It was a beautiful Friday night in Downtown Pittsburgh to hear some opera, see some ballet and hum along to some familiar musical numbers.<\/p>\n
Three of the city\u2019s cultural institutions \u2014 Pittsburgh Opera, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Confluence Theater of Pittsburgh \u2014 joined together for a 90-minute revue of various crowd favorites, presented on the stage at Arts Landing.<\/p>\n
As sunset approached, theater fans flocked to the wide lawn with blankets and folding chairs. The event was originally scheduled for Thursday night, but predicted rain forced a reschedule. It was a good thing, too; they couldn\u2019t have asked for a better early autumn evening.<\/p>\n
In introduction to the program, Pittsburgh Opera General Director Bill Powers took the stage. He was joined by Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Executive Director Nick Dragga and Confluence Theater of Pittsburgh Interim Executive Director Brett Ashley Crawford.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are all thrilled to be here on this gorgeous, gorgeous autumnal evening with the city as our backdrop,\u201d Powers said. \u201cFor the first of its kind, three resident companies of the Cultural Trust are coming together to present a concert at Arts Landing, this unbelievable community arts space.\u201d<\/p>\n
The program included 19 different performance numbers, some of which previewed the upcoming seasons of the organizations and some of which were well-known crowd-pleasers.<\/p>\n
Early in the program, Pittsburgh Opera presented two selections from its season-opening performance, \u201cRigoletto,\u201d which will hit the Benedum Center stage from Oct. 10-18. Tenor Daniel O\u2019Hearn made a good case for attending the show, especially in the highly recognizable selection \u201cLa donna \u00e8 mobile.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre also gave the audience a sneak peek of upcoming shows, with a pas de deux from both \u201cGiselle\u201d (Oct. 23-25 at the Benedum Center) and the classic \u201cThe Nutcracker\u201d (Dec. 4-27 at the Benedum Center). Both numbers comprised two dancers, and both were intriguing \u2014 Grace Rookstool in the \u201cGiselle\u201d pas de deux was pure grace and flexibility, floating over the stage with partner Colin McCaslin. In the dance from \u201cThe Nutcracker,\u201d Lucius Kirst\u2019s Nutcracker Prince executed some cheers-worthy lifts with Hannah Carter as the Sugarplum Fairy.<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra provided accompanying music throughout the night, but it also got some highlights of its own; it kicked the night off right with a high note, the overture from the opera \u201cThe Barber of Seville.\u201d It also provided the recognizable melodies of the overture to \u201cThe Sound of Music\u201d and the sweeping organ notes that kick off \u201cThe Phantom of the Opera\u201d \u2014 before Allan Snyder took the stage to lend his rich, resonant voice to \u201cThe Music of the Night\u201d as the Phantom, mask and all.<\/p>\n
For other classic showtunes, Peter Volpe lent his gorgeous bass voice to \u201cSome Enchanted Evening\u201d from \u201cSouth Pacific,\u201d spreading a little magic through the night as the sun went down and stage lights began to shine. And the three companies teamed up for a red-lit rendition of \u201cAmerica\u201d from \u201cWest Side Story\u201d toward the end of the program.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh Opera pulled out all of the stops with selections from \u201cLakm\u00e9,\u201d \u201cLa Boh\u00e8me\u201d and \u201cLa Traviata.\u201d If the venue had doors, Maire Therese Carmack would\u2019ve blown them off with \u201cHabanera\u201d from \u201cCarmen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The evening ended with \u201cTonight,\u201d another sweeping \u201cWest Side Story\u201d number that united the precise talent of the orchestra, pitch-perfect vocals and eye-popping dance.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh\u2019s performing arts organizations put on a fabulous free performance on Friday night, and they\u2019ve also given us plenty to look forward to in their upcoming seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a beautiful Friday night in Downtown Pittsburgh to hear some opera, see some ballet and hum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-294207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}