When:
Monday March 3 @ 5:30 p.m
Rsvp: Email events@florentineopera.org to rsvp and for any questions about the event.
Viva la Mamma and comedic prologue Il maestro di capella are sure to be a night of roaring laughter! Join us for an opportunity to hear from our stage director and conductor about opera satire and experience a short performance from the leading bass-baritone.
About Versed
We build operas over the course of a few years! In that time, dozens of creatives work on costuming, lighting effects, historical juxtapositions and casting. For each mainstage production, we offer a Versed experience for the Milwaukee community (and beyond). Come to hear about the work's history, stay to experience a musical demonstration featuring a lead artist and conductor!
Our Versed series takes place as an intimate gathering in our very own Lueders Opera Center in the Riverwest neighborhood. These are FREE and open to the public.
Please RSVP at events@florentineopera.org
Featuring
Jill Ann Ponasik
Director
Cosi? is Jill Anna’s third production for The Florentine Opera, and 2023 marks her 14th season as artistic director of Milwaukee Opera Theatre, where she produces, directs, teaches, and fails to keep up with her email.
Select past productions include: Rusalka, Cendrillon, Mahagonny-Songspiel, Ruddigore, Oklahoma!, Carmina Burana, Zie Magic Flute, Doc Danger and the Danger Squad, Svadba, Tales of Hoffmann, A Chorus Line, Handel’s Bestiary, The Kreutzer Sonata, Song from the Uproar, 1776, Master Class, The Mikado, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Guns N’ Rosenkavalier, Maria de Buenos Aires, and 26.
Always eager to collaborate, Jill Anna has developed work with Skylight Music Theatre, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Present Music, Renaissance Theaterworks, The Florentine Opera, In Tandem, First Stage, Quasimondo Physical Theatre, Danceworks Performance Company, Wild Space Dance Company,Theater RED, Carroll University, and The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.
Her work has been presented in parks, gardens, ballrooms, breweries, churches, classrooms, lobbies, recital halls, bookstores, masonic temples, parking lots, and sometimes (like right now), in theaters.
Patrick Carfizzi
Bass-Baritone
In the current season, American bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Swallow in Peter Grimes and the Sacristan in Tosca. He also returns to Houston Grand Opera as Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro and Baili in Werther. Last season marked the twenty-second anniversary of his Metropolitan Opera debut by returning as the Speaker in The Magic Flute, the Sacristan in Tosca, and the Lackey in Ariadne auf Naxos.
Notable past engagements include Cecil in Sir David McVicar’s production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda (Metropolitan Opera), his role debut as Zeta in Lehár’s The Merry Widow opposite Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson, (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Henry Kissinger in Nixon in China (San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera and Houston Grand Opera), Paolo in Simon Boccanegra (San Francisco Opera, Metropolitan Opera, and Houston Grand Opera), and Papageno in Die Zauberflöte (Houston Grand Opera and Dallas Opera).
Lynly Saunders (Costume Designer)
Leah Flack (Versed Facilitator)