7th Opera and Ballet Night at St. Demetrios Astoria

November 7th, 2016 Community, Headline 6 0 comments 591

Greek News

New York.- By Revekka Papadopoulou

On Sunday October 23, 2016 an enchanting Opera and Ballet Night was offered admission-free to the public by our Saint Demetrios Community of Astoria in collaboration with the Hellenic Music Foundation. It marked the opening of the week-long celebrations of Saint Demetrios Feast Day and the community’s 89 year anniversary.

For the seventh consecutive year the “Petros Patridis Cultural Center” was transformed into an opera stage. Maestro and Artistic Director Yannis Xylas had under his baton an 82-piece orchestra, a combined chorus of 60singers, 15 soloists and 10 dancers. The talented musicians, singers and dancers presented to us a spectacular program consisting of opera, symphony, operetta, ballet and Greek music and earned a well-deserved and warm applause from the audience.

The concert opened with the Ballet music from the 2^nd Act of the opera ‘THAIS” by Jules Massenet, choreographed by Erin Prior, with the participation of Louis Riva as Nicias, Jennifer Klauder as Crobyle, Madison McIntyre as Myrtale and Constance Rogalski as la Charmeuse.

It was followed by an extended excerpt and the finale from Mahler’s 8^th Symphony which made use of an expanded orchestra with an extra offstage Brass section up in the balcony. The eight soloists, dressed in Medieval costumes were Megan Nielson, Sandra Mercado, Madison McIntosh, Edith Dowd, Amine John Hashem, Jose Cuartas, Kofi Hayford and in the role of Mater Gloriosa – singing from the balcony – soprano ZhannaAlkhazova. At the apotheosis of the closing minutes 10 children from the Saint Demetrios School dressed as angels made an appearance as angels amidst smoky clouds in the background.

The second half of the program opened with the Olympic Fanfare “Bugler’s Dream” by Leo Arnaud, followed by the “Olympic Hymn’ by Spyros Samaras, in an impressive orchestration by Yannis Xylas with full chorus and offstage brass. Tenors and Basses from The Pancyprian Choir and members from Convivium Choir from Mexico provided a robust support and impressive sound.

Three more Greek pieces were included in the program. Maurice Ravel’s arrangement of the Greek Folk Song ‘Xipnise petroperdika’ from his song cycle “Cinq melodies populairesGrecques” sang by Flora Kirou;

“The three Muses”, an excerpt from Nikos Astrinidis’ 1997 song cycle “Love and death in the chalice of wine” sang by Jennifer Klauder, Elisa Nikoloulias and Anastasia Rege, the voices of whom blended perfectly; and a delightful duet from the most famous Greek Operetta “O Vaftistikos” sang with flair by Olga Xanthopoulou and Amine John Hashem in the roles of Kiki and the Colonel.

Also in the program: the Queensborough Community College dance majors with Aviva Geismar, Choreographer presented a modern danced version of Bernstein’s tuneful and popular Candide Overture.

Mrs. Katia Zallas dressed in an impressive green dress and supported by the full choir sang in a unique interpretation of the song “Love isWhereyoufindit” from the 1948 movie “TheKissingBandit” with added high notes towards the end.

The rather tricky but funny quintet from the finale of the comic opera “L’ heureEspagnole” by Maurice Ravel was sang by Madison McIntosh, Louis Riva, Amine Hashem, Jose Cuartas and Kofi Hayford.

The concert ended with an extended medley from Kalman’s 1928 operetta “Die Herzogin von Chicago” First came the Mary- Prinz duet with BekaGoginashvili and ZhanaAlkhazova, evoking the Far West in its colorful orchestration, followed by with the full company singing and dancing together the Charleston and fox trop together with the aptly dressed dancers from the Erin Prior Dance Theater, bringing the concert to a rousing and tuneful conclusion, again with the participation of the full chorus and the offstage trumpets form the balcony.

After a short speech by the producer and the conductor the Halleluja Chorus from the Messiah was offeredas an encore.

Mr. Andriotis, the president of the St. Demetrios School Board as well as producer, supporter and benefactor of the concert made the following statement to “Greek News”:

“We planned the first Opera Night Concert seven years ago, on a trial basis, not knowing if Opera and Ballet can find fertile ground in Astoria, Queens. I was hesitant, to be honest; however, Mr. Yannis Xylas is a good musician and very professional in what he does and I decided to give him a chance to try this out. We were pleased with the first try-out in 2010 and we went forward with planning a second concert and we have been doing it ever since. This is something it was never been done before in the community and it has become a staple in the October calendar and much anticipated by the public. Our ultimate goal is to bring more ‘diverse culture’ to Astoria. Contrary to popular belief, a high form of art such as classical music, opera and ballet does not belong or is aimed exclusively to the upper classes. We aim toelevate the cultural offerings in our community and for that we receive a lot of positive comments and feedback, something that makes up very happy.

Special thanks to Mr. Yannis Xylas, who works year round to plan the music and staging, recruit the artists and – almost single handedly – puts together this large scale event. I, as the producer, am striving to bring sponsorships for the annual concerts (sometimes even contributing myself to it). This year we would like to thank Alma Bank for fully funding the Opera Night, as a ‘gift’ to everybody in our community on occasion of St. Demetrios’ feast day.Next year will be the 90^th anniversary of our community and we hope we shall be able to offer an equally grandiose and memorable concert as this year”.

It is worth mentioning that among the 165 participants in the Opera Night were members of the ConviviumMusicum Chorus who flew from Mexico specifically to sing in the concert and made a memorable contribution. They were flanked by the Canoni Ensemble from Brooklyn, tenors and basses from the Pancyprian Choir and the Queensborough Community College choir as well as professional ringers and members of the Hudson Valley Singers.

Among those attending the concert were Bishop Sevastianos of Zelon, the Dean of St. Demetrios Archimandrite NektariosPapazafeiropoulos, the Consul General of Greece Dr. Koutras, and famous Greek soprano Jenny Drivala.

Greek News Article NOV 2017

The 8^th Annual Opera Night at Saint Demetrios, Astoria another smashing success.

For the 8^th year in a row the Petros Patrides Cultural Center in Astoria, Queens was transformed into a grandiose opera house: 72 orchestra musicians, a 40—strong chorus plus 6 dancers and 10 exceptional soloists under the baton of Yannis Xylas created a rousing spectacle and feat for the ears that was heartily applauded by the audience.

As in previous years, this remarkable Opera and Ballet night on October 22^nd, 2017 was offered free of charge by the Hellenic Orthodox Community of Saint Demetrios, Astoria in association with the Hellenic Music Foundation and marked the opening of the week-long festivities for the name-day of the patron Saint as well as the 90^th anniversary of the community.

The participants in this unique and grand-scale cultural event of our community were the large Symphonic Orchestra of the Hellenic Music Foundation, Queensborough Community College’s Choirs, the Canoni Chorale, distinguished Soloists as well as Dancers from the Erin Pryor Dance Theatre and Queensborough Community College.

The very fitting program opener was the Saint Demetrios Troparion and the Finale (Hymn to Thessaloniki) from the Oratorio “Saint Demetrios” which was premiered in Thessaloniki on October 1966 and is the most well known work by the Greek composer Nikos Astrinidis.

Two arias followed the choral opening: Soprano Rosa d’Imperio sang the rapturous greeting to the song contest Hall from Tannhauser (Elisabeth’s Aria “Dich teure Halle” which opens the second act); then Mezzo soprano Madison Marie Mcintosh sang with brilliant coloratura Jane Seymoure’s solo from the second Act of Anna Bolena by Donizetti with contributions by Bass Nicholas Krsnich as King Henry VIII, Ramon Tenefrancia as Hervey and the mixed choir.

The following piece was an extended excerpt from the opera “Ernani” by Giuseppe Verdi, which included the rousing Congiura for male voices and the glorious Finale of the third act with the full ensemble and chorus: Baritone Raemond Martin sang King Charlemagne, Tenor Nicholas Simpson was Ernani and soprano Rosa Baker was Elvira.

The first half of the program closed with the glowing music of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. The selected and very well-known excerpts were sang and played with virtuosity by the chorus and orchestra respectively. A pleasant surprise for the evening was the contribution of Olympic Gold Medalist Ioannis Melissanidis in narrating the poems of the Carmina Burana excerpts. Three dancers from the Erin Pryor Dance Theater danced the opening and closing numbers - the famous “O, Fortuna’ - and Jeovanie Fernandez improvised on the “Fortuna plango vulnera” and the “Ecce gratum”. Soprano Jennifer Klauder and Baritone Raemond Martin sang “Tempus ist iocundum” together with the chorus, percussion and pianos. After the “Ave Formosissima” for chorus followed the repetition of the opening number “O, Fortuna’.

The second half of the program opened with the majestic Act 3 opening from Richard Wagner’s “Siegfried” showcasing the orchestra’s excellent brass players and featuring two of Wotan’s solos, which were sang with authority by Baritone Raemond Martin.

Then Soprano Olga Xanthopoulou sang the short but demanding Richard Strauss orchestral song “Winterliebe” (Winter’s love) followed by Soprano Rosa d’ Imperio and Tenor Nicholas Simpson singing the Brünnhilde – Siegfried duet from the Prologue of the opera “ Götterdämmerung” by Richard Wagner. The two operas Siegfried and Götterdämmerung are linked together as the third and fourth parts of the Tetralogy “Der Ring des Nibelungen”

The next piece was yet another one from an earlier Wagner opera: Ortrud’s Aria from Act 2 of “Lohengrin, sang by soprano Olga Bakali.

The Macbeth excerpt (chorus, dance and Finale of the third Act) gave the chance for Rosa d’Imperio and Raemond Martin - as Lady Macbeth and Macbeth respectively - to join forces again in acting and singing superbly in tis short but powerful and climactic duet from this Verdi opera.

The “Conga del Fuego Nuevo” by the contemporary Mexican composer Arturo Marquez provided a change of pace with its lively Latin American rhythms and melodies, danced by Alicia Raquel.

The last two pieces of the program were too in the lighter vein. The very well-known Duet “Ton kairo ekeino ton palio” from the Operetta “O Vaftistikos” by Sakelaridis, a perennial favorite of Greek audiences, was sang by Olga Xanthopoulou and Olga Bakali. The finale of the program was the Menuet and the famous Galop (danced as a Can Can) from the satirical operetta “Orphee aux enfers” by Jacques Offenbach with the whole company, singers and dancers on stage.

After the bows Maestro Yannis Xylas addressed the audience saying that the concert celebrated 90^th anniversary of the the Hellenic Orthodox Community of Saint Demetrios and the 60^th anniversary of the Saint Demetrios Greek-American day school. He then proceeded to thank all the musicians, the singers, dancers and Ioannis Melissanidis who made this magical and uplifting night possible. He also made an honorable mention to the sponsor and producer of the event, Mr. Nikos Andriotis, president of the Saint Demetrios School Board calling him to address the audience too. Mr. Andriotis, amidst the crowd’s applause said:

“It was in 1976 when we celebrated the 50^th anniversary and I was then the young president of the community; it is still hard to believe that 40 years went by and we celebrate this year our 90^th anniversary. I am convinced that our community is on the right path as far as our religion, heritage and language are concerned. The Opera and Ballet Night series- the 8^th in a row this year - started a little bit reluctantly in 2010 as we weren’t sure of the reaction of the public. We entrusted Mr. Yannis Xylas, a wonderful and extraordinary all-around musician, to bring forth and arrange the necessary forces as well as conduct an Opera and Ballet Night in Astoria. Ever since the first year the audience embraced our endeavor and this ambitious undertaking became a staple among the annual events not only of the Saint Demetrios community but also of the greater Greek American community in Queens and the public awaits for it with enthusiasm every year. I am not sure if we will be able to continue this, however we will strive for the best. Just the fact that we were able to materialize it and make it a success, meaning to present something different and up to date unknown in the community we owe it to your participation. I would like to thank Maestro Yannis Xylas, all the orchestra musicians, singers and dancers who give their heart and soul each year so that we enjoy a wonderful and exceptional musical evening. Kudos to Olympic Gold Medalist Ioannis Melissanidis for his inspired narration and special thanks to the Consul General of Greece Dr. Konstantinos Koutras for attending our performance.”