My first official concert of 2013, and my first performance with New York Opera Exchange (NYOE). Entitles ‘The Masked Ball’, it was an enjoyable evening of excerpts of French opera. Taken from four operas (Faust (1869) by Charles Gounod, Tales of Hoffman (1881) by Jacques Offenbach, Manon (1884) by Jules Massenet, and Romeo and Juliet (1888), also by Gounod. The singers were all wonderful, but our favorite (‘our’ being three people in the orchestra) being ”Green Dress’ (Emily Lockhart). Although these were four separate operas, the arias were intertwined and reordered into a coherent story, with l’amour being the overarching theme, of course.

Nineteenth century operatic composers were not overly fond of the trombone, and I actually counted more measure of rest than measures actually played. No complaints – the singers were so good and engaging that it hardly mattered. You should check out the rest of their season at www.nyoperaexchange.com

Music concert NYOE trombone