Opera showcases foreign languages in mansion

Cecelia

The clock ticked to 7:30 p.m. The mansion lobby had been converted into a mini concert setting. More than 10 rows of chairs were set up in the middle of the floor, and they were all packed. Random chairs, couches and loveseats had been in back of the chairs and off to the side. People were even seated upstairs, creating a makeshift balcony

At the front of the room sat a black piano. The door to the left of the piano bench opened, and the audience applauded as the night’s entertainment entered.

Galina Sakhnovskaya walked around and stood in the crook of the open piano, as parts of her black dress melded into the background of the piano. She took a bow at the same time as Marcantonio Barone, who was standing by the keyboard of the piano was ready to play

The audience settled down and the duo prepared to open their concert. Music began to flow from the piano and Sakhnovskaya engaged in her performance to the fidgeting audience. Sakhnovskaya and the concert was beautiful to experience entirely in a different language, which was a first for me.”

Barone performed three cycles of music. Each cycle of music was comprised of a various number of pieces.

The opera showcase was completed in three languages, Russian, Czech and Italian by composers Sergei Prokofiev, Antonin Dvorak and Giuseppe Verdi respectively. They performed the first two cycles by Prokofiev and Dvorak. Then, the performers took a short intermission before returning to perform the last cycle, which was followed by a fourth cycle of music by composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, as well as a piece titled “The Snow Is Falling” as an encore.

“I thought it was inspiring, and the piano playing was also brilliant,” Dr Adeline Bethany, a Cabrini professor of fine arts, said.

“It was fantastic, excellent, and melodious. She was enchanting,” President Antoinette Iadaro- lived until she was 15. Upon coming to the United States, she began vocal studies with Katryna Blum Barone and is currently studying voice with Cesar Ulloa. Barone, an American, debuted as a pianist at the age of 10 at the Philadelphia Orchestra children’s concert. Barone is the head of the piano department and assistant director at the Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music. He also teaches piano and chamber music at Swarthmore College.

It was spiritually moving, and the concert was beautiful to experience entirely in a different language.

During the intermission, students had a chance to mingle with not only other professors and President Iadarola, but also with local residents in the surrounding Cabrini community who chose to come and view the free show in the Mansion lobby on Sunday night, April 24.

“The concert was absolutely phenomenal! Galina’s voice goes right through you,” senior English major Jacquelyn Grant said. “It was spiritually moving, and la said.

-Jacquelyn Grant Senior, English major ”

Sakhnovskaya and Barone are no newcomers to opera performing. Sakhnoskaya made her operatic debut in the summer of 2001 with the Delaware Valley Opera Company in Philadelphia.

Her earliest musical training was as a violin student in Kisinev, Moldova, where she

Barone has studied with Eleanor Sokoloff at the Curtis Institute of Music and he counts Harriet Elsom Rothstein, Taylor Redden, Susan Starr and Leonard Shure among his distinguished teachers.

Barone is a Steinway Artist and has made recordings for the CRI and Capstone labels.

The evening wrapped up with an energetic meet-andgreet in the mansion lobby and dinning room. Many of the fans who came to see the performance spoke in Russian with Sakhnovskaya while posing for pictures with her and Barone.