FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Opera on Tap Colorado is playing your JAM (and making an exciting, top secret announcement) at their annual fundraiser show November 19
Opera greatest hits show + fab silent auction at Enigma Bazaar, November 19, 2022, 6 p.m.

Denver, CO, November 1, 2022 — Hear that? They’re playing your jam! There are so many toe-tapping, hum-along tunes from operas that are just a seamless part of our lives. (Think—“Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit!”) For their annual fundraiser show and silent auction, Opera on Tap Colorado brings you operatic greatest hits, some of the best bops of all time, to stage at Enigma Bazaar in west Denver—all to fundraise for a unique cause. Every dollar raised supports scholarships for local singers and enables Opera on Tap Colorado to produce monthly shows, pop-up events and other innovative operatic experiences in accessible spaces at affordable prices. Tickets are on sale now: $10 at the door, $8 in advance.

“If you’re looking to experience something new and different, this show will surprise you in all the best ways,” says Opera on Tap Co-Manager Margaret Siegrist. “This is our first live fundraiser show since Covid, and you better believe we’re ready to burst out singing (for our supper)!”

The event lineup includes a two-hour bar show, an impressive silent auction and the announcement of an upcoming landmark project. In more than 10 years producing in the Denver area, Opera on Tap Colorado has been widely recognized for creating fresh and innovative performances like the circus arts-studded “Variety Show” in April 2022 or Covid-era TikTok operas project. There is still much more operatic adventure yet to come from this charming troupe of bar-side artists.

Regarding the silent auction, supporters can look forward to an attractive list of items including:

  • Luxe family portrait session with Vita Brevis Fine Art
  • Avalanche memorabilia signed by the Stanley Cup-winning team
  • Artwork by Colorado-born artist and designer Grace Jensen
  • Food and craft beer packages
  • Custom, therapeutic massage package
  • Tickets to see great art
  • Tickets to see fun shows
  • AND MORE
  • Opera on Tap is still accepting contributions to the silent auction, and prospective donors are invited to email colorado@operaontap.com.

Opera Bops takes place at West Denver art bar Enigma Bazaar as part of Opera on Tap’s monthly themed show series. Shows run 6–8 p.m. on third Saturdays of the month (some occasional exceptions).

OPERA BOPS Fundraiser
Show + Silent Auction

Saturday, November 19, 2022, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Enigma Bazaar, 4923 W 38th Ave, Denver, CO 80212
Food and beverages available to purchase.
$10 at the door, $8 in advance

Tickets: ​https://opera-on-tap_opera-bops-fundraiser_nov19.eventbrite.com

About Opera on Tap Colorado

Opera on Tap was founded in New York City in 2005 when a few singers, out for a drink in Brooklyn, wondered what it would be like if classical singers could gig at local bars like bands do. Opera on Tap has since grown to boast chapters in cities across the country—including in Colorado! Opera on Tap Colorado brings opera to unexpected places throughout the state, offering audiences exceptional music by outstanding singers and giving professional singers the opportunity to sing regularly in public in a welcoming, supportive atmosphere. While casual and even raucous, Opera on Tap is not an open mic. Monthly shows focus on a loose topical theme, and singers choose music they love that ties in. It’s like an operatic sampler plate! Audiences can expect top notch performers singing music from great operas and musical works—often with a drink in hand. The organization is also a passionate champion of new opera and innovative performances/collaborations of all kinds.

Featured Singers:

Kathleen Allen, Julie Silver Campbell*, Phoenix Gayles, Alexis Haro, Beth Jacobs, Dana Kinney, Ekaterina Kotcherguina, Shannon McAleb, Megan Mellenthien, Elizabeth Mirandi, John Murray, Thomas Poole, Leslie Ratner, Chad Reagan, Jerome Síbulo*, Margaret Siegrist*, Alex Sierra 

*Opera on Tap Co-managers

Pianist: Mallory Bernstein

www.operaontap.com/colorado

www.facebook.com/ootco | www.twitter.com/ootco | www.instagram.com/operaontapco

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Opera on Tap Colorado Presents
SEE/HEAR Illuminated Stories in Song

November 16, 2020, Denver, CO​ Opera on Tap Colorado presents a visual album of four song cycles featuring live Colorado singers and video artists from across the US featuring Richard Strauss ​Four Last Songs/Vier letzte Lieder​, Ernesto Cordero’s​ Four Works for Voice and Guitar​, Robert Owens’ ​Mortal Storm,​ and Nkeiru Okoye’s ​Brooklyn Cinderella​.

“We wanted to do something on a larger scale while responding to the limitations that COVID-19 has created for live performance.” Said Opera on Tap Colorado co-managing diva Eve Orenstein. “We came up with the concept of pairing video artists with song cycles – groups of songs that share a narrative theme – to create something that would be collaborative and also safe for singers and audience members. The videos will bring the music to life and can be experienced from home or in a socially distanced performance setting, like a drive-in.”

Five Colorado singers, Nnamdi Nwankwo, Asha Romeo, Jerome Síbulo, Luisa Marie Rodriguez, and Julie Silver Campbell will record four song cycles that were selected by the Opera on Tap Colorado singers.

Through an open call process, Opera on Tap Colorado received submissions from video artists around the country and four were chosen, including Cai (NYC), David Fodel(CO), Annanya George(CO), and Corwin Evans(Los Angeles), and paired with each song cycle to augment and illuminate the music.

SEE/HEAR​ will be launched with a hybrid live performance/live-streamed event on December 13 at 4:00pm at the Broomfield Auditorium.

SEE/HEAR

Sunday, December 13th, 4:00PM Doors open at 3:30PM Broomfield Auditorium
3 Community Park Road

Broomfield, CO 80020
Limited seating will be available for $10, with social distancing protocols in place

Ticket: ​B-REx.com

This performance of SEE/HEAR will be live-streamed at Facebook.com/creativebroomfield/live Facebook.com/ootco
Youtube.com/operaontapco

About Opera on Tap Colorado

Opera on Tap was founded in New York City in 2005 when a few singers, out for a drink in Brooklyn, wondered what it would be like if classical singers could gig at local bars like bands do. Opera on Tap has since grown to boast chapters in cities across the country – and now in Colorado! Opera on Tap Colorado will be bringing opera to unexpected places throughout the state, offering audiences exceptional music by outstanding singers, and giving professional singers the opportunity to sing regularly in public in a welcoming, supportive atmosphere. While casual and even raucous, Opera on Tap is not an open mic. Each month, shows will have a theme and singers will perform arias that more or less match that theme. Audiences can expect singers to be top notch performers singing music from actual operas – often with a drink in hand!

About Four Last Songs/Vier letzte Lieder

“Richard Strauss was…living in Switzerland at the end of World War II. Throughout his successful operatic and orchestral career, he’d written songs…inspired by his wife Pauline. She was a successful soprano who performed Strauss’s songs to great acclaim. Towards the end of 1946, Strauss read a poem by Eichendorff, “Im Abendrot” in which an ageing couple at the end of their lives together look at the setting sun and ask, “Is that perhaps death.” The words matched the composer’s feelings entirely, and became the inspiration for the start of a five-song cycle which he never completed. But he did compose four, although they weren’t linked as a group until after his death when Strauss’s publisher named them “Four Last Songs.”

The Eichendorf poem which translates as “At Sunset” is fittingly the last of the four, with the first three songs all settings of poems by Herman Hesse. Beginning with “Spring,” the second is “September” followed by “Going to Sleep” – each seems to be part of Strauss’s preparations for death and it’s hard to imagine a more conscious or deliberate farewell from this master of song.” (​https://www.classicfm.com/composers/strauss/guides/richard-strauss-four-last-songs/​)

About Four Works for Guitar and Voice

With music by Ernesto Cordero and texts by Juan Ramon Jiménez, Luis Llorens Torres and Nimia Vicens, this song collection is a beauty to behold. ​Cordero used these four poems from three poets of great import to Puerto Rican identity to illuminate his Puerto Rican experience. ​The first piece, “Zenobia” has text from a poem by Juan Ramon Jiménez called “Para quererte” (“To love you”). The poem was written to his wife, Zenobia Camprubí, a half Puerto Rican, half Spaniard. The final line “us together, just like the sea and the sky, the sky and the sea, without even trying, just are,” is a metaphor for how two lovers that are a perfect fit for one another, can just be, just like the sea and the sky. The second song, “La Hija del Viejo Pancho,” was written by Luis Llorens Torres, a well-known poet and politician in Puerto Rico’s founding. He spent some time in Spain in law school, and being away from his home, this poem seems to tell the story of where he finds ultimate happiness in his home, Puerto Rico. The third song, “Cadencia” has text from a poem by Nimia Vicens by the same name. It is also a metaphor for perfect love through the beauty of nature. Vicens wrote much of her poetry following Spain’s loss of the Spanish American War, which meant that Puerto Rico belonged to the United States. It has been suggested that artists use the beauty of their homeland, belonging to them, as a response to the trauma of the war and the trauma of their new identity. The fourth piece, “​El Viaje Definitivo,” also written by ​Juan Ramon Jiménez​, is a beautiful imagining of what life would be like after death, what continues, what will change and what will remain.

About Mortal Storm

Mortal Storm, a cycle of five songs on poetry by Langston Hughes, was composed in 1965 for Thomas Carey. Having previously sung the composer’s ​Four Motivations, Carey commissioned the work of Owens after having won First Prize in the Ard International Competition in 1963. Carey sang Mortal Storm frequently throughout Europe and the United States.

Mortal Storm r​ epresents a marked change in Owens’ songwriting. In the composer’s words, “I moved from realms of Schubert lieder and demanded of the singer the passion and drama of opera.” The broader public was introduced to Owens’ songwriting via Patterson’s A​nthology of Art Songs by Black American Composers​, This 1977 publication featured two of Owens’ songs from M​ortal Storm, “​ Genius Child” and “Faithful One.”

About Brooklyn Cinderella

Brooklyn Cinderella​ by Nkeiru Okoye is a ​set of songs born out of the I Hear America Singing program that commissions composers to create operatic songs based on the poetry and prose of Americans of all ages and all walks of life. These songs are based on poems written by Brooklyn children in classes headed by poet Angeli Rasbury. Brooklyn Cinderella​ was commissioned by American Opera Projects and the Walt Whitman Project.

Singers

Nnamdi Nwankwo https://www.instagram.com/nnamdiknwankwo/

Luisa Marie Rodrigurez https://www.instagram.com/luisamarierodriguez/

Jerome Síbulo https://www.instagram.com/jsibulo/

Asha Romeo https://www.instagram.com/asha_romeo/

Julie Campbell http://juliesilversoprano.com

Video Artists

Cai https://shashrvacai.com/

Corwin Evans http://corwinevans.com/

Annanya George https://www.instagram.com/annanyageorge/

David Fodel https://vimeo.com/davidfodel

www.operaontap.com/colorado

www.facebook.com/ootco www.twitter.com/ootco

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ATLAS of REMOTE ISLANDS

ATLAS of REMOTE ISLANDS
Friday, May 5 7:30pm, Saturday May 6 7:30pm
MCA Denver at The Holiday Theater 2644 W 32nd Ave, Denver, CO 80211
Tickets $35

Refund Policy

Refunds up to 7 days before event

About this event

Atlas of Remote Islands is a contemporary opera by composer Nathan Hall, based on the 2009 book by Judith Schalansky, produced and realized by Opera on Tap Colorado, with the libretto by Alan Olejniczak.

This mysterious book is an atlas of fifty real, remote islands, stuffed with maps and prose-poem stories, more for the imagination than for navigation and offering more questions than answers. The audience experiences the histories and facts, lore and fantasies of these islands through the eyes of this main character—who in exploring distant worlds through the pages of the atlas unlocks worlds within themself.

About the Composer

Nathan Hall uses music as an artistic medium to explore a variety of fields including science, nature, the fine arts, history, and sexuality. There is an emotional resonance present in all of Nathan’s works, from his traditional classical pieces for chamber ensembles to experimental electronic pieces, sound sculptures, and multimedia projects. Nathan’s drive for making site-specific work is tied to his passions for travel and cultural exchange. He is a former Fulbright Fellow to Iceland, a McKnight Visiting Composer, and he holds his Doctorate in Musical Arts (DMA) from CU Boulder. His works have been performed in 13 countries and 21 US States, and he lives in Denver.

About the Organization

Opera on Tap’s mission is to expose new audiences to opera and classical music by taking it out of the concert hall and performing it in alternative venues, to aid young performers in their development and to promote and present new classical works of contemporary classical and operatic composers.

Opera on Tap Colorado maintains a busy and diversified performance schedule, with a monthly themed show at the Enigma Bazaar in Denver, Colorado. Singers have performed with local opera companies including Opera Colorado, Central City Opera, Opera Theatre of the Rockies, Fort Collins Opera, Loveland Opera Theatre, and Boulder Opera.

When you purchase a ticket, guess what you get (in addition to this totally awesome experience)? You get free admission to the museum to see the current exhibition. Yeah, that’s right! Admission to the museum is normally $10, so you could say this is a steal. Simply show the front desk your ticket confirmation email to get free entry.

Cuando compras un boleto, ¿qué crees que obtienes (además de una experiencia completamente increíble)? Obtienes una entrada gratuita al museo para ver la exposición actual. ¡Sí, así es! La entrada al museo normalmente tiene un costo de $10, así que podrías decir que esto es una ganga. Simplemente muestra este correo electrónico en la entrada para entrar de manera gratuita.

Use promo code MCAMEMBER at checkout for member pricing (and no need to login to your account, just use the discount code). Membership will be verified at check-in. Not a member yet? Memberships start at just $5/month! Learn more here

Utiliza el código promocional MCAMEMBER al pagar para obtener precios de miembros (sin necesidad de ingresar a tu cuenta, sólo usa el código de descuento). La membresía se verificará al ingresar. ¿Aún no eres miembro? ¡Las membresías comienzan por sólo $5/al mes! Aprende má

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Can’t make it to our shows at Syntax: Physic Opera? Don’t be sad! We stream just about all of them on Facebook Live!

Click here to watch our latest show!

 

 

 

 

Hello from Opera on Tap Colorado!

OOTCOOpera on Tap Colorado brings opera to unexpected venues throughout the state, offering audiences exceptional music by outstanding singers, and giving professional singers the opportunity to sing regularly in public in a welcoming, supportive atmosphere.

Casual and even raucous, Opera on Tap presents themed opera shows performed by top notch performers singing music from actual operas – often with a drink in hand!

Join us for our monthly shows in Denver at Rory’s Tavern, our signature beer/opera pairings at Colorado’s excellent craft breweries, and all sorts of other operatic adventures!