STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 The Riverside Opera Company will present \u201cPopera2026\u2033 Saturday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. at St. Teresa R.C. Church in Castleton Corners.<\/p>\n
A blend of \u201cpop\u201d and \u201copera,\u201d Popera is a music genre that combines pop music with classical or operatic singing styles and themes.<\/p>\n
The presentation is a celebration of Riverside Opera Company\u2019s 30th anniversary on Staten Island. <\/p>\n
Founded by Maestro Alan Aurelia, the production will feature Maestro Aurelia conducting a full orchestra during a performance said to include the best vocal talent in New York City, with winners from recent auditions. <\/p>\n
Students will be admitted free of charge.<\/p>\n
General admission is $30 at the door; $20 advance with online sales. <\/p>\n
Tickets may also be purchased at mytp.cc\/e\/197 <\/p>\n
About the performers<\/p>\n
Michael Nim has worked with multiple companies worldwide, including the Bellevue Opera, Tacoma Opera, Opera Classica Europa, Public Opera, and symphonies such as Bellevue Symphony, Tahoe Philharmonic Orchestra, Federal Way Symphony, and many more. <\/p>\n
Having sung on stage since childhood, Nim has debuted in roles over the last 10 years, including Alfredo (\u201cLa Traviata\u201d), Rodolfo (\u201cLa Boh\u00e8me\u201d), Don Jos\u00e9 (\u201cCarmen\u201d), Pinkerton (\u201cMadama Butterfly\u201d), and many more lead roles, as well as comprimario \u2014 a supporting opera singer or secondary role that ranks just below the principal (lead) singers roles. <\/p>\n
Soprano Brenna McFarland is a current artist-in-residence with the New Opera Company of Boston and a featured soloist in the company\u2019s Nantucket Opera Festival. <\/p>\n
In the 2025\u201326 season, McFarland joined Opera Neo as a Studio Artist, covering Fiorilla in Rossini\u2019s \u201cIl Turco\u201d in Italia and Mirinda in the American premiere of Vivaldi\u2019s \u201cArsilda.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was a 2025 third-place winner of the Dante Alighieri Aria Competition. <\/p>\n
Hyunsung Shin is a Korean-American baritone who\u2019s performed as \u2018\u2019Valentin\u2019\u2019 in Gounod\u2019s Faust with Amore Opera, as Schaunard in Puccini\u2019s \u201cLa Boh\u00e8me\u201d with Regina Opera, and as \u2018\u2019Papageno\u2019\u2019 in Mozart\u2019s \u201cThe Magic Flute\u201d with Amore Opera.<\/p>\n
Shin will be joining Sarasota Opera this coming winter as an Apprentice Artist. He will then join the Opera Theatre of St. Louis as a Gerdine Young Artist, where he will perform as Baron Douphol and cover the role of Giorgio Germont in Verdi\u2019s \u201cLa Traviata.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canadian mezzo-soprano Jillian Tam has just finished her second year as an undergraduate vocal performance student at McGill University in Montreal under the direction of Dominique Labelle. <\/p>\n
She is a member of the McGill University Schulich Singers Ensemble conducted by Jean-Sebastian Vall\u00e9e. <\/p>\n
Tam studied at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute in 2018 and, this summer, is the youngest singer accepted to the Verbier Festival Academy\u2019s Atelier Lyrique.<\/p>\n
Klarisse Maquiling is an 11-year-old performer and student at Mark Twain School for the Gifted and Talented. <\/p>\n
She began performing at age 6 and has participated in various productions through the Wagner College Lifelong Learning Theatre Program and Spotlight Theatre Company over the past four years. <\/p>\n
At just 8 years old, she landed her first major role as Molly in \u201cAnnie,\u201d marking an exciting milestone in her theatrical journey. <\/p>\n
Passionate about performing and bringing characters to life on stage, Klarisse continues to grow as a young artist, sharing her love of theatre with every performance.<\/p>\n
Soprano Brenna McFarland is a current Artist-in-Residence with the New Opera Company of Boston and a featured soloist in the company\u2019s Nantucket Opera Festival. <\/p>\n
In the 2025\u201326 season, McFarland joined Opera Neo as a Studio Artist, covering Fiorilla in Rossini\u2019s \u201cIl turco in Italia\u201d and Mirinda in the American premiere of Vivaldi\u2019s \u201cArsilda.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was a 2025 third-place winner of the Dante Alighieri Aria Competition.<\/p>\n
Patricia Beniquez is a dedicated liturgical musician who serves as cantor and music coordinator at St. Christopher\/St. Margaret Mary Parish. <\/p>\n
She has trained in classical voice through years of private study and has been involved in music and performance from a young age, including musical theater productions. She has also had the privilege of cantoring at St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral in Manhattan. <\/p>\n
The program is made possible in part by public funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Council. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 The Riverside Opera Company will present \u201cPopera2026\u2033 Saturday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-372562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}