Saturday, October 5, 2019 at 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM PDT
906 World Cultural Center
906 Broadway
San Francisco, CA
Overview:
Céline Ricci with mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich, soprano
Aurélie Veruni and harpsichordist Kelly Savage will perform an Ars Minerva
Opera featuring vignettes of famous and influential Mediterranean women. Arias
from female roles from the operatic repertoire and spoken texts will alternate
and lead you in a journey inhabited by legendary women and heroines as
Cleopatra, Didone or Ottavia.
Music by: Claudio Monteverdi, Francesco Cavalli,
George-Frideric Handel, Pietro-Andrea Ziani and Giovanni Porta.
About the
performance:
“Through Céline Ricci conception and realization of the
program, the attentive listener was drawn to not only the distinguishing
musical properties of each selection but also the rich diversity of
personalities that could be so penetratingly depicted through those musical
properties.” Stephen Smoliar - The Rehearsal Studio
“Ars Minerva company is a cultural treasure, and we are
lucky indeed to have it here in the Bay Area” Roy McBean - The Berkeley Daily
Planet
Biographies:
Ars Minerva is a San Francisco-based, 501(c)3 performing
arts organization created in 2013 by Céline Ricci. Its mission is to engage new
audiences for classical music through innovative productions of Baroque operas.
Ars Minerva is proud to bring forgotten music back to
life, in collaboration with artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. Reviving
Baroque operas is a rare and captivating experience, which we are happy to
share with the diverse local community.
Ars Minerva not only promotes rare and long-forgotten
music, but also is committed to highlighting powerful women in history:
Cleopatra Pharaoh of Egypt, the Amazon women warriors, Circe Goddess of Magic,
Iphigenia and her mother Clytemnestra fighting patriarchal commands to
sacrifice a daughter for the glory of an army.
Céline Ricci is the Artistic Director and founder of Ars
Minerva.
Her recent productions include three 17th-Century
forgotten operas: La Cleopatra in 2015, The Amazons in 2016, La Circe in
2017; and the 18th Century opera Ifigenia in Aulis in 2018. She will stage
Ermelinda for Ars Minerva in November 2019.
As a mezzo-soprano, Céline had an extensive career. She
performed at: Lincoln Center for the Arts, Disney Hall, BAM, Teatro Colon,
Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Opéra Comique, Berlin Staatsoper, Marinsky Theater
among other venues.
She recorded for Naxos, Harmonia Mundi and Sono Luminus
labels.
She was also involved in recordings which received
several prizes: Editor’s Choice – Gramophone UK, Orphée d’Or /Académie
Nationale du Disque Lyrique de France, Diamant d’Opera / Opéra Magazine…
Aura Veruni - Praised for her “pristine sound ...[and
her] brilliant coloratura passages” (San Francisco Classical Voice) , Soprano
Aura Veruni, is making his way onto stages across the country.
She recently performed the title of Ifigenia in Aulide as
well as Sarasota Opera performing the role of Pepa in Eugene D'Albert Tiefland
and covering the title role of Bellini's Norma .She performs at Des Moines
Metro Opera covering the title role of Massenet’s Manon, San Francisco Opera
Guild, Mendocino Music Festival, Cinnabar Theater.
Kindra Scharich has been praised by the SF Chronicle for
her “exuberant vitality” and “irrepressible musical splendor.” She will be seen
in the upcoming premiere of Laura Kaminsky’s Today it Rains with Opera
Parallèle and Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves with West Edge Opera.
Kelly Savage is on the faculty at San Francisco
Conservatory of Music, where she teaches theory and musicianship, and is a
lecturer at Stanford University, where she teaches keyboard harmony and directs
the Stanford Community Chorus. Ms. Savage is also the music director at Noe
Valley Ministry in San Francisco. She performs frequently on harpsichord as a
continuo player and chamber musician.
Ms. Savage is artistic director of the chamber group
SIREN Baroque, and is a founding member of the New York opera company Opera
Feroce. The New York Times praised Ms. Savage’s “deft accompaniment” in the
pasticcio opera Amor & Psyche, and highlighted her playing in Morningside
Opera’s production of The Judgment of Paris. She holds a doctorate from Stony
Brook University, where she studied with Arthur Haas, and also holds graduate
degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Wisconsin—Madison.
Ms. Savage is a co-creator of Partifi, an online tool for musicians.
Cost: $25
