Opera fest delights guests, organizers

By KATHY MELLOTT

In a time of skyrocketing unemployment and investment uncertainty, the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra is trying to hold the interest and the dollars of the region’s serious music lovers.

If attendance at Saturday’s 17th annual Opera Festival and the post-concert gala is any measure, the symphony will continue to thrive.

“We’re so pleased with tonight. There may be a few less, but as you can see from the turnout, we’re very pleased,” said festival chairwoman Karen Azer.

The festival, themed “Your Destination for Live Opera,” was held at the Pasquerilla Performing Arts Center in Richland Township.

It featured four world-renowned singers: Soprano Meredith Hansen, mezzo-soprano Paula Rasmussen, tenor John Daniecki and bass Eric Jordon.

The evening got off to a rousing start with each performer singing a favorite aria from a variety of familiar operas.

Also performing was the orchestra and the Johnstown Symphony Chorus.

The crowd was clearly pleased by the “Spinning Wheel Quartet,” from the comic opera “Martha.” The four opera performers gave a playful rendition of the amazement of two men at two women unable to run a spinning wheel.

Other crowd pleasers included “If I were a Rich Man,” from “Fiddler on the Roof,” “I Dreamed a Dream,” from “Les Miserables” and “Masquerade” from “The Phantom of the Opera.”

Carolyn and Scott Bryant, who recently moved to Johnstown from Virginia, were attending the opera festival for the first time. They were impressed.

“I really think the soprano was the best I’ve ever heard,” Carolyn Bryant said of Hansen’s performance.

Scott Bryant said he especially liked Jordon, the bass.

Those who attended paid $60 for the opera and $150 for the festival and the post-concert party at the Pasquerilla Conference Center in downtown Johnstown.

A sumptuous buffet included an open bar, and guests had the opportunity to participate in silent and live auctions.

This year’s opera festival broke from past tradition by eliminating the intermission during the festival. The step was taken so festival-goers could enjoy the buffet and gala earlier, Azer said.

The change appeared to be popular with many longtime symphony attendees, including Jeff and Dianne DeLisa of Johnstown and Margaret Smith of Moxham.

“This is wonderful. I have young children, and we don’t want to be out late,” Dianne DeLisa said.

Jeff DeLisa said he thought he would miss the intermission, but time moved quickly because the music was so good and fast-paced.

“This format is perfect,” Smith said.

The festival is key to the annual JSO season, and proceeds are vital to help cover the costs of the youth symphony and youth chorus, said symphony President James Beener.

“It’s our largest single fundraiser in an entire symphony year, and it means to us the ability to provide a number of programs throughout the year,” Beener said.

One of the most popular programs is to bring fifth-graders to the symphony, which in most cases is the first time the youngsters have heard opera, he said.

The economy has taken its toll on symphony revenue, but the 81-year-old organization is holding its own, Beener said.

“We are seeing this year the fallout from the economy. We’re seeing the impact everywhere,” he said. “(The recession) is filtering its way down, and the arts are feeling the impact everywhere.”

The festival was established by the late Frank and Sylvia Pasquerilla as a way of bringing opera to the area while providing financial stability to the JSO.

Son Mark Pasquerilla said he is pleased by the results of his parents’ efforts.

“It’s been a great run,” he said.

Estimates prior to Saturday’s event credit the festival with generating more than $1.5 million for the symphony during the past 16 years.

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