CT Concert Opera Presents The Medium and Trouble in Tahiti

CT Concert Opera (www.connconcertopera.org) announced today that they are performing Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium and Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti on December 13, 2008 at Saint Joseph College. Members of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra will accompany the performers as they sing the arias, duets and ensembles from these twentieth-century American operas.

West Hartford, CT (PRWEB) November 5, 2008 -- CT Concert Opera (www.connconcertopera.org) announced today that they are performing Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium and Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti on December 13, 2008 at Saint Joseph College. Members of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra will accompany the performers as they sing the arias, duets and en-sembles from these twentieth-century American operas.

This winter concert, sung in English, will present the masterful operatic works of two quintessentially American composers. Both tragic in their own ways, the dramatic The Medium tantalizes the audience with the macabre tale of a fraudu-lent medium who becomes the victim of her own voices. The jazzy, satirical Trouble in Tahiti explores a day in the life of a suburban American couple in the 1950's.

Doris Lang Kosloff, CT Concert Opera's artistic director, who recently conducted critically acclaimed performances of Lucia di Lammermoor with Miami Lyric Op-era, will direct and provide commentary. Ms. Kosloff, a prominent operatic con-ductor and vocal coach, is a member of the faculty at the Hartt School of Music.

CT Concert Opera's success is due in part to Ms. Kosloff's choosing exceptional professional talent, including young singers who show great promise. Soloists for The Medium are Sondra Kelly, mezzo-soprano and Sarah Callinan, soprano; solo-ists for Trouble in Tahiti are Meredith Ziegler, mezzo-soprano and Colin Brady, bass-baritone.

Sondra Kelly began her career at the Metropolitan Opera where she has appeared in more than two hundred performances of twenty-three different roles. She has worked in many U.S opera houses including Long Beach, Kansas City, Charlotte, Tampa, Florida Grand, Glimmerglass, and Hawaii Opera Theater. She is making her debut with CT Concert Opera.

Sarah Callinan has performed multiple roles with the Connecticut Opera and was highly praised for her strong, supple soprano in the company's recent production of Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio. The first-prize winner in the Con-necticut Opera Guild's 2006 competition, she made her CT Concert Opera debut with the summer 2008 performance of Trouble In Tahiti and The Medium.

Meredith Zeigler has performed with CT Opera, CT Lyric Opera, and Opera Theater of CT. In 2008, she received an Encouragement Award from the prestigious Sullivan Foundation. She was a 2007 Regional Finalist in the New England Met-ropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, as well as a 2006 winner of the Con-necticut Opera Guild Scholarship Competition. She holds a Master's of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of CT. She is making her debut with CT Concert Opera.

Colin Brady has appeared with such companies as Connecticut Lyric Opera, Con-necticut Opera, Opera Colorado, Union Avenue Opera in St. Louis, PORTopera in Maine, and Sarasota Opera, and as bass soloist with groups such as the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. He is making his debut with CT Concert Opera and re-cently made his Carnegie Hall debut as a part of the Liederkranz Foundation's 48th Annual Awards Concert.

The concert will be held on December 13, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. in Hoffman Auditorium at Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, CT. Tickets are $35 and are avail-able in advance by calling 860-722-2300 and at the door. Reservations are highly recommended, as space is limited. Ms. Kosloff will give a free talk at 7:00 p.m. about the operas and the composers.

CT Concert Opera (www.connconcertopera.org), founded in 1991, offers both opera lovers and novices the opportunity to hear complete major operas in an accessible concert format. The company seeks to bring high quality, profes-sional, operatic performances to the community at affordable prices, to heighten general knowledge about opera, and to nurture new performing talent.

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