Following a buffet of hors d’oeuvres, attendees of the “One Night Stand” were subjected to the umpteenth “Annual Farewell Recital” of the renowned ‘traumatic’ soprano Madame Vera Galupe-Borszkh and her accompanist, Maestro Sergio Zawa. Perhaps a few of the more enlightened opera patrons in attendance questioned their hearing during the presentation, but all laughing apparatus seemed to be in excellent working order. Fortunately.
Madame, in a dark blue velvet gown with exceptionally-long train, plentiful jewelry and big red hair, began her recital with a winsome version of an aria from “La Grande Duchesse de Geritol, er, Gerolstein” by Offenbach. Her voice has lost none of its range or expressiveness, and neither has her piquant face. Her breath control is awesome as is her vibrato. At one point, Maestro Zawa utilized an electronic addition to the piano to provide marching sounds, a more suitable background for Madame’s acting than the usual keyboard could offer.
In between musical selections, Madame offered vignettes about her past lives and current foibles, including a side comment about having had to cancel a ‘golf outing with the governor’. To the surprise of many in the audience, many of her musical bon mots and asides drew bigger laughs! “Short story, long opera,” as she commented, reflecting on the trend to downsizing everything, including operas such as “Nixon in China-town”, “Billy Bud-lite” and ‘Monologue of the Carmelites”.
In addition to a torchy song by Poulenc, Madame provided an exceptionally dramatic version of Shubert’s “Erlkonig” and then explained, in chilling fashion, Azucena’s mystery in “Il Trovatore”. None who saw this will ever be able to forget it. Following an encore, Madame received a bouquet from the party planners Malou Monago and Lynn Chumbley, and exited the stage in a hail of roses, thrown by the excited patrons.
An auction of several very select items followed, and then the stage became the dance floor. When patrons left the Hanna, they were encouraged to conga their way to Hamilton's Martini Bar for even more partying.
Peter Rubin, president-elect of the Cleveland Opera board of trustees and founder of the Coral Co. real estate development firm, as well as a founder of SCORE, helped organize the event. It is his aim to prove that opera is and can be accessible to and enjoyed by anyone, particularly those 30- and 40-somethings who may never have experienced the grand art. SCORE is primarily aimed at the younger entrepreneurs in the area who are looking for something a bit more outlandish or irreverent or just plain fun. They’ve gotten off to a grand start!
Cleveland Opera’s 2005-06 season will help you ‘fall in love’ with opera; their five productions explain five aspects of that huge subject: Eugene Onegin (unrequited love) October 21-29; The Elixir of Love (bottled love) December 3-10; Roméo et Juliette (forbidden love) February 10-18; Turandot (in the name of love) March 31-April 8 and The Tyrant (the love of power) from May 2-7. The latter is already sold out. Tickets may be purchased at: http://www.clevelandopera.org or by phone at (216) 575-0903, ext. 221. From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz ArtsWriterATAdelphiadotnet
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