The second season of the Florentine Opera’s wonderful @ The Center series starts this Friday and Saturday evening, Sept. 26-27, with “The 81st Season Sampler,” a program of songs from the operas the company will present this season. It will be performed salon-style in the company’s cozy Riverwest studio at 926 E. Burleigh St. by the Florentine Studio Artists. Three of the members of last year’s fine quartet are back: soprano Julie Tabash, tenor Aaron Short and baritone Pablo Siqueros. They’re joined this season by mezzo-soprano Lindsey Metzger, an Illinois native completing a master’s in voice from UW-Madison.
They’ll sing highlights from Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, Floyd’s Wuthering Heights, Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love and the Florentine’s Grammy Award-winning Elmer Gantry by Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein. Part of the quartet’s responsibilities during the season is to give educational residencies in Milwaukee-area schools and so this weekend’s program will also feature scenes from the company’s original opera for children, Goldi B. Locks and the Three Singing Bears.
The @ The Center shows were justly popular last season. Each costs next to nothing ($15), lasts the right amount of time (an hour or so) and places audiences close to the personable singers who perform with grace to piano accompaniment. Since each of the productions from which this weekend’s program draws material was originally built in-house and holds a special place in Florentine history, general director Bill Florescu should have good stories to tell as M.C. Performances start at 7:30 pm.
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