Shout out for Opera

Another example of why I'm in love with my job:

Yesterday, a few gracious donors from the symphony community made it possible for us to have a leading opera singer, Angela Brown (who is performing in tonight's Verdi Requiem with the Symphony - cannot wait to see it!), put on a program for our local high school.

This program is entitled "Opera from a Sistah's Point of View," and it is...hilarious. She opens the performance with an aria, and then immediately reverts to her colloquial midwest-diva mannerisms and basically presents opera in the form of stand-up comedy. Her synopsis of one of her operas included a phrase like "Well, he went up to this chick and said- 'Gurl, I wanna get wich you. You so puuurty, and I wanna make you my boo..." By the time she had everyone rolling on the ground with laughter, she would step back to the piano, get into character, and bust out another amazingly refined and poignant aria with perfect diction and musicality. Genius!

The kids loved it, the teachers loved it, the donors and symphony board members loved it...What a fantastic way to make opera accessible to everyone.

Here's a little clip about it from CNN...unfortunately they don't show many of the funny parts in the program, but you still get the idea. The interview at the end is particularly entertaining: