'Jewel Box Opera Series' Coming to Sands Point

Following up on the success of the its cultural arts programming, Friends of the Sands Point Preserve is presenting two operas: Verdi’s La Traviata on Saturday and Puccini’s Il Tabarro on August 17. 

Part of the Friends’ third summer music season, this “Jewel Box Opera Series” will be performed by an international cast with chamber orchestra in the air-conditioned Great Hall inside Castle Gould, which is set on a 216-acre seaside estate.

Every seat has a “perfect view of the stage,” organizers say.

These contemporary productions provide a solid introduction to opera newbies. "La Traviata" will be presented in a “jewel box” or chamber format and performed in 90 minutes; "Il Tabarro" is a 60-minute opera.

First performed in 1853 at La Fenice in Venice, Italy, Puccini’s "La Traviata," or "The Fallen Woman," tells the tale of Violetta Valéry, a famed courtesan, whose ill health foretells a tragic end to her great love affair with Alfredo Germont – whose powerful, disapproving father Georgio Germont (Stefanos Koroneos) is determined to destroy their relationship.  Many of the scenes in this opera take place at parties in lavish estates outside of Paris, so this production will utilize the grand surroundings of the Great Hall to give the audience a sense of the decadence of the story’s period.  

Verdi’s "Il Tabarro" was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1918. It is a romantic story of Giorgetta (Hannah Spierman), her older husband, Michele (Daniel Klein), and her younger lover, Luigi (Kirk Dougherty) who works for Michele aboard his barge on the river Seine in Paris. When Michele discovers the infidelity, he takes matters violently into his own hands…

The doors to the Great Hall open at 7:30 p.m. Performances begin at 8:15 p.m. Drinks, a dessert buffet and coffee will be served after the performances, from approximately 9:30-11 p.m.