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Classical music: Here is a year-long list of concerts at the University of Wisconsin Mead Witter School of Music. They start Tuesday night with the 40th annual Karp Family Labor Day Concert

September 1, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

Get out your datebooks and calendars.

Here is a complete listing for major concerts and events at the University of Wisconsin Mead Witter School of Music during the new 2019-20 season.

The calendar starts with the FREE season-opening 40th annual Karp Family Labor Day Concert this coming Tuesday night, Sept. 3, at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall. The program features chamber music by Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Dvorak. For more information about the program and performers, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/40th-karp-family-concert/

Using the search engine on this blog, you could also consult whenever individual or group you want. You could print it out and have it in hand instead of the usual brochure, which will not be printed this year. See a previous blog post: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2019/08/19/classical-music-the-uw-madison-school-of-music-will-not-have-a-complete-brochure-for-the-new-season-go-to-the-website-and-sign-up-for-an-email-newsletter-the-30th-karp-family-labor-day-concert-is-s/

Most concerts this season will take place in the new Hamel Music Center (below), which has a three-day opening celebration Oct. 25-27.

Please note that just a few programs are listed. For other programs, and for information about any admission charge, you can go to the School of Music’s home website closer to the event and click on Concerts and Events: https://www.music.wisc.edu/events/

Tuesday, Sep 3, 2019	Karp Family Concert	7:30 PM	Mills Hall
Sunday, September 29, 2019,	Jessica Martin & John O’Brien – Nordic song recital	4:00 PM	Morphy Hall
Monday, Sept. 30, 2019	Beth Wiese, Tuba, Guest Artist Recital	7:30 PM	Morphy Hall
Friday, October 4, 2019	Pro Arte Quartet	8:00 PM	Mills Hall
Sunday, Oct. 6, 2019	Chanticleer	7:30 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019	Wind Ensemble	7:30 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Friday, October 11, 2019	UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra	8:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sunday, October 13, 2019	University Bands	2:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Tuesday, October 15, 2019	Contemporary Jazz & Blue Note Ensemble	7:30 PM	Collins Hall
Wednesday, October 16, 2019	Wisconsin Brass Quintet – Faculty Concert Series	7:30 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Thursday, October 17	Jazz Faculty Quintet with special guest Michael Dudley, trumpet	7:30 PM	Collins Hall
Monday, October 21, 2019	Afro-Cuban Jazz Ensemble and UW Jazz Orchestra	7:30 PM	Play Circle
Tuesday, October 22, 2019	Concert Band	7:30 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Wed, October 23, 2019	Jazz Composers Group & Jazz Standards	7:30 PM	Collins Hall
Thu, October 24, 2019	Parry Karp with Eli Kalman, piano	7:30 PM	Collins Hall
Friday, October 25, 2019	Opening Celebration Weekend: Hamel Music Center. Please check our website for details.	All Day	740 University Avenue
Saturday, October 26, 2019	Opening Celebration Weekend: Hamel Music Center. Please check our website for details.	All Day	740 University Avenue
Sunday, October 27, 2019	Opening Celebration Weekend: Hamel Music Center. Featured Event: Collins Fellows Concert	1:00 PM	Collins Recital Hall, Hamel Music Center
Wed, October 30, 2019	Master Class with Violist Nobuko Imai	6:30 PM	Collins Hall
Thu, October 31, 2019	Violist Nobuko Imai with Pro Arte Quartet	12:00 PM	Collins Hall
Fri, November 1, 2019	Madrigal Singers	8:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall

Sat, November 2, 2019	Alicia Lee, faculty clarinet	8:00 PM	Collins Hall
Sun, November 3, 2019	Wind Ensemble	2:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Fri, November 8, 2019	Wingra Wind Quintet	8:00 PM	Collins Hall
Sat, November 9, 2019	UW Chorale	8:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Thu, November 14, 2019	UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra	7:30 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Fri, November 15, 2019	University Opera: Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream	7:30 PM	Music Hall
Sun, November 17, 2019	University Opera: Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream	2:00 PM	Music Hall
Tue, November 19, 2019	University Opera: Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream	7:30 PM	Music Hall
Sat, November 16, 2019	Low Brass Ensemble	4:00 PM	Collins Hall
Sat, November 16, 2019	Combined Choirs	8:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sat, November 16, 2019	Timothy Hagen, faculty flute	8:00 PM	Collins Hall
Fri, November 22, 2019	UW Concert Choir	8:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Fri, November 22, 2019	Pro Arte Quartet	8:00 PM	Collins Hall
Fri, November 22, 2019	UW Jazz Orchestra	5:00-7:00 PM	Rathskeller
Saturday, Nov 23, 2019	Undergrad Audition Day	All day
Sat, November 23, 2019	World Percussion Ensemble	12:00 PM	Music Hall
Sat, November 23, 2019	Brass Ensembles	1:00 PM	??
Sun, November 24, 2019	UW Concert Band with Winds of Wisconsin	5:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Mon, November 25, 2019	Chamber Percussion Ensemble	7:30 PM	Mills Hall
Tue, November 26, 2019	Opera Scenes	7:30 PM	Music Hall
Mon, December 2, 2019	Piano Studio Recital	6:30 PM	Collins Hall
Tue, December 3, 2019	Jazz Composers & Contemporary Jazz Ensembles	7:30 PM	Collins Hall
Wed, December 4, 2019	Jazz Standards Ensemble & Afro-Cuban Jazz	7:30 PM	Collins Hall

Thu, December 5, 2019	UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra & UW Wind Ensemble	7:30 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Fri, December 6, 2019	Saxophonist Greg Ward with the Blue Note Ensemble and UW jazz faculty	8:00 PM	Collins Hall
Sat, December 7, 2019	UW & Madison Metropolitan Jazz Festival	Final Concert, 3:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sat, December 7, 2019	Choral Union: Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “A Sea Symphony”	8:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sun, December 8, 2019	University Bands	2:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sun, December 8, 2019	Choral Concerts at Luther Memorial Church	2:00 PM	Luther Memorial Church
Sun, December 8, 2019	Choral Concerts at Luther Memorial Church	4:00 PM	Luther Memorial Church
Sun, December 8, 2019	All-University Strings	4:30 PM	Mead Witter Hall
BEGIN 2020
Sun, January 26, 2020	Annual Schubertiade	3:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sat, February 1, 2020	Christopher Taylor and Friends — Beethoven Symphony Extravaganza	8:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Wed, February 5, 2020	Daniel Grabois, horn	7:30 PM	Collins Hall
Thu, February 6, 2020	UW Symphony Orchestra	7:30 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sat, February 8, 2020	The Knights	8:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sun, February 16, 2020	UW Wind Ensemble	2:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Monday, February 17, 2020	Chamber Percussion Ensemble	7:30 PM	Mills Hall
Tue, February 18, 2020	Concert Band	7:30 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Thu, February 20, 2020	Parry Karp, faculty recital	7:30 PM	Collins Hall
Fri, February 21, 2020	Marc Vallon & Friends	8:00 PM	Collins Hall

Sunday, Feb 23, 2020	Les Thimmig, faculty recital	2:00 PM	Collins Hall
Sat, April 18, 2020	Low Brass Ensemble	4:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Fri, February 28, 2020	Pro Arte Quartet	8:00 PM	Collins Hall

Sat, February 29, 2020	Wingra Wind Quintet	8:00 PM	Collins Hall
Fri, February 28, 2020,	University Opera – Mozart’s Così fan tutte	7:30 PM	Music Hall
Sun, March 1, 2020	University Opera – Mozart’s Così fan tutte	2:00 PM	Music Hall
Tue, March 3, 2020	University Opera – Mozart’s Così fan tutte	7:30 PM	Music Hall
Sun, March 1, 2020	Winds of Wisconsin	5:30 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Wed, March 4, 2020	Afro-Cuban Jazz Ensemble & Jazz Composers Group	7:30	Collins Hall
Thu, March 5, 2020	Blue Note Ensemble & Jazz Standards Ensemble	7:30 PM	Collins Hall
Sat, March 7, 2020	UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra with guest pianist Wu Han	8:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sun, March 8, 2020	University Bands	2:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Tue, March 10, 2020	Percussion Department Recital	7:30 PM	Collins Hall
Weds March 11, 2020	UW Jazz Orchestra	7:30 PM	Play Circle
Wednesday, March 11, 2020	Wisconsin Brass Quintet – Faculty Concert Series	8:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Thu, March 12, 2020	UW Wind Ensemble	7:30 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Fri, March 27, 2020	Le Domaine Musicale with Marc Vallon and Friends	8:00 PM	Collins Hall
Sun, March 29, 2020	Concert Band	2:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sun, April 5, 2020	Beethoven Competition Winners’ Recital	3:30 PM	Collins Hall
Sun, April 5, 2020	“Symphony Showcase” Concerto Winners’ Solo Concert	7:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sat, April 11, 2020	Chorale	8:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Fri, April 12, 2019	Perlman Trio Chamber Concert	3:00 PM	Collins Hall
Tue, April 14, 2020	Opera Scenes	7:30 PM	Music Hall
Wed, April 15, 2020	Contested Homes: Migrant Liberation Movement Suite	7:30 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Thu, April 16, 2020	Pro Arte Quartet	7:30 PM	Collins Hall
Fri, April 17, 2020	Combined Choirs	8:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sat, April 18, 2020	Low Brass Ensemble	4:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sat, April 18, 2020	UW-Madison Choral Reunion concert featuring Concert Choir, Madrigals and alumni	8:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall

Mon, April 20, 2020	Afro-Cuban Jazz Ensemble & Blue Note Ensemble	7:30 PM	Collins Hall
Tue, April 21, 2020	Jazz Standards Ensemble & Jazz Composers Group	7:30 PM	Collins Hall
Wed, April 22, 2020	Chamber Percussion Ensemble	7:30 PM	Mills Hall
Thu, April 23, 2020	UW Jazz Orchestra with the UW Honors Jazz Band	7:30 PM	Music Hall
Fri, April 24, 2020	Concert Band and Wind Ensemble	7:30 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sat, April 25, 2020	All-University Strings	2:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sat, April 25, 2020	Choral Union: Giuseppe Verdi’s “Requiem”	8:00 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sun, April 26, 2020	Choral Union: Giuseppe Verdi’s “Requiem”	7:30 PM	Mead Witter Hall
Sun, April 26, 2020	University Bands	2 PM	Mead Witter Hall

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Classical music: Here are short takes about some chamber music, orchestral music and choral music concerts for this week, starting TODAY

April 7, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

It is another very busy week in Madison for classical music. Here are some short takes about various concerts, starting today and running through the week.

TODAY

Today — Sunday, April 7 — at 12:30 p.m., longtime chamber music partners UW-Madison cellist Parry Karp and UW-Oshkosh pianist Eli Kalman (below) will perform a FREE all-French recital at the Chazen Museum of Art in Brittingham Gallery 3. The concert is part of the regular monthly series Sunday Afternoon Live at the Chazen.

The concert will also be STREAMED LIVE starting at 12:30 p.m.

For a streaming portal and details about the program, go to:

https://www.chazen.wisc.edu/index.php?/events-calendar-demo/event/sunday-afternoon-live-at-the-chazen31/

TUESDAY

On Tuesday night, April 9, at 7:30 p.m. in Music Hall, at the foot of Bascom Hill, students in the UW-Madison Opera Workshop class perform a variety of scenes from opera and musical theater, staged and with piano accompaniment.

Sorry, but there are no details available about the composers, opera or scenes.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10

On Wednesday night, April 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the Middleton Performing Arts Center that is attached to Middleton High School, 2100 Bristol Street, the largely amateur but critically acclaimed Middleton Community Orchestra (below) will perform.

The program, under guest conductor Kyle Knox, features the Symphony No. 2 in D Major by Ludwig van Beethoven and “The Wand of Youth” Suites by Sir Edward Elgar. (You can hear the opening of the Beethoven symphony in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

The box office opens at 6:30 p.m. and the auditorium opens at 7 p.m.

A meet-and-greet reception follows the concert.

Tickets are $15 for the general public. Admission is FREE to students.

For more information, including how to purchase tickets in advance and how to support the orchestra, go to:

http://middletoncommunityorchestra.org/concert_information

FRIDAY

On Friday, April 12, at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Chorale will perform a FREE concert under conductor Bruce Gladstone.

Sorry, no details are available about the program.

SATURDAY

On Saturday, April 13, at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, a FREE concert by UW-Madison Combined Choirs will be performed. The event features the Masters Singers, the University Chorus and the Women’s Chorus (below).

Sorry, there are no details available about the program.

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Classical music: Choral music and string music are in the spotlight during a busy week of concerts at the UW-Madison

April 16, 2018
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By Jacob Stockinger

With the end of the academic year less than a month away, the last concerts of the semester are stacking up at the University of Wisconsin-Madison‘s Mead Witter School of Music.

Below are major events. But there are many more, including a lot of noteworthy student recitals. For a complete listing, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/events/

TODAY

At 7:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, the Ann Arbor-based Back Pocket Duo (below) of percussionist Colin McCall and pianist Annie Jeng will perform a FREE program that includes a commission by contemporary composer Ivan Travino. For details, go to:

https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/guest-artists-back-pocket-duo/

TUESDAY

The spring program of Opera Scenes by University Opera, to be held at Music Hall, has been CANCELLED.

At 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the Twisted Horn Ensemble, under the direction of UW professor Daniel Grabois (below) will perform a FREE concert. Sorry, no word on composers or works on the program.

THURSDAY

At 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the Pro Arte Quartet (below, in a photo by Rick Langer) will perform a FREE concert of string quartets. The program, features the String Quartet in G Minor, Op; 20, No. 3, by Franz Joseph Haydn; and the final String Quartet No. 15 in G Major, D. 887, by Franz Schubert.

FRIDAY

At 6 p.m. UW-Madison students in the Collegium Musicum will perform a FREE concert of early music under the direction of keyboard professor John Chappell Stowe (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot). Sorry, no word about composers or pieces on the program.

At 8 p.m. in Mills Hall. A combined choirs concert of the UW Women’s Chorus (below) and University Chorus will perform a FREE program.

Works to be performed under conductor Chris Boveroux include “Curse Against Iron” by Veljo Tormis; “Miniwanka” or The Moments of Water,” performed in North American Indian dialects, by R. Murray Schafer (below); and the world premiere of a work composed by UW student Brianna Ware.

For more information, go to:

https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/combined-choirs-concert-2/

SATURDAY

At 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the Concert Choir (below) performs the program “On a Lark” under conductor Beverly Taylor graduate assistant conductor Chris Boveroux.

The program features the Wisconsin premiere of “A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass” by Dominick DiOrio (below), a 2012 four-movement setting of Amy Lowell’s poetry, featuring marimba and soprano soloist with the choir.

For more information, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/events/2018-04-21/

SUNDAY

At 4 p.m. (Part 1) and then 7:30 p.m. (Part 2) in Mills Hall, the UW Choral Union and the UW Symphony Orchestra (both below), under Beverly Taylor, will perform the “St. Matthew Passion” by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Tickets (one ticket is good for both parts) are $15, $8 for students and seniors. To purchase tickets, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/about-us/tickets/

Tickets will also be available at the door.

At 8:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, the Hunt Quartet, made up of UW graduate students, will perform a FREE concert.

This year’s members (below from left, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) are Kyle Price, cello.; Vinicius “Vinny” Sant’Ana, violin; Blakeley Menghini, viola; Chang-En Lu, violin.

The program offers the “Quartettsatz” (Quartet Movement) by Franz Schubert; the String Quartet in B minor, Op. 11 (with the original version of the famous Adagio for Strings) by Samuel Barber; and the String Quartet in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4, by Ludwig van Beethoven.

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Classical music: University Opera’s updated Hollywood production of Verdi’s “Falstaff” proves a triumph on all counts. Plus, FREE Opera Scenes concert is Tuesday night

November 20, 2016
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By Jacob Stockinger

Here is a guest review by The Opera Guy of Giuseppe’s Verdi’s “Falstaff” as staged by the University Opera. Performance photos are by Michael Anderson.

By Larry Wells

In the past few years I’ve seen Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” set in the Spanish Civil War, Wagner’s Ring cycle re-imagined as the history of cinema, and Puccini’s “Turandot” presented as a performance by a traveling circus.

Thus, Verdi’s ‘Falstaff’ set in 1930’s Hollywood seemed a reasonable reinterpretation, and so it proved at its final performance Tuesday evening by University Opera.

“Falstaff,” drawn from three plays by Shakespeare, is Verdi’s final opera and a rare comedy. More importantly, gone are his familiar forms of a recitative followed by an aria with lots of oom-pa-pa orchestral accompaniment, now replaced with a conversational style that to me shows Wagner’s influence. It just doesn’t sound like Verdi, but it certainly sounds good.

I felt that the whole evening was a triumph.

The sets were beautifully dressed, the costumes were excellent and the lighting was effective.

The UW Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Smith, played wonderfully, although from where I sat the sound was occasionally muffled.

Thank goodness a new music building is being built, and I trust that there will be a theater within it that will accommodate operatic performances. The current Music Hall has its limitations, one being that much of the orchestra was playing underneath the stage and another being that for some reason the theater’s temperature cannot be controlled. It was stiflingly hot during the performance.

As for the singing and acting, the cast I saw was uniformly strong. Falstaff, performed by UW-Madison faculty member Paul Rowe (below), was very robust and was particularly affecting during his act III soliloquy. The Ear mentioned to me his Oliver Hardy mannerisms, and once I noticed that I was constantly amused.

Yanzelmalee Rivera as Alice was hilarious in her seduction scene and really came alive in Act III. Courtney Kayser as Meg was a compelling comic actress. Rebecca Buechel’s Mistress Quickly was an equally adept comic actress and had an excellent voice. Emily Weaver as Nannetta was a beautiful singer who shone in her third act moments as Queen of the Fairies. These four women had some outstanding ensemble moments, and I was constantly diverted by their antics as they outwitted the men.

Among the hapless male characters, Brian Schneider was a standout as Ford and the deep voice of Benjamin Schultz (below left, with Paul Rowe and Jiabao Zhang) made the minor character Pistola noticeable whenever he was on stage.

But the voice of the evening belonged to tenor José Daniel Muñiz (below right) as Fenton. He excelled not only in his solo moments but blended extremely well with his paramour Nannetta (Claire Powling, below left).

The outstanding ensemble work exhibited throughout the opera culminated in the grand fugue at the end of the opera, and the nearly full-house audience was blown away by those final moments. (You can hear the fugal finale, conducted by Sir George Solti, in a YouTube video at the bottom.)

The 1930’s Hollywood concept worked well. It seemed completely fitting and was undoubtedly more amusing than it would have been had the opera been set in the time of Henry IV.

“Well done” to the University Opera’s new full-time director David Ronis (below center) for his imagination and direction. I look forward to his production of Benjamin Britten’s “Turn of the Screw” in early March.

And since this University Opera production and other events are being presented to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death and the exhibition of a First Folio at the Chazen Museum of Art, I want to put in a plug for Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Sir John in Love” which has almost exactly the same plot as “Falstaff” and is woefully underperformed.

I also want to draw your attention the FREE Opera Scenes concert by University Opera that will be presented this Tuesday night, Nov. 22, at 7:30 p.m. in Music Hall. Featured are singers, with piano accompaniment, in scenes from: Charles Gounod’s “Faust”; Claudio Monteverdi’s “The Coronation of Poppea“; Giacomo Puccini‘s “La Rondine”; Leonard Bernstein‘s “Trouble in Tahiti”; Gioacchino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville”; Dominick Argento’s “Postcard From Morocco”; and Marc Blitzstein’s”Regina.”

Posted in Classical music
Tags: accompaniment, Arts, Barber of Seville, Beethoven, Benjamin Britten, Charles Gounod, Chazen Museum of Art, choral music, Christina and Michelle Naughton, cinema, circus, Civil War, Classical music, concerto, Dominick Argento, Edo de Waart, Falstaff, Faust, Francis Poulenc, fugue, Giacomo Puccini, Gounod, Hollywood, Igor Stravinsky, Jacob Stockinger, La Forza del Destino, La Rondine, Laurel and Hardy, Leonard Bernstein, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Marc Blitzstein, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Monteverdi, Music, Oliver Hardy, opera, Orchestra, Piano, Postcard From Morocco, Puccini, Ring cycle, Rossini, scenes, Shakespeare, Sir John in Love, Solti, Spain, Spanish Civil War, symphony, The Coronation of Poppea, Trouble in Tahiti, Turandot, Turn of the Screw, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University Opera, vaughan williams, Verdi, Wagner, wisconsin public radio, YouTube

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The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Here is a year-long list of concerts at the University of Wisconsin Mead Witter School of Music. They start Tuesday night with the 40th annual Karp Family Labor Day Concert

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Classical music: Here are short takes about some chamber music, orchestral music and choral music concerts for this week, starting TODAY

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Classical music: Choral music and string music are in the spotlight during a busy week of concerts at the UW-Madison

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Classical music: University Opera’s updated Hollywood production of Verdi’s “Falstaff” proves a triumph on all counts. Plus, FREE Opera Scenes concert is Tuesday night

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