Rare Opportunity to Hear Live Opera in Asheville

Long before pizza, pasta, and the short espresso, the greatest export of Italy was opera.

On Saturday, November 19, 2022 the Asheville Symphony will present an exhilarating evening of opera scenes, arias, and choruses, led by Music Director Darko Butorac. “Night at the Opera” features three accomplished guest vocalists, the Asheville Symphony orchestra, and the Asheville Symphony Chorus. The concert takes place at 8 p.m. on Saturday, November 19 at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium.

“Italian opera remains relevant and important for two reasons,” says Butorac. “First, it is a celebration of the human voice, the most divine of instruments. Second, it is about real, fundamental human emotions—love, jealousy, revenge, remorse, redemption—and presenting them in the most expressive way possible, by combining the best of singing, spectacle and orchestral music.”

The program opens with the instantly recognizable Overture from Rossini’s opera William Tell and is followed by the full emotional range of opera, with selections from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly and La bohéme, Verdi’s Il Trovatore, Nabucco and Aïda, and Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana. The program closes with the full Act II, scene II of Verdi’s dramatic La traviata.

Celebrated soprano Cecilia Violetta López, named one of opera’s “25 Rising Stars” by Opera News, has received accolades for her signature role of Violetta in La traviata, which she has performed countless times throughout North America.

The American operatic tenor, Ben Gulley, is hailed as “an outstanding tenor (Opera News) and “startlingly gifted” (San Francisco Classical Voice), and is the 2009 winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council District & Regional Competitions.

Baritone Jeff Mattsey made his debut in 1986 as Marcello, opposite Luciano Pavarotti, in the Opera Company of Philadelphia production of La bohème, and has worked with New York’s Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, San Diego Opera, and internationally with the Canadian opera companies in Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary, with Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Teatro Colon in Argentina.

Masterworks 3 is made possible by concert sponsor David & Pamela Lane and guest artist sponsors Bob & Martha Pierce (in memory of Dr. Elizabeth Pierce Litteral), Osada Construction, and Donald Gavin & Jayne Schnaars.

Tickets for Masterworks concerts are $25–75, with reduced youth pricing available. For information and tickets, visit ashevillesymphony.org, or order by phone at (828) 254-7046, in person at the Asheville Symphony office (27 College Place, Suite 100), or at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center—Asheville Box Office in downtown Asheville.