A Mid Winter Gala
The Asheville Lyric Opera’s annual fundraiser event, Taste of Opera, A Mid Winter Gala, will be held on January 27 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Expo Center. The Taste of Opera celebrates the fine tastes of opera by indulging the senses in music, art, wine, and the food and chocolate of Asheville.
Between 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. food, wine, and chocolate vendors will offer samples of their craft to an eager crowd of 300+ local foodies. Guests will enjoy their dining experience as they engage with featured artists of the rivers arts district populating the 16,000+ square foot expo center. The tasting will be followed by a grand operatic concert.
Featured Performers
Galen Bower, Metropolitan Opera Baritone, Barbara LeMay, New York City Mezzo-Soprano, and Susan Belcher, Lyric Opera of Chicago Soprano.
Galen Bower is one of America’s most exciting up-and-coming operatic performers. A graduate of the Master of Music and Artist Development programs at Yale University, Mr. Bower has received significant critical and public acclaim for his rich baritone voice and commanding stage presence at the Metropolitan Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Barbara LeMay, an audience charmer par excellence with a fresh, youthful aura, is on of opera’s most promising young mezzo-sopranos. Her success has been at New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, and Yale Opera Theatre.
Mrs. Susan Belcher gained her professional opera training as a young artist with the Chicago Lyric Opera Center for American Artists in Chicago, Illinois, where she debuted to critical acclaim the role of the angel Zephon in the world premiere of Pendereski’s Paradise Lost.
Her many opera credits include: Clorinda in La Cenerentola with the Opera Company of Philadelphia opposite Maria Ewing; Norina in Don Pasquale opposite Sir Geraint Evans; Adele in Die Fledermaus with Jerry Hadley; Papagena in The Magic Flute with both the Chicago Opera Theatre and the Chicago Lyric Grant Park Series; Despina in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Mimi in La Boheme; Lucy in The Telephone; and, Jenny in the Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagony.
Seating
$125 Table – Six seats per table, includes priority parking.
$75 – Section 1 Reserved Seating, includes reserved parking
$50 – Section 2 Reserved Seating, includes general parking.
Taste of Opera, A Mid Winter Gala will be held on January 27 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Expo Center. Tickets can be purchased by contacting the Asheville Lyric Opera at (828) 236-0670 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased at www.ashevillelyric.org.
