There are those who think opera is an art only for the upper classes – sophisticated and elite.
But they are wrong, affirms Maria Todaro, general director of Florida Grand Opera. Todaro took over as general director of the South Florida-based opera company in the Fall of 2023.
“In the past, opera was thought to be reserved for the elite, but that was never the purpose of opera,” says Todaro, who began her career as an opera singer before moving into the realm of administration. Todaro comes from a family of opera performers – her father is Italian opera singer Jose Todaro, and her mother is Brazilian mezzo-soprano Maria-Helena de Oliveira.
On Sunday, Jan. 12 at the Center for Spiritual Living in Oakland Park, Florida Grand Opera will present a free performance of “SongFest:The Party Goes On, Celebrating the New Year with Opera’s Best Parties,” a program of songs about new beginnings. It will feature performers from its Studio Artists program, a competitive training program for young professionals who want to pursue a career in opera.
“SongFest is a beautiful concert with vivid excerpts of opera,” says Todaro. “It’s entertaining. It’s vivacious. It’s short. It’s a great way to have a little taste, an appetizer, of different aspects of opera.”
But that’s not even the best part, she says.
“You have an opportunity to discover the star of tomorrow,” says Todaro. The Studio Artists are six promising singers chosen from an audition of 800 performers from around the world. They have already completed college and training, and the program helps refine and launch them professionally at a very high level, she says. The artists are paid and receive housing, plus have access to master classes, stylists, financial management and public relations training. “They are taken care of in a very holistic way,” says Todaro.
The Florida Grand Opera is well respected, she says. In fact, world-famous Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti made his American debut with the Florida Grand Opera in 1965.
Studio Artist Monique Galvão, a mezzo-soprano from Brazil, says the program provides emerging artists with an opportunity to not only perform, but also grow and refine their craft in a professional environment.
“It’s a place where resident artists can gain invaluable experience, develop their skills, and take the first steps toward their professional careers,” she says. “SongFest is equally exciting for me because it’s all about celebrating the power of music. It’s a space where we can connect and share our art with the audience.”
Galvão says she is looking forward to performing excerpts from “Carmen,” a popular French opera by composer Georges Bizet about a strong young woman intertwined with a story of love, obsession and jealousy, and “Don Carlos,” an opera by composer Giuseppe Verdi about political intrigue, forbidden love and personal sacrifice.
James Mancuso, a Studio Artist and Long Island-based tenor, will perform in five of the works at SongFest, and is most excited about excerpts from “Die Fledermaus,” a comic operetta by Johann Strauss known for its witty social satire, mistaken identities and goofy plot.
“Every opera is different, even if they have similar storylines,” says Mancuso.
He says opera is an art form for everyone.
“I think I was put on this earth to do opera because I love the feeling of being on that stage and being generous to an audience,” says Mancuso. “We dream of somebody coming out of that opera feeling different, feeling enlightened, or feeling like they’re connected to the opera in some way.”
Todaro says opera is a feast for the senses, one that touches you at your core.
“You are bathing in the sound that the human voice produces. But not only that, you’re bathing in the glorious beauty of visual sets and costumes and the storytelling and the orchestra,” she says.
Then there is the poetry of the story, says Todaro. Even if it is sung in a different language (though the words are presented in English and Spanish for FGO performances, known as “supertitles”), audiences can understand what is happening, she says.
“The great composers of the past – Mozart, Beethoven, Puccini – knew it was a popular art form, and they knew what to do with the emotion of the music, so if you did not know the text, if you did not understand the words, you could understand the action,” says Todaro. “It’s the same way with ballet, right? It doesn’t take text to understand who’s in love, who’s not in love, who wants to kill someone, who’s mad, who’s happy – because the music and the physicality explains and connects us. It is the same with opera.”
The artists also feel very connected to the art form.
“Opera is unlike anything else: it’s raw, vulnerable, and transformative,” says Galvão. “It’s changed my life in ways I can’t even describe. It touches something deep inside, and I’m convinced that if people give it a chance, it will touch their hearts too.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT :
Florida Grand Opera’s “SongFest: The Party Goes On, Celebrating the New Year with Opera’s Best Parties”
WHERE:
Center for Spiritual Living, 4849 Dixie Highway, Oakland Park
WHEN:
3 to 5 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 12
TICKETS:
Free
with RSVP
INFORMATION:
800-741-1010 or 954-751-9912 and
fgo.org
