Why don’t you create one of the most romantic follow ups for your successful Valentine’s effort and bring your loved one to one of the most romantic settings in the Bay Area. The quaint family atmosphere with amazing art by a word famous artist, whose paintings hang in the San Francisco Opera as well as all over Europe, is complimented by fantastic food, impeccable services which allows you to make your sweet heart feel like a princess or queen, or prince or king as the case maybe. Being served by people who take pride in giving you a genuine old-world pleasure will create long term happy memories for you both. And if you have been married for along time, you may want to bring your grand children and introduce them to opera in a way that will open up their hearts to the finer things in life.
In 2014 Open Tables voted C’era Una Volta the Best Bay Area Italian restaurant. It is located on 1332 Park Street, in Alameda and offers parking in the rear of the building.
This weekend there is a fundraiser that provides world class opera singers performances, a four course meal, and the first glass of wine for the small price of a $95 per person of which $45 will given to the James Toland Vocal Arts programs. The program cultivates and supports talents who aspire a professional career as vocal performers.
The Artists
Clarissa Lyons – rising star soprano
She will make her Metropolitan Opera debut as Karolka in Janá?ek’s Jen?fa in October of 2016 and will sing Countess Ceprano in Verdi’s Rigoletto in January and April 2017.
Ms. Lyons was vocal fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in both 2011 and 2012. Highlights from those residencies include performances Ravel’s Trois Poemes de Stephane Mallarmé, Prokofiev’s Ugly Duckling, Chausson’s Chanson Perpetuelle, Monteverdi’s Lamento d’Arianna, and excerpts of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride with Susan Graham and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She and pianist Bretton Brown have appeared in recital at Opera America’s National Opera Center, the WMP Concert Hall in New York City, and the Sunset Center in Carmel, California in the Winner’s Recital for the Carmel Music Society. Ms. Lyons has appeared as a soloist with the UC Berkeley University Chorus, with the Vermont Philharmonic, and San Francisco Choral Society at Davies Symphony Hall in their performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah featuring Rod Gilfry. More
Arnold Livingston Geis – rising star Tenor
Arnold Livingston Geis, tenor, is a Los Angeles based musician and performer originally from Washington State. Geis began his career in Southern California as a church soloist. In 2013 marked Geis’ first season as a chorister in Los Angeles Opera’s performances of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman. He has since performed on the Dorothy Chandler stage in favorites such as Carmen, La Traviata, and Billy Budd.
Geis sings with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, an opportunity that has lead him to appear at the Walt Disney Concert Hall as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. Geis’ most recent stage credits include Cavaliere Belfiore in Il viaggio a Reims, Chevalier in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, Laurie Lawrence in Little Women, and Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte.
He is honored to have worked under the esteemed conductors Gustavo Dudamel, Michael Tilson Thomas, James Conlon, and Grant Gershon. An active session singer, Geis’ voice can be heard in recent blockbusters such as After Earth, Maze Runner, Godzilla, The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, 50 Shades of Grey, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He holds a BM in vocal performance from Biola University and graduated with his MM in vocal arts from The University of Southern California.
Clara Osowski – Mezzo Soprano
Clara Osowski’s recently completed the Vancouver International Song Institute, the International Workshop on the songs of Edvard Grieg in Bergen, Norway, and traveled to Tours, France to attend the Académie Francis Poulenc. She was also featured in the 2014 Baldwin-Wallace Art Song Festival, in Berea, Ohio and competed in the 2014 International Vocal Competition in s’Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. In 2015, she was the only American to reach the finals of the Das Lied competition under the direction of Thomas Quasthoff in Berlin, Germany. This past October Clara was a finalist in the Liederkranz Foundation in New York City. Numerous festivals have introduced Clara to a number of international artists and art-song masters, including Graham Johnson, Felicity Lott, Francois Le Roux, Julius Drake, Irwin Gage, and Richard Stokes.
James Kallembach’s Songs on Letters of John and Abigail Adams with the Lydian Quartet on the occasion of the Adams’ 250th wedding anniversary at their historic home in Quincy, Massachusetts, and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee. In addition to her solo work, she participates in a number of ensembles, including Consortium Carissimi, Lumina Women’s Ensemble, the Rose Ensemble and Seraphic Fire. More
Austin Siebert
Baritone-Austin Siebert just completed the Merola Opera Program and performed the roles of Mr. Gobineau in Menotti’s The Medium and Marco in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. Siebert also covered Dr. Malatesta in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. Additional recent engagements include outreach with the Dallas Opera as Belcore in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Mustafá in Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri with Seagle Music Colony, and the German General in Kevin Puts’ Silent Night with Fort Worth Opera Festival. Austin recently earned a Master of Music Degree in Vocal Performance at the University of North Texas, where he was seen as Dappertutto/Coppélius in Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann, Pritschitsch in Lehár’s Die lustige Witwe, and the title role in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Mr. Siebert received his bachelors from Northwestern University and is a native of Shelbyville, IN.
