Maestro Robert Butts Resumes "Friday Night at the Opera" on April 1

 

Friday Night at the Opera WHEN: Friday evening, April 1, 7:30 pm WHERE: Bernards Township Library, 32 South Maple Ave., Basking Ridge, New Jersey Maestro Butts has conducted over forty operas in almost one hundred performances with The Little Opera Company, New Jersey Concert Opera, Eastern Opera, Opera Theater of Montclair, Light Opera of New Jersey and with The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey. He has also conducted opera productions in Romania and Italy. In addition, Maestro Butts has composed several operas and is the first American (USA) to have composed and conducted an Italian opera to an Italian libretto by an Italian writer (Vincenzo Faggiano) in an Italian house (Teatro Verdi di Padova) when he premiered Vite senza tempo in Padua, Italy on September 16, 2021. The operas to be discussed in this series are:   April 1 - Le Nozze di Figaro - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart April 8 - Lucia da Lammermoor - Gaetano Donizetti April 22 - Eugene Onegin - Petr Tchaikovsky April 29 - Akhnaten - Philip Glass May 6 - La Boheme - Giacomo Puccini Each class features in-depth discussion and video excerpts from the operas.  For further information, click here       What makes Mozart's Piano Concerto #23 special for pianist John Pivarnik and for Maestro Robert W. Butts? "It was the first concerto I studied and performed," Maestro Pivarnik commented. "I started working on it in my junior year at college and had the good fortune to get a coaching session with Leon Fleisher. It's been near and dear to my heart for 50 years." John completed an intense study of the work with Marian Filar during his graduate studies at Temple University. "Mozart's concert was the first major concerto I ever conducted in Europe," Maestro Butts said with a smile. "It was December 1999 in Botosani, Romania. The pianist was internationally acclaimed Romanian artist Nicoleta Luca-Meițoiu."  Maestro Butts returned to Romania two years later and collaborated with Maestra Luca-Meițoiu in performance of Johannes Brahms's Piano Concerto #1. Join John Pivarnik and Maestro Butts as they collaborate with BONJ on a very special performance of a concert special to all.   On April 3, 2022 - 2:00 PM Dolan Hall, Saint Elizabeth University, 2 Convent Road, Morristown, New Jersey   The glorious music of Mozart and Beethoven will welcome Spring - along with the wonderful music of Joseph Bologne - better known as Chevalier de Saint-Georges.  While Mozart and Beethoven are familiar names, Joseph Bologne might not be. He was one of the first composers of African descent to become popular. He was a major composer and conductor in late 18th Century Paris, knew Mozart well, and conducted some of the first Parisian performances of Haydn's symphonies. His Overture to L'Amant Anonime will open the April 3 concert.  For more information and to order your tickets, click here     Thank you for sharing our events during the COVID pandemic and for being with us as we return to live in-person concerts.  We couldn't do it without you! Thank you for sharing our collaborative performances with Keys 2 Success, The New York Classical Music Society, First Night Morris County, Minardi Salon, and other organizations together producing great music. Thank you for sharing Bach, Bagels, and Bob on Saturday mornings where we could be together to meet our artists and each other while watching memorable videos from the BONJ archives.  Thank you for sharing our Virtual Concerts and YouTube Premiere Broadcasts. We thank you greatly for your generous support.   Every gift – no matter the amount - makes a real and deeply appreciated difference.  We cannot do it without you!   The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey is registered with the IRS as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Contributions are fully tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.   Please send a check to: The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey, PO Box 1255, Madison, New Jersey 07940 or click here to donate online