Patrons of Italian Culture return from annual retreat
The Board of Directors and members of the Patrons of Italian Culture have recently returned from their ‘annual’ - 4 day Board Retreat full of wonderful memories and experiences. This year's retreat was held in San Jose, Ca., with arrangements for attending many cultural events coordinated by Mr. Ken Borelli, President of the Italian American Heritage Foundation, and a long time leader in San Jose’s Italian-American community.
Previous Patron Board retreats have been held in San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and Napa, Ca., as well as Phoenix, Az., and Santa Fe, New Mexico. As part of their many annual retreats, the Patrons seek to participate in the local Italian communities events, and this year was ‘extraordinary’, reports Paul Romano, Board President.
The ‘kick-off’ event of this year’s retreat was a special VIP invitation, by Opera San Jose, to attend the Dress Rehearsal of “PAGLIACCI”, in the historic (circa 1927) and painstakingly restored “CALIFORNIA THEATER”.
Before the performance we had an opportunity to meet renowned Metropolitan Opera star, Ms. Irene Dalis, Founder and General Director of Opera San Jose. Founded in 1984, S.J.O. is a professional opera company dedicated to showcasing and developing emerging opera singers.
These singers are groomed for international performing careers and are coached by resident and guest conductors and stage directors, and are prepared to meet the demands of a successful operatic career.
Irene Dalis, before her retirement from the stage in 1977, was a principal artist at New York’s Metropolitan Opera for ‘twenty consecutive seasons’, appeared regularly with Covent Garden, Berlin, Hamburg, Bayreuth and other major opera houses in Europe and the U. S. and was distinguished by the range and large number of roles in her repertoire.
She had her operatic debut in Oldenburg, West Germany, in 1953, as Princess Eboli in Verdi’s epic, Don Carlo. She was also the first mezzo-soprano to perform Lady Macbeth at the Metropolitan Opera. Among her many awards, Ms. Dalis has been honored with a Grand Prix du Disque for her recording of the opera Parsifal, under conductor Hans Knappertsbusch in 1962. Recently, she received a special Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2008 Silicon Valley Arts & Business Awards for the “immeasurable impact she has had on the arts in San Jose and the region”.
She was honored by the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Opera in commemorating her twentieth anniver- sary season with that company and has been given honorary Doctor of Music degrees from both Santa Clara University and San José State University.
Closed for years and near demolition by neglect, San Jose's historic California Theater reopened in September 2004. The renovated California offers a luxurious taste of old-fashioned design ... it's a dark, warmly upholstered palace in the old style, full of patterned carpeting and plaster ornamentation. To walk into its historic entrance lobby is to be plunged into a bygone world of plush opulence. The 1,100-seat auditorium joins the select ranks of the world’s most intimate opera houses.‘We were in awe of the splendor and the attention to detail given to this historic renovation’, relates Romano.
The four manual 1925 Wurlitzer console was restored in the California Theatre. Originally installed with the 28-rank organ in Chicago's Uptown Theater, it now plays the 21-rank California Theater organ. A second organ is located in the First Street lobby with 10 pipe ranks and a two manual Wurlitzer console. This organ made its public debut September 20, 2008 as guests arrived for Opera San Jose's 25th Anniversary Gala.
By the conclusion of the 2010 – 2011 season (its twenty-seventh), Opera San José will have presented 114 opera productions on its mainstage in downtown San Jose, including four world premieres among the fifty-five titles in its repertoire.
In the next issue of this series join the Patrons in their visit to San Jose’s historic Little Italy restoration.
Paul Romano
contributor
