President's Message

Dear Friends of PPOL, continued on next page

Welcome to a new year of Pikes Peak Opera League programs and events. The holidays are behind us, and we have survived the cold, sometimes bleak days of January. Spring cannot be far behind!

Our Holiday Luncheon at the Cheyenne Mountain Country Club was a huge success as always, and we once again thank Dr. Darryl and Terry Thatcher for hosting this wonderful event. You can peruse photos from the luncheon further on in this newsletter.

By the time this newsletter hits your emails, we will have celebrated Black History Month with a program at the Colorado Springs Conservatory featuring Soprano Deborah Anderson performing music that celebrates Black History in Song. This program also featured our Conservatory scholarship winner, Audrey Griswold and Conservatory student Emma Lee and Conservatory mentor Tracy Taylor, all accompanied by Dr. Adam Haas.

We have more upcoming events, and we hope you will join us for the fun. February 17th is our Winter Wonder Fest, 5-8 pm at the Patty Jewett Clubhouse. This year’s program will feature Marcia Ragonetti, Steven Taylor and Travis Yamamoto performing selections by Jerome Kern, widely acknowledged as the Father of American Musical Theater. Please read on for more information about this not-to-be-missed special event. All proceeds benefit the PPOL scholarship and career advancement funds.

Be sure to add March 1, 2-4 pm to your calendars. This program will be at the Carriage House at Penrose House and is included in your membership dues. It will feature performances by Julie Silver Campbell from Opera on Tap and Solveig Olsen, President of the Board at Opera Theatre of the Rockies. Solveig was most recently seen as the female lead in The Opera Theatre of the Rockies production of “The Music Man” last summer at Armstrong Hall. More information will follow in the newsletter.

January brought great sadness to the music community in Colorado Springs when we lost one of our greatest champions, Kathleen Fox Collins. Kathleen was a long-time member of the Pikes Peak Opera League and a Founding Director of Opera Theatre of the Rockies. To say “she will be missed” is a profound understatement. However, when we remember her, we will remember her with joy because that is what she brought to our lives. Instead of mourning her loss, we will celebrate her life and all that she added to the community of Colorado Springs.

Read on for more information about upcoming events. As always, please feel free to reach out to me at 719-481-0426 or ndenaray@gmail.com. Also visit our website at pikespeakoperaleague.org.

Get ready to hum all the way home after this year’s Winter Wonder Fest featuring Mezzo Soprano Marcia Ragonetti and friends on Feb. 17 starting at 5 p.m. at Patty Jewett Golf Club. The concert features music composed by Jerome Kern in a tuneful exploration of a very special chapter in The Great American Songbook. Kern is considered one of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, writing more than 700 songs such as “Ol’ Man River,” “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man,” and “The Way You Look Tonight.” His contemporaries include Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer and Ira Gershwin, among others.

“Instead of just singing songs, we plan to delve into the life of Jerome Kern in a way that the audience will get to experience an historical biopic of his life,” says Ragonetti. “Our PPOL program has some funny songs and some heartfelt songs, but make no mistake, it’s all Jerome Kern.”

In the program titled, “Can’t Help Lovin’…Jerome Kern” Ragonetti will be joined by Pianist Travis Yamamoto and Baritone Steven Taylor.

“It is an ensemble thing – that’s partly what I like about (opera),” she says. “Singers would be naked and dark and silent, screaming, without everyone else that’s involved.”

As for performing on Feb. 17 Ragonetti said she is relishing the chance to have a bit of an old home week experience with some of those in the opera community who have known and worked with each other for decades.

A veteran of opera, concert and musical theater stages, as well as intimate cabaret spaces, Ragonetti has earned acclaim for her stellar singing and acting and was hailed by one critic as "a perfectly splendid mezzo." She has been associated with Opera Colorado since its inception