TUSCIA OPERAFESTIVAL 2009: ANOTHER SOLD-OUT SEASON, NOW DANA POINT

Another sold-out season for the Tuscia Operafestival started on July 10th with “Va Pensiero” by Giuseppe Verdi in Viterbo, Italy and ended on the notes of Don Giovanni directed by Maestro Stefano Vignati.

This year among the high profile authorities and dignitaries that attended the Festival, Mayor Lisa Bartlett from Dana Point arrived to officially seal the Sister City agreement between Dana Point and Viterbo in light of the upcoming Italian Opera Festival in Lantern Bay Park.

During her visit to Italy Mayor Bartlett had the amazing opportunity to meet the Pope Benedetto XVI also visiting Viterbo at the same time.

The attention is now back to the upcoming Italian Opera Festival in Dana Point.

IOAF General Manager Claudio Ferri will arrive tomorrow in Dana Point for private meetings with major donors, the City Council as well as to discuss key partnerships and production progress.

ABOUT THE TUSCIA OPERAFESTIVAL

The Tuscia Operafestival was born from the experience of the organizers of the New Operafestival of Rome that for many years has served as a foundation to encourge and develop talented international young artists to gain a high level of artistry. The artists are given the opportunity of “an Italian” preparation and the possibility to play and to sing in the heart of the archaeological and monumental beauty of Rome.

Stefano Vignati, Artistic Director encourages and hones the talents of the young artists, placing them on the stage alongside world renowned performing artists. Through numerous national and international auditions more than 100 young people are selected personally by the Artistic Director. The International Lyric Academy brings together the young artists with the masters of absolute prestige including Fedora Barbieri, Giuseppe Taddei, Janet Perry, Alexander Malta, Carol Neblett, who prepare the students for their public performances.

DANA POINT CLOSER TO ITALIAN OPERA FESTIVAL

From the OC Register on August 25th

DANA POINT The city has taken another step toward making an Italian opera festival in town next summer a reality.

The City Council on Monday unanimously approved the formation of a sister city committee and setting up a non-profit to support sister city activities, including a potential festival.

City staff will advertise and pick people interested to serve on the committee, forming the group in the next two to three months, said Christie Teague, the city’s economic development manager, who likely will serve as a liaison to the committee.

The council also picked Mayor Lisa Bartlett and Councilman Scott Schoeffel to serve as ex-officio representatives to the new committee.

“A big part of the focus will be to support festival activities and support relationships between the two cities,” Teague said. “This is all new for Dana Point.”

The size of the new committee will be determined by community interest.

Dana Point and Viterbo, an Italian city of 70,000 about 70 miles north of Rome, became sister cities on May 31, according to a city report.

Backers believe that the official handshake should help speed the return of opera to Orange County in 2010 along with cultural tourism. The Santa Ana-based Opera Pacific, the county’s only opera company, shut down shop for good in November after 22-plus seasons.

The sister city agreement, believed to be the second for an Orange County city with an Italian counterpart, helped set the stage for a potential three-week Italian opera festival in August and September of 2010 at Dana Point’s Lantern Bay Park, adjacent to the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa.

Teague said some members of the new committee will be on the non-profit entity that will help raise funds for sister city activities. The panel will also work on establishing communications protocol and contacts between Dana Point and Viterbo.

Several residents who want to include Viterbo in their travel plans to Italy have called the city asking what they should do when they get there, Teague said.

Dana Point has identified the visitor center in Viterbo and will work towards arrangements to greet and share materials about that city with locals who travel there. City officials will reciprocate the services for Italian visitors coming to Dana Point.

In March, council members directed staff to investigate the cost and feasibility of hosting Orange County’s first-ever opera festival, as well as to look into creating the coastal city’s first sister-city partnership. The city was approached by the newly-created Italian American Opera Foundation as it searched for a festival venue.

The council is expected to consider a sponsorship agreement with the foundation for the potential festival at a future date.

Italian conductor Stefano Vignati wants to reproduce a form of Viterbo’s popular Tuscia Operafestival in Dana Point, said Barbara Manconi, the spokeswoman for the foundation, in an earlier interview.

Details of the festival still have to be hammered out, but Manconi said then that part of the event will be recreating an Italian village at Lantern Bay Park.