Home

Instead of organizing a concert chronologically or thematically, opera vocalists Robin Follman and Mark Thomsen are taking a more personal approach - their "Romance, Lies and Opera" is programmed autobiographically.

"Mark Thomsen and I wanted to visit certain aspects in the development and progression of our lives and careers as artists," Follman said. "We write it (the concert program) from the very beginnings of our careers to where we are presently in our performing."

Starting with arias and selections from operas such as "The Merry Widow," "Carmen," "La Traviata" and "La BohÃme," and moving through works by Richard Wagner and Leonard Bernstein, the Thursday night program aims to be accessible while providing an earful from life as an opera singer, Follman said.

"We're kind of running the gamut here, we're trying to give a general exposure of opera and what we love about it," she said.

Thomsen said the program title - "Romance, Lies and Opera" - has more to do with the subject matter of the songs than his or Follman's personal lives. In the end, most operas are about finding love, losing it and winding up with tragedy and pain. It's what makes them beautiful, and it's what appeals to their stars.

"In some ways, it touches on our personal lives as individuals and as singers, as well as where we've gone as colleagues," Thomsen said about the program.

"The stories of the operas themselves and how those stories are depicted, we'll give a very short synopsis of what leads up to what we're singing - of where we were personally and the story itself and what's being reflected," he said.

The idea is to provide an audience with ample material to escape into, using a Puccini aria or a Broadway ballad to take listeners to "emotional planes that we often don't reach in our daily lives," Follman said.

"It's about transporting the audience to a different place at different times. We're taking people on a journey - not only a vocal journey, but also a life and artistic journey."

- To reach Margaret Hair, call 871-4204

or e-mail mhair@steamboatpilot.com.