Back-to-back concerts in Everett next week are an opportunity to sample the beauty and versatility of operatically trained voices singing music that ranges from Christmas pop standards to those great opera arias that send shivers down the spine.
On Tuesday, a greatest hits selection of arias, duets and trios by the likes of Mozart, Verdi and Strauss will be performed in a concert at the Hartley Mansion in Everett.
| 8 p.m. Tuesday at The Hartley Mansion, 2320 Rucker Ave., Everett. |
Wednesday brings a Christmas concert at Everett’s Trinity Episcopal Church that celebrates the season with arias from Handel’s “Messiah,” traditional Christmas carols such as “The First Noel” and pop standards including the poignant “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”
Both of these concerts come courtesy of the Northwest Young Recitalists Association, a startup opera company with roots in Everett and southern California that aims to give young singers performance opportunities and bring opera to Snohomish County.
The company is a collaboration between Helmi Hahler, an Everett resident with a life-long love of opera, and Nathan Stark. Stark is a young bass-baritone who combines his opera studies at California State University, Long Beach, with an active recital and performing career in the United States and Europe.
A shared love of music brought the California man and the Everett woman together last year, resulting in concerts last fall and this summer in Everett.
The goal, to give young singers performance opportunities, will be realized in next week’s concert productions that will bring seven young singers of opera from sunny California to Everett.
Stark has a big following in Everett and the singers he’s bringing with him are outstanding, said Hahler, who is president of the Recitalists board of directors. The retired college professor is a passionate advocate for the arts whose love of opera was nurtured as a young girl in Germany.
Stark, who is the artistic director of Recitalists, described these first concerts as baby steps for the fledgling company and a good way to begin.
“What better way of doing it than with an audience that you know is going to be safe,” he said. “The audience in Everett is very supportive of me. It’s a great environment.”
The singers, all students at California State, range in age from 18 to 28, but despite their youth have a broad range of performance experience, including singing with Opera Pacific, a regional opera company located in Orange County, Calif.
Joining Stark in the Everett concerts are Aneta Augustyn, David A. Blair, Sarah Bennett, Kenneth Stavert, Jessica Elisabeth and Christopher Johnstone.
Tuesday’s concert at the Hartley Mansion is grounded in classical opera and includes masterworks by Mozart, Donizetti, Massenet, Dvorak and Handel.
“It’s a chance to really show the different voice types to our audience,” Stark said.
There are also selections from contemporary composers including Aaron Copeland’s “Simple Gifts” and “I Shall Not Live in Vain,” an art song by American composer Jake Heggie that sets one of Emily Dickinson’s most famous verses to music.
Wednesday’s Christmas concert covers all the bases of holiday music, ranging from the sacred to the secular and featuring several show-stopping works for the operatic voice, including “Panis Angelicus” and “Ave Maria.”
Nathan Stark
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