Welcome to our new website!
Welcome to our new website! We are very excited about our new website and hope that you will come back often. This is the place to keep informed about Opera Guild activities, register for our events and to learn about opportunities to enjoy opera. Please take a few moments to register on the site so that you can get the full benefits of our updates!
This has been a very exciting year for the Opera Guild and its membership. As our fiscal year comes to an end and my term as your president ends, I want to thank each of you for the support and strength you have shown me this year.
Each month has brought many opera related events to San Antonio and the Opera Guild has been there to support each and every one. Our membership activities and attendance has been at an all time high with wonderful events free of charge to our members. The Guild’s members continue to open their homes to us for our meetings and we have enjoyed the delicious treats of Josie Krueger and our Social Committee. In December, the annual Holiday Soiree co-chaired by Bette Cook and Shirley Bryan was a festive evening of music and song attended by over 100 members! Our Annual Spring Membership meeting will take place on May 17th and we will elect a new slate of officers.
This year’s Opera Study Course was a great success and with Elizabeth Lyle’s continued guidance The Opera of Mozart was shown in 24 lectures to full houses. The Guild has begun an evening program under the sponsorship of Esther Nelson to show these lectures this summer. A calendar of these dates should arrive in your mail soon, as well as be posted in our Members Only section.
Our Matinee at the Opera chairs, Maggie Hardy and Roger Bessey, provided us with a wonderful showing of Tales of Hoffman to an audience of 65 on a Sunday afternoon. Our next Matinee is on Sunday, June 7th and will feature Norma a tragic opera by Vincenzo Bellini.
The Guild’s fall fundraising event, “Le Fete de Fandango” honoring Johnnie Word Medina raised $12,000 for our educational programs. In April, over 80 patrons attended our Vino Fiesta event co-chaired by Lisa Evans and Kay Moiles. As always, Margo Chapman and her Auction Committee provided us with wonderful auction items at each of these fundraising events.
Our education programs continue to grow! In March, over 1800 students from throughout the San Antonio area attended a dress rehearsal of the Mikado at the Lila Cockrill Theatre. The children were enthralled with the costumes, staging and performance giving the San Antonio Opera company a standing ovation! Our recent sponsorship of UTSA Lyric Theatre’s performance of Cosi fan Tutte provided another operatic educational experience for the children of South Texas. The Opera Guild and UTSA Lyric Theatre touring company of The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Seymour Barab was a great success in December and will begin again in May with additional performances. The children love their roles in both the chorus and as rats! I applaud Margaret King Stanley and all of our hardworking educational volunteers!
This year’s Southwest Region Metropolitan Opera Auditions Reception was well attended and helped us continue to increase our support of this wonderful event. In addition to increasing our Grant to this organization, the attendance of our members was an important show of support. Valerie Lester’s leadership of this event has been remarkable and I am certain that Laurie Crockett will continue to expand this event in the coming years.
In January we all enjoyed the Guild’s Opera Enhancement Event with Anamaria Delperdang at the San Antonio Country Club. It was a very well received evening performance.
Mary Jane Howe and her Austin Bus trip committee continue to provide a fun trip to see the Austin Lyric Opera performances for our membership. On Sunday, April 26th, I participated in my first bus ride and attended the ALO performance Dialogues of the Carmelites by Poulenc. What a fun loving group! It was great to visit with our membership and the box supper was a welcome treat! Thank you to a very organized and dedicated committee!
I would be remiss not to thank the Guild’s Board of Directors which continues to be one of the hardest working boards in San Antonio. They have diligently attended our monthly meetings and offered their sage counsel during this past year. I am just sorry that I must leave for Dallas and will not be around to see this wonderful organization grow even stronger as South Texas’ premier source for opera education.
Donna Harrison and her committee of Margaret King Stanley, Margo Olson, Richard Teitz and John Joseph have worked hard to bring you an updated, exciting and comprehensive website that will allow us to broaden our appeal and continue to provide educational information and opportunities to our South Texas audience. I hope that you enjoy our new website and will provide us with comments and suggestions to help serve you better.
Again, thank you for allowing me to serve you this past year. It was a privilege and an honor.
Julia S. Grace
President
Opera Guild of San Antonio
www.operaguildofsa.org
