As many forms of entertainment as there have been in this area — dramas, comedies, musicals, black box theater, high school, community and college productions, dance recitals, jazz, concert and jazz band, orchestra and vocal performances — there’s one that has yet to make it to the stage.
There hasn’t been an opera. And GO ART! Executive Director Gregory Hallock, in collaboration with Genesee Community College and Batavia Downs Gaming & Hotel, in collaboration with the Oliver G. & Sarah Sloan Bauman Fund for the Arts, has worked to make it happen at the end of this month.
“We don’t really have opera or ballets out here, so I began to contact opera and ballet companies, and I got a response from the Rochester City Ballet and Nickel City Opera,” Hallock said to The Batavian. “I talked to my former voice teacher, who said that both are the real deal. They had been looking to tour and are really excited about this opportunity.”
Rochester City Ballet is in the works for “The Nutcracker” later this fall, while Nickel City Opera, based in Buffalo, will be delivering “The Barber of Seville” at 7 p.m. Monday to the stage of Stuart Steiner Theatre at GCC, 1 College Road, Batavia.
Hallock, with days to spare, discovered in March that there was a grant available, and due in April, that could help make the costly production possible for Genesee County. Folks at GCC were willing and happy to provide the venue, he said, while Batavia Downs donated several rooms for the traveling performers.
“The Barber of Seville” is an opera buffa in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's 1775 French comedy The Barber of Seville. Rossini's version by the same name has proven “to be one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music and has been described as the opera buffa of all "opera buffas” after 200 years, according to the show’s press release.
Nickel City Opera’s founder and artistic director, Valerian Ruminski, describes the show as a chain of comedic antics, one after the other, and not what you’d expect from a full-fledged opera. It features Ruminski, a Metropolitan Opera basso, as “the old windbag Bartolo” who gets his comeuppance in a ruse so well-known, it was played out in a Looney Tunes episode of “Bugs Bunny” in the 1960s.
All of the performers are well-rehearsed professionals who arrive earlier that day to get ready, set, and go. A 21-member orchestra accompanies the action, and a full set delivered from New Jersey serves as the scenery to envelope the characters, action and song. Fair warning, this opera is based in Italian, but there will be large screens with supertitles of English for audience members to follow along.
Hallock sees the possible pitfalls of a Monday — it’s not your typical date night, to be sure. Then again, it’s not your typical date night, so make new plans, head out the door and kick off your week with a different kind of entertainment for yourselves.
Ruminski and Hallock encourage patrons to wear whatever they want, whether it’s a tuxedo or jeans and a sweatshirt, ballgown or yoga outfit — there’s no pressure to conform to opera etiquette, they said.
“I’m just excited to bring this here and make this all happen,” Hallock said.
Likewise, Ruminski looks forward to bringing the full stage action to GCC, and he hopes to be able to do it on a yearly basis.
Nickel City Opera, Inc. was founded in 2003 by Valerian Ruminski, the show’s lead, and has produced over 20 operas, including the world premiere of “SHOT!” by Persis Vehar in 2016 at Shea’s Buffalo
Theatre. Other productions have included “La Boheme,” “Tosca,” “Don Pasquale,” and “The Marriage of Figaro.”
The opera company’s mission is to bring high-quality opera and events to Western New York, and is launching an expansion project to further the arts in WNY and beyond.
Tickets may be purchased HERE or at GO ART!, 201 East Main St., Batavia. There is a discount available for students when tickets are purchased at GO ART!
