Opera Night celebrates 7th year anniversary

History

Our first gathering was on Friday, July 1st, 2004 at the Cafe Portofino in Northport. It was essentially an “open-mic” scenario and singers were invited to join us and bring sheet music for arias and vocal duets.

As the series grew and began attracting more singers and a larger audience, we knew we were on to a good thing! The Cafe Portofino provided a charming "bistro" ambiance for good music, despite the fact that space was limited and the coffee grinding machines could be noisy. Sadly, the first piano was so honkytonk, and in such terrible disrepair that accompanying singers properly was difficult. One of them described playing the piano "like a vocalist singing with a sore throat."

After two years, as our audience grew dramatically, we moved across the street to the St. Paul's United Methodist Church. There, we were able to accommodate more people and we had a Steinway upright piano to accom­pany the singers. Now chamber music could become an option!

Moving to St. Paul's brought challenges as well as great benefits. Several singers had enjoyed giving comedic performances, and loved the idea of continuing in the "Opera Buffa" style. Others enjoyed singing multiple songs, often of great length. However, it soon be­came clear that "professional" singing and musicianship had to be our focus. As more singers joined the series, it was essential to give each a chance to perform, even if it meant limiting the number of arias each could sing. Over the years, we have worked hard to keep the quality of our performances consistently high while attempting to be as accommodating as possible. Although our main performance venue is Northport, as our popularity has grown by word of mouth, we have also met requests to perform in Greenlawn, Oyster Bay, Huntington, Manhasset, Lindenhurst, Commack, Roslyn and at the Walt Whitman and Tanger malls.



We have a variety of performers ranging in age from teenagers to seniors. Some are "seasoned professionals," others have active careers in other fields but simply want to share their vocal gift with an audience. We also have voice students who are actively seeking a full time performance career. All of our singers love opera and in return, our audiences love them.



We look forward to a busy summer of performances, as we start a new season of Opera Night concerts. We have an active board, and look forward to more events and opportunities for our singers.