, Dallas Opera and Santa Fe Opera.

The featured singers are sopranos Christine Antenbring and Anna Christy, and baritones Tom Meglioranza and Joe Kaiser. The singers have sung leading roles at Los Angeles Opera, New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Nashville Opera, Opera Theater of Columbus, and Central City Opera, with upcoming productions at Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera among others.  They have sung numerous solo symphony engagements as well, with Milwaukee Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Prague Radio Symphony, Charleston Symphony, to name a few.

Admission to Ridgefield Opera Company’s Fountain Music Series performances are free, with freewill donations gratefully accepted.

Ridgefield Opera Company will also present a children’s opera performance on December 13, also at 7:30 pm, at Temple Shearith in Ridgefield. The opera is Brundibar by Hans Krasa and it will be performed entirely with local children.

Brundibar is a children’s opera that was written in 1938 and became famous due to the role it played in the concentration camp Terezin. It helped to make the tragic fate of the prisoners more human and bearable, both those who played in the opera and of those who went to see the more than fifty performances of it. The opera is the story of good children overcoming the evil organ grinder, Brundibar.

In addition to the young singers the performance will include a string quartet of local children as well as various other young performers. Tickets are $10 for Brundibar can be reserved through the temple at 203-438-6589.