Jarvis presents It’s a Grand Night for Singing
Jarvis Conservatory presents It’s a Grand Night for Singing on Saturday, March 2, at 7 p.m. with director and pianist Frank Johnson and six talented musicians. Three singers and two wind players will present a program including an old Italian masterwork, a famous Chinese song and a preview of a new chamber opera. Daphne Touchais, born in Greece, trained and with an extensive career in France, now a transplant to Berkeley, will offer authentic renditions of songs by Fauré, Satie and Poulenc, a tour de force Schubert (and Goethe) art song, and operetta and musical theater songs by Künneke and Kurt Weill. Internationally trained Turkish tenor Meté Tasin, now based in Redwood City, will return for his second appearance, performing songs and arias of passion and despair by the Baroque Italian composer Cesti, by Respighi, Lehár and Mascagni, and also the hit song “How Can I Not Think of Her.” Dramatic soprano Tiffanie Trujillo will come from Morro Bay to perform Spanish songs by Obradors, “In questa Reggia” from Puccini’s Turandot and the famous “Song to the Moon” from Dvořák’s Rusalka. A special treat will be her performance of three excerpts from a new chamber opera by Carla Lucero, Chicanísima, which honors the life and work of the Chicana activist Olga Talamante. Lucero is a prize-winning composer and lyricist and a Napa resident. Audiences’ favorite flutist, Diane Grubbe, is a member of Quinteto Latino, which commissioned Chicanísima and will premiere the entire work later this year in San Francisco. The Jarvis concert audience will enjoy this preview, performed by Trujillo, Grubbe, Armando Castellano on French horn and hand drum and Maestro Johnson. Tickets are $20 at the box office. Doors open for general seating at 6:30 p.m. Jarvis Conservatory, 1711 Main St., Napa, www.jarvisconservatory.com, 707-255-5445