Opera stars fill hall with High Notes

By Howard Bokser

Take two of the opera world’s most talented and passionate opera singers. Add a few hundred Concordia alumni, students, faculty, staff and friends, and Montreal’s cultural and corporate elite. Bring them together in a cozy jewel of a concert venue on a beautiful May evening. The result could be nothing short of spectacular.

And “spectacular” was only one of the many similar adjectives expressed by the 500 guests who attended Hitting the High Notes, the benefit concert held in the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall, May 10, which raised $475,000 to support students in the Faculty of Fine Arts.

Hitting the High Notes featured the world-class talents of Grammy Award-winning soprano Renée Fleming, renowned Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, and the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The evening started with an elegant cocktail reception in a tent set up on the Loyola quad. Then, the concert: Fleming, resplendent in a Gianfranco Ferré gown, and the gregarious Terfel quickly won over the audience.

They took turns on stage during two-and-a-half-hour program that included arias by Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Bizet and Massenet, and concluded with “Danny Boy” and pieces by Rodgers and Hammerstein and Gershwin.

Together, Fleming and Terfel sang “Là ci darem la mano” from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and “Bess, You is my Woman Now” from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. They were joined by Montreal mezzo-soprano Michelle Sutton for “Soave sia il vento” from Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte. After the encore, the crowd — from appreciative students and opera newcomers to opera devotees — was abuzz with delight.

Following the show, at a black-tie dinner under the tent, Fine Arts Dean Christopher Jackson, event co-chairs Hans Black and Richard Renaud, President Frederick Lowy and Vice-President of Advance-ment & Alumni Relations Kathy Assayag told the 250 guests how rewarding it was to see so many come out to support Concordia, its excellent Faculty of Fine Arts and its students.

They also thanked the corporate and individual sponsors and donors who helped make the evening such a fundraising and artistic success.