Opera Company of Brooklyn Presents Verdi's 'Rigoletto' at Long Island University's Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts & Announces 2006-2007 BYOB OPERA SERIES

The Opera Company of Brooklyn presents Guiseppe Verdi’s opera, “Rigoletto,” on April 1, at 8 p.m. at the Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts, located at the University’s Brooklyn Campus, on the corner of DeKalb and Flatbush avenues. Tickets are $25 for general admission; students, $15. 2006-2007 BYOB OPERA SERIES September 30, La Boheme (Puccini) October 14, La Divina & Signor Deluso (Pasatieri) October 28, The Impresario (Mozart), The Medium (Menotti) November 18, Julius Caesar (Handel) December 2, I Pagliacci (Leoncavallo) & Suor Angelica (Puccini) January 6, Abduction from the Seraglio (Mozart) February 17, The Golden Cockerel (Rimsky-Korsakov) March 17, Un Ballo in Maschera (Verdi) May 19, Romeo & Juliet (Gounod)

Brooklyn, NY (PRWEB) March 24, 2006 -- Opera will take center stage at Long Island University’s Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts in Downtown Brooklyn.

The Opera Company of Brooklyn presents Guiseppe Verdi’s opera, “Rigoletto,” on April 1, at 8 p.m. at the Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts, located at the University’s Brooklyn Campus, on the corner of DeKalb and Flatbush avenues. Tickets are $25 for general admission; students, $15.

‘Rigoletto” tells the story of a lusty Duke, a devoted father and his usually dutiful daughter who falls in love for the first time with aforesaid lusty Duke.

The Opera Company of Brooklyn was founded in 2000 by Jay D. Meetze, who is also its artistic director. Active in the New York area, the company’s aim is to make opera affordable and accessible to people who do not usually have the opportunity to attend performances in conventional institutions. The company keeps production costs down and ticket prices low by performing in smaller venues that afford an intimacy not easily achieved in larger theaters.

“By performing in smaller and less formal venues, we hope to break down the barriers surrounding opera as being exclusive, for the wealthy, and confined to Manhattan and demonstrate that it is a unique art form that can be appreciated and enjoyed by all members of society,” says Meetze. “This will be a great opportunity to bring opera to both the residential and student communities of Brooklyn.”

Meetze is also the principal conductor of the opera company and has been featured on CNN, ABC, FOX, ZDF (German public television), The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and other newspapers. OCB was also recently featured on the front page on Crain’s New York Business.

Part of a versatile new performing arts complex at the Brooklyn Campus, the wood-paneled Kumble Theater features finely tuned acoustics and a Broadway-quality 40’ x 70’ stage and stepped seating that provides unobstructed views for an audience of 320.

For more information, call the Kumble Theater box office at (718) 488-1624, or visit www.kumbletheater.org.

Long Island University opened its Brooklyn Campus in 1926, welcoming a diverse population at a time when other major universities enforced quota systems against racial and ethnic minorities. Some 28,000 students currently are enrolled at the university’s residential and regional campuses, including more than 13,000 at the Brooklyn Campus. Located at the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, the Campus is accessible to all major bus and subway routes and the Long Island Rail Road.

Before you think twice about paying $175 for a ticket to the opera, or whether or not to bring your teenager or close friend for fear that they will grow restless, consider the Opera Company of Brooklyn and their 2006-2007 (Bring Your Own Beverage) B.Y.O.B. season. A small and personal company founded by Maestro Jay D. Meetze, Opera Company of Brooklyn productions are always accessible, always affordable, and always enjoyable.

“Many of my friends cannot afford a subscription to the Met, but that doesn’t mean they have to be shut out from hearing great music,” says Maestro Jay Meetze, founder and director of the company, “Series like this help keep this art form alive in the ears of average people.”

The Opera Company of Brooklyn was founded in 2000 with these two goals in mind: to allow everyday people the chance to attend an opera at an affordable price, and to allow the hearts and minds of those young and old, who have not normally experienced opera, to become inspired by this art form.

In an era of declining music education and music budget cuts, the Opera Company of Brooklyn reveals opera’s musical brilliance and artistry to our current and future generation in a way that no other opera company does. All performers are upcoming and talented artists, who use this opportunity as a platform from which to launch their careers. Past performers have advanced to singing major roles at larger houses such as NYC Opera. Performance spaces are small (typically in spacious apartments/penthouses), and so audience members are welcome to mingle with the artists during intermissions and after performances. This intimacy is not so easily achieved in bigger operatic venues (who knows, you may be mingling with the next Maria Callas!). Passionate music enthusiasts who also attend bigger opera productions return again and again to these productions because of their unique and inviting setting. Dress is casual, and audience members are encouraged to bring their own scores to sing along with the choruses, as well as to “bring your own beverage.” Ticket sales are kept at $25 for general admission, $15 for students, and $10 standing room- thus defying the prevalent stereotype that opera is an expensive and an outdated pastime.

Maestro Meetze, founder, artistic and musical director, and principal conductor of the company has been featured on segments of CNN, ABC, FOX, ZDF (German public television), as well as in various newspapers such as The New York Times. Maestro will be featured as a guest on CNN’s “Tips From the Top” in early April, profiling individuals at the top of their industry.

Opera Company of Brooklyn’s upcoming 2006-2007 season promises much spectacular talent and productions of both popular and lesser known operas, as well as a July Summer Music Festival. Included in the season will be celebrated operatic performances of comtemporary composers, such as Thomas Pasatieri’s La Divina and Signor Deluso. One of the season’s performances will also be held in Pasatieri’s penthouse apartment home, though it will not necessarily be one of his own works. Pasatieri has scored more than 150 films including The Little Mermaid, Shawshank Redemption, and American Beauty.

Future endeavors of the company include a preview of a world premiere opera, The Hotel Casablanca (Pasatieri) to be debuted with San Francisco Opera in 2007, as well as both a world premiere and debut of Korczak’s Orphans (Adam Silverman) with Opera Company of Brooklyn.

Tickets for the upcoming Saturday April 1st performance of Rigoletto are still on sale. Please email e-mail protected from spam bots to reserve your seats!

2006-2007 BYOB OPERA SERIES

September 30, La Boheme (Puccini)

October 14, La Divina & Signor Deluso (Pasatieri)

October 28, The Impresario (Mozart), The Medium (Menotti)

November 18, Julius Caesar (Handel)

December 2, I Pagliacci (Leoncavallo) & Suor Angelica (Puccini)

January 6, Abduction from the Seraglio (Mozart)

February 17, The Golden Cockerel (Rimsky-Korsakov)

March 17, Un Ballo in Maschera (Verdi)

May 19, Romeo & Juliet (Gounod)

For more information, please visit www.operabrooklyn.com or call 212-567-3283.

Copy and paste the following link into your browser to hear more on OCB. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports nationally on public radio's Marketplace: http://www.marketplace.org/shows/2006/03/10/PM200603107.html

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