Wolf Trap Opera’s Aria Jukebox, where the audience gets to choose the arias to be sung, is being held live this year. - online. In past years, a social with refreshments was held immediately prior to the concert to allow attendees the opportunity to vote for which arias the singers would perform; the social also provided the opportunity to meet the young artists who would be performing. Tickets sold out weeks in advance. This year, tickets are not required but you will have to provide your own refreshments since, sadly, pandemic restrictions won’t let us gather to party together. However, WTO is maintaining the party atmosphere by adding a raffle with some very nifty prizes, as part of the event. For, example, would you like a recording by one of their Filene Artists singing Happy Birthday to you or a loved one?
This year’s performances will still emanate live from the stage and/or the floor of The Barns with piano accompaniment, but the proceedings can only be viewed online. However, you can still vote for which arias you want to hear by making a donation to Wolf Trap Opera, for as little as $10 or as much as you can afford. Every dollar you donate adds to your chances at winning one of the raffle prizes. Don’t delay in voting; the voting deadline is July 14, and the concert is July 18. Fifteen talented and accomplished young singers drawn from this year’s group of Filene Artists will be singing the arias of our choice. As an aside, one of the advantages of Aria Jukebox being online is that we can also party online using Twitter or Facebook accounts, commenting in real time as it proceeds, such as, “Yippee, my choice won!” or show a little ego, “Well, of course my choice won.”
Photos courtesy of Wolf Trap Opera from a previous Aria Jukebox production in The Barns. On July 18, there will only be the singers and required personnel. The Filene Artists will perform individually with piano accompaniment, and WTO will manage placements and traffic flow so that social distancing is maintained.
Below is the list of scheduled singers and possible arias/songs. Grant Loehnig, WTO’s head of Music, will accompany the singers on piano, and Morgan Brophy, Assistant Director of Artistic Administration, will host. I inquired of Wolf Trap Opera how the arias to be voted on were picked and was told, “The song selections come from the artists themselves, in collaboration with Grant Loehnig. They often choose one or two standard things from the arias that they know, and then they’ll add in things that are a little more off the beaten path. Art songs, folks songs, crowd-favorites – these are often the ones that they really want to share with an audience, things that they don’t get to take out very often that come from the heart. If you’re torn between hearing another “Habanera” or exploring a Spanish song you’ve never heard of, go for the Spanish song every time and you won’t regret the result.” These are great arias and songs, and choosing will be tough, but don’t wait too long and miss your chance.
Christopher Bozeka, tenor
Povero Ernesto, Don Pasquale, Donizetti
A te, o cara, I Puritani, Bellini
La donna è mobile, Rigoletto, Verdi
Dies Bildnis, Die Zauberflöte, Mozart
Jonathan Bryan, baritone
Silvio's Aria, Pagliacci, Leoncavallo
Votre Toast, Carmen, Bizet
The Impossible Dream, Man of La Mancha, Leigh
Rojo Tango, Ziegler/Mora
Chanae Curtis, soprano
Chi il bel sogno, La rondine, Puccini
Depuis le jour, Louise, Charpentier
Musetta's Waltz, La bohème, Puccini
Give Me Jesus, arr. Hogan
Thomas Glass, baritone
Largo al factotum, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Rossini
È sogno? o realtà?, Falstaff, Verdi
Rodrigo's Death Scene, Don Carlo, Verdi
Black Max, Bolcom
Mackenzie Gotcher, tenor
Ch'ella mi creda libero, La fanciulla del West, Puccini
Cielo pietoso, rendila, Simon Boccanegra, Verdi
Durch die Wälder, Die Freischütz, Weber
Ombra di nube, Refice
Megan Esther Grey, mezzo-soprano
Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix, Samson et Dalila, Saint-Saëns
Iris, hence away, Semele, Handel
Stride la vampa, Il Trovatore, Verdi
Sanglots, Poulenc
Shannon Jennings, soprano
Stridono lassù, Pagliacci, Leoncavallo
Vissi d'arte, Tosca, Puccini
I Want Magic, A Streetcar Named Desire, Previn
María la O, Lecuona
Gretchen Krupp, mezzo-soprano
Joan of Arc's Aria, The Maid of Orleans, Tchaikovsky
O mio Fernando, La Favorita, Donizetti
Witch's Aria, Hänsel und Gretel, Humperdinck
Le temps des lilas, Chausson
Yunuet Laguna, soprano
Je dis, Carmen, Bizet
Marietta's Lied, Die tote Stadt, Korngold
Chi il bel sogno, La rondine, Puccini
Intima, Nacho
Leia Lensing, mezzo-soprano
Where Shall I Fly, Hercules, Handel
Che faro, Orfeo ed Euridice, Glück
Addio Roma, L'incoronazione di Poppea, Monteverdi
King David, Howells
Conor McDonald, baritone
Look! through the port, Billy Budd, Britten
Papageno's Suicide Aria, Die Zauberflöte, Mozart
Possente spirto, L'orfeo, Monteverdi
Catalogue de Fleurs, Milhaud
Brian Michael Moore, tenor
Kuda, kuda, Eugene Onegin, Tchaikovsky
The Song of Kleinzach, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Offenbach
E lucevan le stele, Tosca, Puccini
O sole mio, di Capua
Nicholas Newton, bass-baritone
Aleko's Cavatina, Aleko, Rachmaninoff
Sancho Panza's Aria, Don Quichotte, Massenet
Vecchia zimarra, La bohème, Puccini
Life and Death, Coleridge-Taylor
Alexandra Nowakowski, soprano
Doll Aria, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Offenbach
Zerbinetta's Aria, Ariadne auf Naxos, Strauss
O luce di quest'anima, Linda di Chamounix, Donizetti
Przasniczka, Moniuszki
Wm. Clay Thompson, bass
Sancho Panza's Aria, Don Quichotte, Massenet
Madamina, Don Giovanni, Mozart
Ecco il mondo, Mefistofele, Boito
The New Suit (Zipper Fly), Blitzstein
If you follow Wolf Trap Opera, you will recognize many names on this list as returnees to WTO after previous stints for training as either Filene Artists and/or Studio Artists. For example, you might recall baritone Conor McDonald’s campy Merlin in WTO’s hilarious production of Merlin’s Island last season, or MacKenzie Gotcher’s beautiful tenor voice as Cavaradossi in WTO’s 2017 Tosca. You may even have seen soprano Alexandra Nowakowski’s charming portrayal as Papagena in last year’s Washington National Opera’s production of The Magic Flute, in addition to her WTO roles. While I’m name dropping, might I also point out that quite a few current opera stars did early training with WTO, like Lawrence Brownlee, Christine Goerke, Kate Lindsey, Ryan McKinny, Ailyn Perez, Eric Owens, and J’nai Bridges to name a few. As always, this year’s singers are a highly talented and accomplished group of early career artists who had to win a competition for these sought-after slots. You can find brief bios for all the artists at this link. Just imagine you win the raffle prize for the Happy Birthday song, and years in the future, it turns out to have been sung by the next Christine Goerke or Lawrence Brownlee? Now, how many chances is that worth?
This is a blog, so I can take certain liberties, and I am tempted to use this report to lobby readers to vote for the arias I’d most like to hear, but I won’t. Well, allow me one. I just finished reading Marian Anderson’s autobiography (I’ll be reporting on that soon), and if you vote for soprano Chanae Curtis to sing “Give Me Jesus”, I will be eternally grateful; I’ll even do you the favor of not singing Happy Birthday. However, Ms. Anderson has made me a new fan of spirituals. Some of those off the beaten path selections might open up new vistas for you.
It’s tough on us to be denied a live, in person Aria Jukebox this summer, and it is even tougher on Wolf Trap Opera and these young singers who are having their training options curtailed and their performance careers put on hold. Kudos to Wolf Trap Opera for managing to keep the training alive this summer and having our backs, giving us the opportunity to enjoy the talents that will be on display on July 18, singing our favorite arias. Hey, I’d be happy to sit and listen to them sing any one of these arias or every one of them.
The Fan Experience: All the relevant info is on the Aria Jukebox web page. The voting deadline is this coming Tuesday, July 14. The concert will be the following Saturday, July 18 at 7 pm. To access the concert, click on the Wolf Trap Opera Aria Jukebox web page or the WTO Facebook page immediately prior to 7 pm. [Addendum 7-13-2020: WTO reports that Aria Jukebox will be available for streaming as part of Wolf Trap Opera Untrapped following the live performance].
To vote: Go to the Aria Juke Box web page and click the Vote Now button. When you fill out the form and click on the Donate Now button, you will be taken to a web page with a unique link to vote for your favorite arias. You will have four votes for each candidate to vote for the arias of that candidate. The form keeps score for you and you will have a chance to review your votes and edit them at the end. The minimum donation is $10, but the more you donate, the greater the weight that will be assigned to your votes.
Your donation enters you into the raffle with a chance to win one of the four prizes, with every dollar you donate giving you another chance. Raffle prizes include a WTO swag bag filled with WTO goodies; a backstage Barns tour and a picnic lunch with WTO Directo Lee Anne Myslewski in the Spring of 2021; a pair of free tickets to any summer WTO opera of your choice in 2021 plus $50 at concessions; and the Artist of your choice will sing and record Happy Birthday for you or a loved one. Those are pretty neat prizes! If you are a raffle winner, you will have to watch the live broadcast to claim your prize.