{"id":444596,"date":"2026-09-23T00:44:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T00:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/444596\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T00:44:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T00:44:41","slug":"fort-worth-opera-kicks-off-its-81st-season-on-a-high-note-with-prima-voce-benefit-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/444596\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth Opera Kicks Off Its 81st Season On a High Note With Prima Voce Benefit Dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"

The moment the doors opened at Ridglea Country Club, a swell of lively chatter greeted guests arriving for Fort Worth Opera (FWO)\u2019s Prima Voce, the kickoff to the upcoming season. The lobby was packed with ballgowns and boots as patrons bid on silent auction items in between refueling at the cocktail bar. Even in a city home to the world\u2019s most prestigious international piano competition, Saturday night was a reminder that Fort Worth is opera country.<\/p>\n

Angela Turner Wilson, Fort Worth Opera\u2019s general and artistic director, guided the evening, with guests enjoying a seated dinner as FWO\u2019s Hattie Mae Lesley Resident Artists performed selections from the forthcoming season. After a temporary microphone glitch, Wilson drew laughter by going sans amplification and projecting across the room, reminding the crowd that she is an \u201copera singer by trade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOpera is an enormous art form,\u201d she continued. \u201cIt encompasses centuries of music, languages, cultures, styles, and stories. It can be intimate, heartbreaking, wildly funny, familiar and completely unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The evening featured many memorable performances from the resident artists and pianist\/collaborator Charlene Lotz. More than a champagne-fueled kickoff to the organization<\/a>\u2018s 81st season<\/a>, the inaugural event \u2014 loosely modeled on FWO\u2019s past Dinner With the Stars series \u2014 is part of a broader call for support of a new FWO education-focused initiative.<\/p>\n

Project: Opera<\/a> places professional singers and educators in three area high schools for 30-hour residencies. Rather than being an extracurricular program, Project: Opera is integrated into the school day, with workshops designed to meet state curriculum requirements while students explore opera alongside professional singers.<\/p>\n

\"Bass-baritoneNoah Mond\u2019s rendition of a drunken Falstaff staggering around the banquet room brought an uproar of laughter. (Photo by Fort Worth Opera)
\nSetting the Stage for a Standout 81st Season<\/p>\n

While past season-openers teased upcoming concerts through performances by guest artists, this year, Wilson and her team saw an opportunity to spotlight the opera company\u2019s Hattie Mae Lesley Resident Artists, who are fresh out of college or graduate school but have yet to find their footing as full-time performers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided to focus on our resident artists,\u201d she tells PaperCity. \u201cWe hold auditions every year and receive hundreds of applications from all over the country. They are in this in-between phase in their careers. So we bring them to Fort Worth for nine months, put them in our shows, and work with our education department as well as our community engagement offerings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson credits FWO director of education Anthony Pound with spearheading Project: Opera, a program that she says both supports our local school district and cultivates future opera supporters and patrons. Meanwhile, FWO is giving both longtime patrons and opera fans plenty to look forward to onstage.<\/p>\n

Fort Worth Opera\u2019s 81st season highlights include soprano Jeanine De Bique at Texas Christian University on October 29, Scalia\/Ginsburg at the Ridglea Theater on November 13 and 14, and Amahl and the Night Visitors at Stage West in December. The Marguerite McCammon Voice Competition at the Kimbell Art Museum<\/a> returns in late February ahead of two performances of Rossini\u2019s The Barber of Seville at Bass Performance Hall in April.<\/p>\n

\"L-R_Airin J. Barnett, Dr. Aiyanna Anderson, and Daphne Hull. (Photo by Fort Worth Opera )
\nFort Worth Opera\u2019s Next Act<\/p>\n

Nonprofits, even large performing arts organizations, naturally go through periods of growth and rebuilding. When Wilson took over as general and artistic director of Fort Worth Opera, the organization was running leaner than it had several years prior. Now four years in, Wilson has numbers to back the success of her efforts. With the support of her board of directors, ticket sales nearly doubled last year, while first-time subscribers and ticket buyers are boosting attendance.<\/p>\n

Prima Voce, beyond serving as a platform for arts education advocacy, also reminded audiences of the astonishing talent of FWO\u2019s resident artists. From mezzo-soprano Lauren Salazar\u2019s opening selection from Scalia\/Ginsburg to bass-baritone Noah Mond\u2019s rendition of a drunken Falstaff staggering around the banquet room, the performers shined as both singers and actors.<\/p>\n

For Wilson, cultivating that talent and putting memorable performances onstage are part of a larger effort to strengthen FWO\u2019s place in Fort Worth\u2019s cultural future. She credits the city\u2019s deep-rooted support for the arts with the opera company\u2019s resurgence as an influential and steadfast performing arts presence.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the past four years, we\u2019ve been part of conversations about the future of the city, asking important questions like, \u2018Where are we going as a city?\u2019 This city understands that opera is important and a key part of that future. We are Fort Worth\u2019s only opera and have been here for 81 years. Once people trust what we put on the stage, we can build relationships. We\u2019re starting to see the fruits of that labor as people decide that we\u2019re worth the investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

PC Spotted: Austin Madrigale, Haley Pogotis, Abby Cuccia, Ashley Lynn Bracken, Michael Wilson, Adele Reeder Hollander, Drew Brigati, Catherine Kethley, Jen Appleman, Louise Appleman, Nikki Slobodin, Emily Paslay, Henley Paslay, Frank W. Tilly, Connie Beck, Airin J. Barnett, Dr. Aiyanna Anderson, Daphne Hull, and Michael Adams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The moment the doors opened at Ridglea Country Club, a swell of lively chatter greeted guests arriving for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-444596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}