Wednesday, November 2, 2005Featuring Loriana De Crescenzo, soprano and Executive Director of Opera Providence, Lynne S. Floyd (soprano), and Fredric Scheff (tenor), accompanied by Dr. Matthew Larson, music director of Opera Providence.
Proceeds benefit the OPERAtunity education and outreach program and the continuation of its in-school educational programs for students in grades K-12.
PLUS: Enjoy the country club Italian style, without ever touching a golf club!
WHERE: Metacomet Country Club
500 Veterans Memorial Parkway
East Providence, Rhode Island
WHEN: Wednesday, November 2, 2005
6:00 pm cocktails, 6:30 pm dinner followed by the performance
TICKETS: Tickets are $50 per person.
Call Opera Providence at 401-331-6060 by October 26th.
OPERAtunity information:
OPERAtunity has brought its programs to a diverse school-based population including Rhode Island’s core urban districts and students in suburban and rural settings. Programs include artist-in-residence and after school multi-session projects, outreach, in-school performances, main-stage professional performances, interactive assemblies and performances in cross collaboration with other non-profits. The OPERAtunity education and outreach program has reached over 27,000 children, youth and adults throughout the state of Rhode Island since 1998.
Pasta & Puccini artist bios:
Loriana De Crescenzo is the Executive Director of Opera Providence and is Project Director for OPERAtunity education and outreach programs. She provides exciting leadership, which will guarantee the stability and lasting future of opera in Rhode Island. Her development and direction of the OPERAtunity education and outreach programs over the last four years have brought national and local recognition to Opera Providence. Ms. De Crescenzo also teaches at Providence College on the Voice faculty in the Music Department. She was recently awarded a 2005 Rhode Island Foundation Fellowship.
An accomplished soprano, Ms. De Crescenzo was most recently heard singing Italian and Neapolitan favorites and both the Italian and American National Anthems at McCoy Stadium in the opening festivities for the Team USA vs. Team Italia baseball game. She has appeared in many productions of Opera Providence, including the highly successful summer concerts Opera on the Hill.
Soprano Lynne S. Floyd of East Lyme, Connecticut, is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Connecticut, from which she received dual degrees in Vocal Performance and Music Education. After teaching public school music for two years, Lynne moved to Phoenix to pursue a Masters degree in vocal performance at Arizona State University. While in Arizona, Ms. Floyd performed extensively throughout the southwest with both the Royal Renaissance Singers and “Opera-tunity,” a company specializing in introducing opera to children and the general public. Roles to her credit include Adele (J. Strauss’ Die Fledermaus), Erste Frau (Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte), Nella (Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi), Barbarina (Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro), both Madame Herz and Madamoiselle Silberklang (Mozart’s The Impresario) and Lily in the musical The Secret Garden. As a concert soloist Lynne has sung with the Phoenix Symphony, the Arizona State University Chamber Orchestra, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and the American Institute for Musical Studies Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria. An accomplished recitalist, Ms. Floyd has performed wide varieties of repertoire in many parts of the country. In August of 2003, Lynne attended the V.O.I.C.Experience program in Orlando, Florida where she had the opportunity to work with noted performers and directors such as Sherrill Milnes, Jennifer Larmore, Fabrizio Milano, and Tony Randall. She currently studies voice with Maria Spacagna.
Dr. Matthew Larson, accompanist and Opera Providence music director, received his Doctorate in Collaborative Piano from Arizona State University in May 2001. An accomplished accompanist, he has played over 350 voice recitals in the United States and Austria. Currently, Matthew serves as Assistant Conductor and Pianist for Boston Lyric Opera, Vocal Coach for Boston University, Music Director of Opera Providence, and Director of Music for First Congregational Church of Milton, Massachusetts.
Dr. Fredric S. Scheff, tenor, earned wide acclaim in the national tour of Lloyd-Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. After earning his Doctorate from the University of Kansas, Dr. Scheff returned to Rhode Island, where he lives with his wife and four children. Recent credits include Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, many performances with Opera Providence, and the beginning of an ongoing concert collaboration with Matthew Larson and international opera star Maria Spacagna. He will appear as the Witch in Hansel & Gretel and Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana in Opera Providence’s 2005-06 season
