Seven Singers to Preview Redlands Opera Theatre’s New Season at Benefit Gala

REDLANDS>> Seven Southern California opera singers will lend their voices to entertain guests Sept. 17 at Redlands Opera Theatre’s fund-raising gala, Soirée at the Gables. Redlands Opera Theatre’s Board of Directors, Artistic Director Tiana Dye and Music Director Christa Stevens will showcase selections from the upcoming 2016/17 season with opera arias and ensembles featuring beloved pieces from treasured operas by Bizet, Puccini and more. The gala will be held at the Mission Gables Bowl House, 168 S. Eureka St., Redlands, CA 92373, opening at 4 p.m. with the program beginning at 4:30 p.m. Guests will enjoy a wine-and-hors d'oeuvres reception, a silent auction, opportunity drawing and performances. Tickets are $45 each, $80 for a couple, and include one drink voucher per person. All proceeds from the event benefit Redlands Opera Theatre. To purchase tickets, visit www.redlandsoperatheatre.org. Dye and Stevens, both sopranos, will be joined by Mezzo Soprano Victoria Fox, Tenors David Newton and Marco Antonio Lozano and Baritone Brian Jensen, who will be the Gala’s Master of Ceremonies. Special guest artist is award-winning teen Soprano Golda Berkman, 17, who will make her professional opera debut portraying the role of Lauretta in Redlands Opera Theatre’s production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi in November. At 15, she was the one of the youngest grand prize finalists in classical voice in the Music Center’s prestigious Spotlight Award competition. She has achieved several remarkable accomplishments for her age, with Carnegie Hall and Walt Disney Concert Hall debuts already under her belt. Christa Stevens is co-founder and a principal artist with Redlands Opera Theatre as well as music curator of its Opera at the Gables concert series. She is the soprano soloist/section leader at Community Church Congregational, Corona del Mar and is a member of the Wagner Ensemble, The Music Companie and Opera on Tap, LA. Recent roles include those in A Little Night Music, The Medium, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Cosi fan tutte, H.M.S. Pinafore, Faust and Don Giovanni. Tiana Dye is co-founder, Artistic Director and a principal artist of Redlands Opera Theatre. She has performed with several companies throughout Southern California with more than 30 full operatic and musical theater productions to her credit including Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Hänsel und Gretel, Into the Woods and Amahl and the Night Visitors. She premiered the role of Ego in Ego: Popera Electronica and can be heard singing the title role on the soundtrack. Baritone Brian Jensen will be Master of Ceremonies for Soirée at the Gables. He has sung the roles of Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), Barnaba (La Gioconda), Sulpice (The Daughter of the Regiment) and Samuel (Pirates of Penzance). He has performed with the Music Academy of the West, Opera Santa Barbara and Intimate Opera Company in operas such as Carmen, Tosca, Norma, Mignon, The Merry Widow and The Wedding. He also sang in Il Trovatore with Nickel City Opera while completing a Master of Fine Arts in Music Theory at the University at Buffalo. Jensen performed in the 2013 Redlands Bowl production of The Sound of Music. Following his studies at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg, Austria, Tenor David Newton began singing roles in the Italian repertoire as well as Mozart repertoire throughout Europe in productions in Austria, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia and Romania, as well as the United States. He was a member of the renowned Mozart Opera Institut and was featured in touring productions in the roles of Tamino, Pedrillo and the title role in Idomeneo. Tenor Marco Antonio Lozano has performed extensively in the United States and abroad. His résumé includes performances with Los Angeles Opera, Theater Ulm, Theater für Niedersachsen, Oper im Berg Festival, Opera Royale, Lyric Opera of Los Angeles, Opera en Castellano and others. A first place winner of the international vocal competition “Grandi Voci,” Lozano was engaged for performance in Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, and Austria, where he lived for the previous four years. He is pursuing a Master of Music degree at USC. Victoria Fox earned her Bachelor of Music at The Lamont School of Music in Denver, Colorado, and holds a Master’s Degree from USC’s Thornton School of Music. She has been honored as a James Conlon Music Scholar, is a recipient of the Jeanette MacDonald Operetta Scholarship, and is a two-time Aspen Music Festival Fellow. Her roles include those in Carmen, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Così fan tutte, Capriccio, Faust, and Les Contes D’Hoffmann. This fall she looks forward to performing in Massenet’s Sapho with Angel City Opera and to revisiting the role of Zita in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with Redlands Opera Theater in November. For more information about Soirée at the Gables and Redlands Opera Theatre, call (909) 653-5677, write to info@redlandsoperatheatre.com or visit www.redlandsoperatheatre.com.