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Lewes' Carol Denenberg to narrate Opera's Greatest Hits with SDCS

Concerts to take place April 20 and 21
April 5, 2013

The Southern Delaware Choral Society will present its spring concerts Saturday and Sunday, April 20 and 21. Titled Opera’s Greatest Hits and conducted by Ann Freeman, the program features popular choruses from many great operas.

The narration for Opera’s Greatest Hits will be provided by SDCS member and Lewes resident Carol Denenberg. When asked how she fell in love with opera, she said, “My love of opera started with puppets! I was a German exchange student and had studied German art songs but had never seen an opera. I went to the Marionette Theatre in Salzburg, Austria, with a group of friends from school, and the puppets sang a complete performance of 'The Barber of Seville.' I was hooked. I saw opera’s potential for over-the-top madness anchored by the solid structure of technique.”

Denenberg plans to demonstrate that energy during the SDCS concerts. While narrating the “Anvil Chorus” from Giuseppe Verdi's 1853 opera "Il trovatore," she will feature several blacksmiths toiling over an anvil and flirting with a pair of beautiful women at the same time, providing context that will draw the audience into the classic opera chorus.

The path to a successful concert is always fraught with obstacles. Opera’s Greatest Hits is no different. “The challenge in putting on a concert like this is to convey, in one or two selections, the full range of a particular opera’s tone and depth,” Denenberg says. With the help of her narration and soloists Jennifer Holbrook- soprano, William Davenport - tenor and Alex Helsabeck - baritone, with piano accompaniment by Paul Fleckenstein, the program promises to overcome this obstacle.

The Saturday, April 20 concert will be held at 7 p.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church in Rehoboth Beach, and the Sunday, April 21 concert will be held at 4 p.m. at Mariner’s Bethel United Methodist Church Ocean View.

Tickets for both performances are available by calling 302-396-7617, online at southerndelawarechoralsociety.org and at Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach and Puzzles in Lewes. Cost for the tickets is $20 adult, $8 for students with valid ID.

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