Latonia Moore Set To Return To Ozarks For Opera Gala

The soprano costumed by Peter J. Hall for Aida
at the Dallas Opera in 2012 (Photo: Daylon Walton)

"Opera in the Ozarks, a nationally acclaimed training ground for emerging opera professionals, proudly presents its summer Gala Concert featuring star alumni of the program and the exceptional operatic voices of tomorrow. The special concert is a tribute to Jim Swiggart, Opera in the Ozarks’ longtime General Director who is now General Director Emeritus. Metropolitan Opera artist Latonia Moore is headlining the show along with American tenor Joel Burcham. Both are Opera in the Ozarks alumni. The Gala Concert will be held on Sunday, July 13, at 4 p.m. at Bentonville’s Arend Arts Center (1901 S.E. J Street). There is a silent auction scheduled for 3 p.m. with a reception following the concert. Tickets are $27, on sale now at opera.org. The Gala Concert features Moore and Burcham in scenes and arias from Bizet’s Carmen, Ponchielli’s La Gioconda, Massenet’s Hérodiade and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin accompanied by the Opera in the Ozarks Orchestra. The entire Opera in the Ozarks’ company comes together as the chorus for extended excerpts from Mascagni’s passionate Cavalleria rusticana. And, the majestic final scene from Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg has been adapted as a tribute to Swiggart." [Source]

Latonia More Steps Into the Spotlight for MET Opera Debut

Ms. Moore in her house debut as Aida
(Photo: Cory Weaver/Metropolitan Opera)

"As often happens with cover singers at the Metropolitan Opera the soprano Latonia Moore had less than a day’s notice to take over a major part, in her case the title role of Verdi’s Aida on Saturday afternoon. Violeta Urmana, scheduled to sing, was ill. (Sondra Radvanovsky had filled in for her on Tuesday.) So with just some studio coaching sessions and no rehearsal onstage, Ms. Moore, a 33-year-old Houston native, made her Met debut in the last performance of the revival of the company’s 1988 production this season, with Marco Armiliato conducting. The audience loved her. When Ms. Moore took her solo curtain call at the end, she received an ecstatic ovation." [Source]