March Masterworks:
A Night at the Opera
Saturday, March 4, 2023, 8 pm
Memorial Hall (590 Main Street)
$30 General Admission, $10 Students
This concert is part of our subscription series.
Please read our Covid Policies & Procedures.
Program:
Back by popular demand! The MSO presents its 2nd Opera Night, a celebration of beautiful and romantic melodies from the world of opera. While many operatic blockbusters feature the human voice, opera composers also wrote gorgeous music showcasing only the orchestra. Maestro Udagawa will educate and entertain audiences by sharing the background of these operas and how the music enhances these stories.
Soloists:
Mara Bonde, soprano; Krista River, mezzo-soprano
Ethan Bremner, tenor; Philip Lima, baritone
About the Soloists
Soprano Mara Bonde is equally at home in both classical and popular styles, and has performed as a guest artist with the Boston Pops, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Naples Philharmonic, and with the Baton Rouge, Lansing, New Haven, Syracuse, and Charlotte Symphony Orchestras. Other orchestral engagements have taken her to the South Florida, Utah, San Diego, Stamford, Ridgefield, Waterbury, Cape, Cape Ann, Quincy and Nashua Symphony Orchestras, the Handel & Haydn Society, and Boston Baroque. Her stage repertoire includes both opera and classic music theater including roles in "The Merry Widow" (Imperial Symphony Orchestra), "Magic Flute" (Boston Baroque), "Guys & Dolls" (Reagle Music Theatre & Greater Lowell Music Theater), and others. Mara also performs with Boston Musical Theater (specializing in the "Great American Songbook") and has toured with the ensemble to South Korea, Russia, and Belgium. She has appeared with Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Omaha, Glimmerglass Opera, Utah Opera, Light Opera Oklahoma, and the Opera Company of North Carolina. Mara is delighted to return to the Melrose Symphony!
Mezzo-soprano Krista River is a versatile performer who is at home in repertoire ranging from the Baroque period to the 21st century. She was a winner of the 2004 Concert Artists Guild International Competition and a 2007 grant recipient from the Sullivan Foundation. Recent notable performances include the International Water and Life Festival in Qinghai, China, and recitals at Jordan Hall in Boston and the Asociación Nacional de Conciertos in Panama City, Panama. Ms. River’s orchestral engagements have included appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Handel & Haydn Society, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony, York Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Pittsburgh Bach and Baroque Ensemble, the Cape Cod Symphony, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.
Recent opera appearances include “Carmen” at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, “La clemenza di Tito” with Emmanuel Music and Opera Boston, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, “Dido and Aeneas” with Mercury Baroque (Houston) and the Connecticut Early Music Festival, “Marriage of Figaro” with the North Carolina Symphony, “Agrippina” at the Crested Butte Music Festival, and the title role in Handel’s “Xerxes” with Arcadia Players. Ms. River made her Tanglewood debut in the role of Jordan Baker in John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby. Ms. River began her musical career as a cellist, earning her music degree at St. Olaf College. She resides in Boston and is a regular soloist with Emmanuel Music’s renowned Bach Cantata Series.
Tenor Ethan Bremner made his Boston debut with Boston Opera Collaborative in 2006 as Achilles in Gluck’s “Iphigenie en Aulide,” and then sang with the company as Rodolfo in Puccini’s “La Bohème.” He also performed as Cavaradossi in Puccini’s “Tosca,” Nemorino in Donizetti’s “L’elisir D’amore,” Don Jose in “Carmen” and Lt. Pinkerton in “Madame Butterfly” with Longwood Opera. He has performed with Boston’s Odyssey Opera in Wagner’s “Rienzi," Vaughan Williams’ “Sir John in Love” and Windham Orchestra's production of Verdi’s “Il Trovatore.” Mr. Bremner was a finalist in the 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (New England Region) and earned his Master of Music in 2006 from the University of Wisconsin.
Baritone Philip Lima has regularly garnered critical acclaim for his performances on both concert and operatic stages: “His singing was glorious” (The Boston Globe) – “vibrant baritone and a commanding presence” (Cleveland The Plain Dealer) – “keen musicianship along with total dramatic intention.” (Opera News Online).
He has sung leading operatic roles in Germany and for regional American opera companies in repertoire ranging from traditional favorites by Handel, Mozart, Puccini, and Verdi; to important works of twentieth-century masters such as Samuel Barber, Benjamin Britten, and Viktor Ullmann; to the comic masterworks of Gilbert and Sullivan. Of particular note have been his featured roles in the world premieres of operas by jazz greats Leslie Burrs, Nathan Davis, and Mary Watkins, and by award-winning composer Larry Bell.
Mr. Lima has appeared as soloist with the Boston Pops and over seventy orchestras, choral societies, and concert series across the United States and in Korea and Ukraine in beloved choral works of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Fauré, Handel, Mendelssohn, Orff, and Vaughan Williams, as well as works by Bernstein (Arias and Barcarolles and major excerpts from Mass), Dave Brubeck (The Light in the Wilderness), Mahler (Kindertotenlieder), Ravel (Don Quichotte à Dulcinée), and Lee Hoiby (his setting of the “I Have a Dream” speech of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.).
The Assistant Chair of Berklee College of Music’s Voice Department, Mr. Lima is a frequent recitalist whose performance of Schubert’s Winterreise with pianist Beverly Orlove was cited by The Boston Phoenix in an annual summary of Boston’s “Unforgettable Classical Events.” Mr. Lima’s work is featured in the recording of pioneering African-American composer Florence Price’s Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight that won the 2020 American Prize for the Performance of American Music.
