Fort Worth Opera Kicks Off Its 81st Season On a High Note With Prima Voce Benefit Dinner

The moment the doors opened at Ridglea Country Club, a swell of lively chatter greeted guests arriving for Fort Worth Opera (FWO)’s 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’s most prestigious international piano competition, Saturday night was a reminder that Fort Worth is opera country.

Angela Turner Wilson, Fort Worth Opera’s general and artistic director, guided the evening, with guests enjoying a seated dinner as FWO’s 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 “opera singer by trade.”

“Opera is an enormous art form,” she continued. “It encompasses centuries of music, languages, cultures, styles, and stories. It can be intimate, heartbreaking, wildly funny, familiar and completely unexpected.”

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

Project: Opera 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.

Setting the Stage for a Standout 81st Season

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’s 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.

“We decided to focus on our resident artists,” she tells PaperCity. “We 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.”

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.

Fort Worth Opera’s 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 returns in late February ahead of two performances of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville at Bass Performance Hall in April.

Fort Worth Opera’s Next Act

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.

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

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

“During the past four years, we’ve been part of conversations about the future of the city, asking important questions like, ‘Where are we going as a city?’ This city understands that opera is important and a key part of that future. We are Fort Worth’s only opera and have been here for 81 years. Once people trust what we put on the stage, we can build relationships. We’re starting to see the fruits of that labor as people decide that we’re worth the investment.”

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.