Opera held at arboretum

The "Opera in the Arboretum" was held recently, raising about $8000 for the Pearl Beach Bush Fire Brigade, according to event coordinator Mr John Greenway.

"Over 500 people attended the event on March 4," Mr Greenway said.

"They were presented with some wonderful arias from Tosca, Puccini and Strauss.

"The afternoon was started by Pearl Beach's Michaele Archer with Quando m'en La Boheme.

"She was joined by Adam Player of Palm Beach for a number of wonderful duets including 'All I ask of You' from Phantom of the Opera.

"Russian born Larissa Oberveld as pianist and her son Evgeny Sorkin on the violin, followed on with some wonderful music by popular composers.

"Evgeny was the crowd's favourite with some stirring violin playing.

"The main part of the program was sung by Manuel Jimenz-Navarro, Vanessa West and Lucia Naviglio.

"All these artists have had extensive overseas experience and this showed in their presentations.

"Some of the highlights being 'O Mio Babbino Caro' by Lucia and Vanessa singing 'Mein Herr Marquis' from Die Fledermaus."

The event closed with two farewell songs, "Non Ti Scorda Di Me" and "Torna Surriento", by the three artists.

"However, the crowd would not depart until Evgeny Sorkin returned for a wonderful finale," said Mr Greenway.

Mr Greenway said that he was very pleased with the support for the first Opera in the Arboretum.

He said he hoped that the Woy Woy Rotary Club, which ran the event, would be able to donate over $8000 to the Pearl Beach Bush Fire Brigade.

Press release, March 9 John Greenway, Opera in the Arboretum