BONJ CELEBRATES PASSION & BEAUTY OF VERDI, WAGNER & PUCCINI

Giuseppe Verdi - Richard Wagner - Giacomo Puccini   ROMANCE & REVOLUTION WHEN: November 10, at 3:00 PM WHERE: Dolan Hall, The Annunciation Center, The College of Saint Elizabeth, 2 Convent Road, Morristown, New Jersey. TICKETS: $40/$30/$5/Adults/Seniors/Students under 22 with ID. They can be bought online at the Orchestra's web site; by calling the office, 973-366-8922; or at the door the day of the concert To Purchase Tickets for Romance and Revolution, click here. The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey, under the baton of Maestro Robert W. Butts, celebrates the 200th birthdays of Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner with Romance & Revolution, a concert of familiar and unfamiliar gems by the two great composers.  Also on the program are popular selections composed by Giacomo Puccini, the composer who most built on the revolutionary and romantic ideals of the two giants.   Soloists for the afternoon, including sopranos Maryann Mootos and Maria Alu, tenor Kevin Peters and baritone Don Sheasley, as well as The Sussex County Oratorio Society, under the baton of Director Al Kopacka, remain the same. Dr. Robert W. Butts, conductor and artistic director, said the concert has been planned to celebrate the 200th birth anniversaries of operatic giants Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner who were both born in 1813. "This November concert is really exciting to me as a chance to feature music by the two great composers of the 19th century-Verdi and Wagner. Both were major figures in what has been called the Romantic era and both composers were at the heart of the Romantic aesthetic—which referred to not only the modern idea of romantic, relating to love and romance, but also to the romantic ideas of myth and legend, of fantasy and of olden times, of passion and emotionality. At the same time, both composers were major revolutionaries in their approach to the operatic art form. In different ways, both Verdi and Wagner strove to change opera from a story with a bunch of hit songs to fully-realized music drama, all within the context of deep romanticism." Compositions on the program include selections from La Traviata, Otello, Nabucco, Il Trovatore, Attila, Luisa Miller (by Verdi) and Die Meistersinger, and Die Walkure, (by Wagner) as well as La Boheme, Tosca and Turandot (by Puccini). Due to travel issues, tenor Boiko Zvetanov, of the Zurich Opera House, has had to cancel his November appearance with The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey.