Alpine Country Club provides a romantic setting in their magnificent grand ballroom for Summer Love Blooms.  Start by greeting friends and meeting new friends during the cocktail hour at 6pm. Then move into the magnificent Grand Ballroom for dinner at 7pm. The Alpine Country Club Chef Terry Saccomagno aims to please with this plentiful dinner for Opera Providence patrons. We begin with a Tuscan Antipasto followed by Tri-color Tortellini with pink vodka sauce, Sirloin alla Mamma w/ garlic butter & mushrooms, and Shrimp Mediteranneo w/ tomatoes & scallions, accompanied by Sicilian Green Beans. To top off this fine meal with “I Dolci” the Alpine will provide an assortment of Biscotti, Wandies & Italian Cookies complimented by coffee or tea.

At 8pm Opera Providence provides the evening’s entertainment by featuring four outstanding singers accompanied by OP music director Timothy Steele.  Summer Love Blooms can boast of two Rhode Island professionals who have gone on to national and international careers: Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, mezzo soprano and James Kleyla, baritone.  The other two singers, Patrice Tiedemann, soprano, and Fred Scheff, tenor, enjoy vibrant regional careers.

WHY: Proceeds from this event benefit the performance season of Opera Providence and OPERAtunity education and outreach programming.

Program

“Questa o quella” by Giuseppe Verdi

from Rigoletto

Fred Scheff, tenor

“La canzone di Doretta” by Giacomo Puccini

from La Rondine

Patrice Tiedemann, soprano

“Bella siccome un angelo” by Gaetano Donizetti

from Don Pasquale

James Kleyla, baritone

“Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix” by Camille Saint-Saëns

from Samson et Dalila

Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, mezzo-soprano

“Au Fond Du Temple Saint” by Georges Bizet

from Les Pêcheurs de perles

Fred Scheff and James Kleyla

“Depuis le jour” by Gustave Charpentier

from Louise

Patrice Tiedemann

“Habanera” by Georges Bizet

from Carmen

Gigi Mitchell-Velasco

“Quest' amor, vergogna mia” by Giacomo Puccini

from Edgar

James Kleyla

“Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man” by Jerome Kern

from Showboat

Gigi Mitchell-Velasco

“O soave fanciulla” by Giacomo Puccini

from La Bohème

Patrice Tiedemann and Fred Scheff

Performer Bios

Patrice Tiedemann, soprano, recently made her Boston Symphony Hall debut with the Boston Pops for their  Holiday concerts, conducted by Keith Lockhart. She made her debut with Boston Lyric Opera in 2005 as The   Water in the East Coast premiere of The Little Prince, and as the Foreign Woman in The Consul with Opera Boston. In 2006, she made her debut with Opera Providence in Opera Spectacular. Other engagements include Tosca and Madama Butterfly highlights with Symphony by the Sea, Belinda in Dido & Aeneas with the Nashoba Valley Chorale, Knoxville, Summer of 1915 with the Shenandoah Symphony Orchestra, the Widow in The Boor with Boston’s Intermezzo Chamber Opera, and as Hanna in The Merry Widow, and Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus for Cape Cod Opera. She has also appeared with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Indianapolis Opera, and Central City Opera. Equally at home in musical theatre repertoire, her recent performances include Mrs. Fezziwig and various denizens of London in A Christmas Carol with New Repertory Theatre, (all the while playing multiple instruments!), the Widow Corney in Oliver! and Mrs. Potts in Beauty & the Beast for New Bedford Festival Theatre, and with the Claflin Hill Orchestra, Salem Philharmonic, and New Bedford Symphony in programs of opera and musical theatre.

When mezzo-soprano Gigi Mitchell-Velasco portrayed Brangaene in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with Florentine Opera, a role she also sang with Charleston Symphony and Opera Orchestra of New York, it was written: “Gigi Mitchell-Velasco is world-class in every aspect.”  She performed the tragic Carmen of Bizet at the Prague State Opera opposite her husband, tenor Noel Espíritu Velasco. Other roles include Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier, Minnesota), Maddalena (Rigoletto, Braunschweig Staatstheater), Dorabella (Così fan tutte, Toledo), Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos), Fricka (Rheingold), Witch and Mother (Hansel and Gretel, Florentine), Elizabeth Proctor (Crucible), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly, Toledo), Federica (Luisa Miller, OperaBoston), Orlovsky (Die Fledermaus) and Parséïs (Esclarmonde). Much in demand on the concert stage, she sang in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion on short notice at Carnegie Hall with Helmut Rilling and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s last January. Verdi’s Requiem, various works of Mahler, Korngold, Beethoven, Handel, Mozart, Berlioz, Ravel, and de Falla comprise her extensive concert repertoire.  Recent performances around New England include the Providence Singers’ March Choral Festival, Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn at URI, WGBH and the Music Mansion, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Hingham Symphony, a chamber music concert with Aurea Music, and a duo recital with Noel at The Barn in Matunuck in August.  www.bravadiva.com

Fred Scheff, tenor, is a familiar face to southeast New England’s music and theatre scene. He has appeared with many local organizations including the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, Beavertail Productions, Ocean State Lyric Opera, and Theatre-by-the-Sea. Nationally, Fredric has appeared from coast to coast in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. Regionally, he has worked with such diverse companies as Trinity Repertory Company and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Recently he has appeared with the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, South County Chamber Singers, University of Rhode Island, and Rhode Island College. Recently he sang the role of the Witch in Hansel and Gretel as well as Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana with Opera Providence. Recent concerts include Messiah, Beethoven’s Mass in C and Schubert’s Schwanengesang. His schedule also includes numerous recitals in RI eastern Massachusetts and Connecticut. In addition he continues his ongoing work in the field of Sacred Music as well as teaching at Rhode Island College.

Baritone James Kleyla made his debut with the Boston Pops Orchestra in Symphony Hall during its 1993         Subscription Concert Series and returned the following year to perform opera arias and "Soliloquy" from Carousel. A former Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, Mr. Kleyla has sung with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, and Strauss' Salome under Seiji Ozawa, and as the    Narrator in Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat.  Mr. Kleyla has a number of world premieres to his credit, notably Harvard University composer Thomas Oboe Lee's That Mountain, a solo chamber cantata on words by Henry David Thoreau, and the title role in Don Dinicola's five act opera UBU.  More recently, his creation of the lead role brought rave reviews to Richard Cumming's The Picnic at Trinity Rep.  Mr. Kleyla has performed leading roles with the Boston Lyric Opera, Tulsa Opera, Gold Coast Opera of South Florida, Boston Baroque, Boston Ballet, Boston Classical Orchestra, The Boston Cecilia Society, Masterworks Chorale at Harvard, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Rhode Island Civic Chorale and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.  Recent and upcoming performances include: Mr. Webb (Our Town) with Lake George Opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe and La Traviata with Boston Lyric Opera, Carmina Burana under Met conductor Paul Nadler, Die Fledermaus with Kentucky Opera,           Escamillo in Carmen with Ocean City Lyric Opera, Rambaldo (La Rondine) with Utah Symphony & Opera, Count Almaviva (Figaro) with Knoxville Opera, West Virginia Symphony, and Syracuse Opera, Baron Douphol (Traviata) with New Orleans Opera, and The Speaker (Magic Flute) and Ping (Turandot) with Cleveland Opera.

Opera Providence 83 Park Street, Providence, RI 02903