Welcome to Cape Cod's own opera company dedicated to the production of fully staged opera showcasing local and regional professional talent. "There's nothing more powerful than experiencing the majesty of opera performed live and in person in a small theatre."

Mission Statement

The mission of Cape Cod Opera is to enrich the cultural lives of residents of and visitors to Cape Cod by presenting operatic programs engaging local and regional professional casts, directors and designers, and by bringing live operatic experiences to local schools and adults groups.

Philip Lima as Scarpia and Diana Toscano as Tosca in Puccini's TOSCA - August 2008 Photo credit: Focalpoint Studio, Orleans	Gregory Zavracky, Rachele Schmiege, Sarah Callinan, Meredith Ziegler and Eugene Heard - Così fan tutte - August 2009 Photo credit: Focalpoint Studio, Orleans

SUPPORT CAPE COD OPERA

GREEN FUNDRAISING

BUY CLEAN PRODUCTS AND HELP SUPPORT CAPE COD OPERA

WE HAVE JOINED THE TD BANK AFFINITY PROGRAM

WHAT'S NEXT

Acts of Love

 with Dueling Divas

Sunday, February 21, 2010

2-30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Cultural Center of Cape Cod,

307 Main Street, South Yarmouth

Beth MacLeod, Diana Toscano and Sarah Callinan

with piano accompaniment by Lucy Banner

The divas - a rare combination of Light, Lyric, and Dramatic Coloratura Sopranos will perform arias from your favorite operas

at the gorgeous and acoustically superb Cultural Center.

The $40 ticket price ($10 for students and youth under 18) includes an amazing performance plus a reception with wine, savories and sweets,

a silent auction, and the chance at a great door prize.

DON'T MISS THE OPPORTUNITY TO HEAR OUR DIVAS.

BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW!

Call  508-246-0039 

to make reservations.

WINTER NEWS

Cape Cod Opera is on Facebook

AN OPERATIC FIRST NIGHT!

This concert was held on Wednesday December 30, 2009 at The Methodist Church, Chatham, Massachusetts as part of Chatham First Night activities.

Valerie Kraft, Beth MacLeod, Paul Soper, John Tsotsoros accompanied by Lucy Banner, Pianist performed arias, duets and ensembles from La Boheme, Carmen and Broadway.

Together for the first time, the wonderful quartet  started the fireworks display early!!

Photos courtesy of Bob Alexander

OPERA AND YOU!

Highlights of Così fan tutte in Cape Schools

Natalie Polito and Meredith Zeigler        Eugene Heard and Kevin Hayden

Photos by Allan Pollack

Cape Cod Opera on 29th and 30th October presented six outreach performances of highlights of Cosi fan tutte to Harwich Middle School, Barnstable Middle School, Falmouth Academy, Cape Cod Technical Regional High School and Nauset Regional High School. Singers Eugene Heard, Natalie Polito, Kevin Hayden and Meredith Ziegler with pianist Lucy Banner, with narration by David McCarty and Ruthann Hellfach, and costumes and props by Linda Arthur, entertained and educated students with Mozart's comic opera. Our thanks to the schools involved and their teachers and to our wonderful performers. Opera and You! is supported by The Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, local cultural councils of Harwich, Mid Cape, Falmouth, Chatham, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, Truro and Wellfleet, The Massachusetts Cultural Council, TD Bank, Cape Cod Five Cents Bank Charitable Foundation, Matching grants from Verizon, General Electric and The Friends of Cape Cod Opera.

Please read our ARIA newsletters

Aria  Fall/Winter 2009

The newsletter is a Portable Document Format (PDF) File which means you must have an Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 program to look at and print it.

Aria Spring/Summer 2009

  A Letter from The President

Dear Friends,

Here we are in the time of giving to ask those who have given, to give again in celebration of Cape Cod Opera’s (CCO) sixteenth year of community offerings. Need I say that new contributors are more than welcome? We hope you all will respond with any remuneration, putting you on our list of enlightened supporters.

While we at CCO are trimming costs to the bone we’re not cutting our commitment to Cape Codders. We’re working every month of the year to produce professional and top quality staged productions, concerts and school outreach. Mozart’s Così fan tutte, last August, was an artistic gem with its combination of ridiculous story and sublime music. We regretted limiting performances to only one but needed to cut orchestra and venue rental fees. Generous and understanding performers, designers and directors offered reduced fees. Members of our wonderful Company Chorus accepted half of their normal stipend and a few returned their checks as donations. Even though volunteers and in-kind contributors are constantly warming our hearts with help to bring quality opera to you and reduce cost, Cosi’s final cost was $45.000.

Next August, CCO will tickle your fancy by waltzing Lehar’s The Merry Widow into your arms. All we need is $35.000 to furnish the Widow’s stage dressing and music which is bound to be extraordinary with David McCarty’s staging and choreography. The vibrantly alive production will make your body and soul joyfully lift no matter what dismal occurrences abound.

A major opera’s production attendance is like a poker game: full houses are winners. We’re getting close but not close enough. You can make it happen, dear audience and supporters. Please join our efforts to reach our goals for you, our Friends. Now, more than ever, we all need a song in our hearts. And, a Happy New Year!

The very best to you all and thank you.

Most sincerely,

Ruthann Hellfach,

President of the Board of Directors of Cape Cod Opera

A Letter from The Producing Artistic Director

Dear Supporters, Colleagues and Friends,

Few art forms require as many moving parts to reach fruition than that of a fully staged opera production. Directors and conductors come together with their expertise in order to bring the musical, dramaturgical and visual aspects to life. No matter how grand or difficult the musical challenges may be with any given choice, we are ultimately telling a story on a stage and cannot forget that.

Auditions and casting the right singing actors is a vital first step. Once done the musical work begins on one end while the nitty gritty begins on another. Set, costume and lighting design are crucial elements that can take several months of collaborative work to reach the goal of creating the three dimensional reality that the audience sees and experiences. This sense of time, place and atmosphere that supports each character’s emotional journey through an opera is of huge importance to the performers as well. Our goal is to create an environment that can sweep the audience up and away and into the world of the story at hand.

In order to do so realistically, producers, directors, stage management, Board members and volunteers alike work tirelessly to secure rehearsal spaces, performance venues, procure furniture, props and costumes, coordinate transportation, housing, and schedule upwards of seventy five people to arrive on time, and ready to make the magic.

Finally in the theater we begin to see and hear the fruits of all our collective efforts. The conductor leads the orchestra and singers in the most important element of all, bringing the score to life. Music is the back bone of this wondrous way of story telling and we all breathe easier when we reach that final orchestra dress rehearsal and can see and experience the enormous collective efforts that have brought us there.

I am committed to keeping these moving parts and collaborations alive. In order to realistically do so, Cape Cod Opera needs to raise $35,000 between now and August 1, 2010. Please help us continue to keep our annual productions, outreach programs and concerts of the highest caliber and inspire the next generation into this incredible art form.

David McCarty

Producing Artistic Director

Our History

Cape Cod Opera evolved from a 1994 recital sponsored by Friends of Monomoy Theatre under the name of Afternoon at the Opera. Opera New England of Cape Cod joined in sponsoring the next year's concert, followed by concert productions of Carmen and Die Fledermaus. This collaboration grew into Cape Cod Opera, an independent non-profit organization dedicated to the production of staged opera showcasing professional local and regional talent. Cape Cod Opera's outreach programs take live classical vocal music to Cape schools at no cost. 2001 saw the expansion of these programs to the senior population. The organization is administered by an all volunteer board.

The Cape Cod Opera Chorus

The Cape Cod Opera Chorus was introduced to Cape audiences in August 2000. The chorus, with singers from all parts of Cape Cod, debuted with An Evening of Opera with Sigmund Romberg and have since accompanied principals in Cape Cod Opera productions of La Traviata, Madama Butterfly, Die Fledermaus, I Paglacci/Cavalleria Rusticana, The Mikado, Carmen, Amahl and The Night Visitors, Tosca, Cosi Fan Tutte and have sung in most opera concerts. They appeared with Jonathan McPhee's Symphony by the Sea in July 2005 in a concert at The Hatch Shell on the Esplanade in Boston. Members of the Cape Cod Opera Chorus also sing comprimario roles in productions. The chorus always welcomes new members. Please email us at info@capecodopera.org.

Cape Cod Opera Productions

For information on Cape Cod Opera, please email to info@capecodopera.org

or call 508-398-1068 or 508-945-9274

Ticket Information Telephone No : 508-246-0039

Cape Cod Opera is pleased to be a part of The Arts Foundation of Cape Cod Passport to the Arts.
Tickets must be reserved in advance and are not available on line for the Passport for the Arts.
Please call 508.398.1068 for details.