By Randi Bjornstad
Like nearly everything else about 2020, New Year’s Eve is going to be different this year as we usher out the old year without regret and share high hopes for a much better 2021.
That holds for Eugene Opera also. For the first time in about four decades, Eugene Opera will not be appearing live onstage to celebrate New Year’s Eve a fully staged production, but that doesn’t mean the tradition is lost.
Instead this year, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 31, the show will go on — online — with performances by six Oregon-based opera singers as well as appearances by longtime Eugene Opera maestro Andrew Bisantz and Erika Rauer, the opera’s executive director.
The performers will be opera stars and rising stars who have performed on the Eugene stage before — Hannah Penn, Damien Geter, Brooklyn Snow, Matthew Greenblatt, Anthony Kalil, and Vanessa Isiguen Kalil. They will be accompanied by Eugene pianist Nathalie Fortin.
The program will be as full as any opera aficionado could hope for, complete with various familiar operatic hits, lighter works from Viennese operettas, and popular American traditional standards.
Here’s a complete rundown of the who will be singing what:
Act I: A Night at Eugene Opera
Bravo, signor padrone! … Se vuol ballare from Le nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart;
sung by Damien Geter, bass-baritone
Voi che sapete from Le nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart;
sung by Hannah Penn, mezzo-soprano
La la la la … Esulti pur la Barbara from L’elisir d’amore by Gaetano Donizetti;
sung by soprano Brooklyn Snow and tenor Matthew Greenblatt
Flower duet from Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini;
sung by Vanessa Isiguen, soprano, and Hannah Penn, mezzo-soprano
Nessun dorma from Turandot by Giacomo Puccini;
sung by tenor Anthony Kalil
O soave fanciulla from La bohème by Giacomo Puccini;
sung by Vanessa Isiguen, soprano, and Anthony Kalil, tenor
Act II : New Year’s Eve in Vienna
Mein Herr Marquis from Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauß II;
sung by soprano Brooklyn Snow
Ah, quel diner from La Périchole by Jacques Offenbach;
sung by Hannah Penn, mezzo-soprano
Lippen schweigen from The Merry Widow by Franz Lehár;
sung by soprano Brooklyn Snow and tenor Matthew Greenblatt
Meine lippen, sie küssen so Heiß from Giuditta by Franz Lehár;
sung by Vanessa Isiguen, soprano
Act III : America the Beautiful – America through folk song
Beautiful Dreamer by Stephen Foster;
sung by tenor Matthew Greenblatt
Oh Shenandoah (traditional);
sung by soprano Vanessa Isiguen
Deep River, arranged by H.T. Burleigh;
sung by Damein Geter, bass-baritone
Hard Times Come Again No More, by Stephen Foster;
sung by Matthew Greenblatt, tenor
America the Beautiful, music by Samuel A. Ward, lyrics by Katharine Lee Bates;
sung by mezzo soprano Hannah Penn and bass-baritone Damien Geter
Encore
Auld Lang Syne (traditional); sung by all vocalists (recorded separately)
Ticket information: Available at eugeneopera.org, $15 to $100; after purchase, a URL will be sent via email to be used at 7 p.m. on New Year’s Eve
