Bel Canto, Beliefs, and Belonging: The Italian Heritage in Opera
a joint Zoom event hosted by the Opera Company of Middlebury & the Vermont Italian Cultural Association

with GLORY DENIED composer Tom Cipullo

19th-century opera was often broken down into two models: German and Italian.  Are there still vestiges of those two styles in the world of contemporary opera?  If so, does being Italian or Italian-American influence how composers write and how singers and instrumentalists perform current works, even if the themes and subjects of current works may not be Italian?  What are the traditions that endure over time and across great distances that sustain an "Italian sound and sensibility?"  

The Opera Company of Middlebury presents the Vermont Premier of Tom Cipullo’s Opera, Glory Denied, September 27th – October 1st.  Join the Vermont Italian Cultural Association for a discussion with Composer, Tom Cipullo; OCM Music Director, Filippo Ciabatti; and OCM Stage Director, Alexandra Dietrich for a look at this work and the important topics it deals with.

Cipullo's musical style continues in the aesthetic tradition of Italian and Italian American Romantic composers, such as Giacomo Puccini and Gian Carlo Menotti. In a 2009 master class, Cipullo explains that he works in "a certain tradition... I'm an Italian American, and try as I may to escape it, I have this blend of influences that comes from Italian opera like Puccini, and Frank Sinatra." 

September 9th; 7-8:30 pm EST via ZOOM, free of charge

This presentation will be recorded and available on OCM’s Youtube channel.

Register on the Vermont Italian Cultural Association website here.