featuring Beth White, directed and produced by Alex Huddleston
Sotto Voce’s March 2025 production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor is now just around the corner, and we have some very exciting Sotto Voce news and outreach events coming your way in the new year. As you wait for the goodies we have in store, check out these excerpts from our 2024-25 Season kick-off event.
Not seeing something you’re seeking? Check out our YOUTUBE page for more Gala performances, as well as the full performance recordings of our 2024 main stage shows – The Magic Flute and Suor Angelica, and remember to like and subscribe!
The Card Trio from Bizet’s Carmen
Featuring Helen Lowry, with Jamie Gangemi + Erin Alexander
“Sulla Tomba” from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor
Thank you so much to all our participating artists, board members, volunteers, donors, and audience members who supported the kick-off of our 2024-5 season with our FALL 2024 GALA CELEBRATION! We had about 125 people in attendance and raised a total of $7,500 towards our $25,000 goal for our March 2025 production of Lucia di Lammermoor. These funds will help us to cover some of the production’s most essential costs and we couldn’t be more grateful for your support! We were also thrilled to honor local opera legend Frank Scinta, and to present our vision of “opera nouveau” not only with live performances, but cinematically produced videos, voiceovers, and words from Gala Co-Chairs Leslie Boldt and Louis Bryant, Opera Sacra Co-Directors Frank Scinta and Father Jack Ledwon, and our visionary Stage and Film Director Dr. Alex Huddleston.
Now, our team is due for a rest, but we will be back in your inboxes and socials soon to tell you more about what comes next as we work towards our grandest and most striking production yet. In the meantime, check out some Gala stills below, highlighting the beautiful artists at the heart of our collective, as well as the stunning staging and lighting conceived of by Alex in the beautiful space of our home base – the UU Church of Buffalo. Once again, we thank you all!
Jessie Downs and Helen Lowry as MADAMA BUTTERFLY and Suzuki in “The Flower Duet”Ky Ver Hoef performing “Sin tu amor”
Jamie Gangemi and Erin Alexander as Frasquita and Mercedes in the CARMEN “Card Trio”
Helen Lowry as CARMEN in the “Card Trio”
Beth White and Jessie Downs as Adalgisa and NORMA in “Mira, O Norma…Si, fino all’ore estreme”Jessie Downs and David Freides as LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR and Edgardo performing “Sulla tomba… Verranno a te sull’aure”
Tim Flynn as Raimondo accompanied by our Gala chorus performing “Dalle Stanze Ove Lucia” from LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR
Sotto Voce is thrilled to have been featured in the October 2024 issue of the Buffalo Spree! Check out the article by Jan Jezioro below. We are honored to be cited as “keeping opera relevant”! Many thanks to our Stage and Film Director Alex Huddleston for use of the beautiful image, capturing three of Sotto Voce’s leading ladies – Beth White, Helen Lowry, and Jessie Downs – embodying opera heroines Adalgisa (Bellini’s Norma), Carmen (Bizet), and Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti). Be sure to come experience excerpts from these great operas and more on Saturday October 26th at 6:30pm at the UU Church of Buffalo. GET YOUR TICKETS TODAY!
After an amazing first season, including our productions of The Magic Flute and Suor Angelica, Sotto Voce is excited to announce our next season’s offerings. Check out the video above to watch highlights from our premiere season and to get excited about what’s coming up next!
Fall 2024 Gala
6:30pm October 26th 2024 at the UU Church of Buffalo
As we take time to refresh following the success of our first full season as an opera company, stay tuned to learn more about what we’re cooking for you next year! While event pages, featured artist + audition info, programming choices, sneak peeks, and more will be headed your way soon, in the meantime, you can save the dates for our featured 2024-5 season events:
SOTTO VOCE FALL GALA – Saturday October 26th 6:30-9:30pm at the UU Church of Buffalo
LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR – Friday March 28th at 7pm and Sunday March 30th at 5pm location TBA (very soon!)
This past weekend, Sotto Voce presented two performances of Giacomo Puccini’s SUOR ANGELICA at St. Joseph University Parish in Buffalo NY. We couldn’t be more appreciative of everyone who made these elegant shows possible. We are so grateful for are hard-working artistic team that brought this beautiful story to life, and our artistic team is so grateful to YOU, the audience that came out to support us and allowed us to share our craft and passion with you. THANK YOU!!!
While we will be releasing the film version of the live show later this summer, in the meantime, remember to check out and subscribe to our YouTube channel. There you can catch content like the below “Nel Silenzio” music video featuring our Zia Principessa – Ola Rafalo, watch our February production of The Magic Flute, and stay up to date on what we’re cooking up next.
Can’t wait for that next Sotto show? Mark your calendars for our FALL GALA on Saturday October 26th at 7pmat the UU Church of Buffalo and our March 2025 production of Lucia di Lammermoor– Friday March 28th and Sunday March 30th, location TBA. Stay tuned to this website and our social media for more details!
The set is taking shape, costumes are getting finalized, sound collages are being created, and English subtitles are being prepared. The music is stunning and the acting is heart-wrenching.
We are also just a week away from the end of our SUOR ANGELICA fundraising campaign. With your support, we have raised $5,475 of our $6,000 goal. Who will help us close that final $525 gap? When you donate $250 you are sponsoring one of our Sisters of Sotto Voce who have given so much to bring this show to life.
We are also thrilled to announce that Sotto Voce is a NYS-registered nonprofit corporation, with pending 501(c)3 determination by the Internal Revenue Service, as of June 1, 2024. Contributions received in this calendar year may be fully tax-deductible, subject to IRS’ discretion.
From top left: Jamie Gangemi (The Monitor), Laurie Pastena (The Abbess/ Second Lay Sister), Maria Jacobi (The Novice), Sarah Arrowsmith (Suor Osmina), Emily Yancey (First Traveling Sister), Jessie Downs (Suor Angelica), Rosa Vu (Suor Dolcina), Maria Parker (The Nursing Sister), Aleksandra Tirone (First Lay Sister/ Second Traveling Sister), Ola Rafalo (La Principessa), Julia Anne Cordani (Suor Genovieffa), Erin Alexander (The Mistress of the Novices)
We are so thrilled to have assembled such a fantastic cast for our upcoming production of Suor Angelica! Our core team of Alex Huddleston (director), Jessie Downs (Suor Angelica), and Julia Anne Cordani (Suor Genovieffa) are joined by returning guest artist (Disakana in The Second Sight) Chicago-based mezzo-soprano Ola Rafalo (La Principessa); returning Spirits from The Magic Flute – Jamie Gangemi (The Monitor), Erin Alexander (The Mistress of the Novices), and Rosa Vu (Suor Dolcina), as well as Magic Flute chorister Sarah Arrowsmith (Suor Osmina); and our newest members – Laurie Pastena (The Abbess/ Second Lay Sister), Aleksandra Tirone (First Lay Sister/ Second Traveling Sister), Emily Yancey (First Traveling Sister), Maria Parker (The Nursing Sister), and Maria Jacobi (The Novice). You can read more about these wonderful people on our FEATURED ARTISTS page and get your tickets to hear them in the shows!
The Sister rehearsing the choral sections of the opera, led by Julia Anne Cordani at the piano.
Also, consider coming out to hear some of these fabulous artists in recital on Saturday June 8th at 7pm at our home base – the UU Church of Buffalo – singing selections from Mozart, Puccini, and more. Admission is free, but donations are encouraged to help support our show!
On Tuesday June 18th at 7pm at Randall Baptist Church of Williamsville, you can also join us for a special edition of “Let’s Do Lunch” called “Let’s Get Together.” The evening’s program will feature desserts, informative yet fun talks about Sotto Voce’s “opera nouveau” project, opportunities to meet our newest members, excerpts from the The Magic Flute, and previews of both Suor Angelica and shows for the 2024-25 Sotto Voce season and beyond. Write to AACPP_Lets_Do_Lunch AT protonmail.com for more information.
Thanks so much to all those who made donations large and small last week to help us better our chances at earning $1,000 through our fiscal sponsor’s Spring Match Campaign. Unfortunately, we were not one of Fractured Atlas’s chosen winners, but THANKS TO YOUR GENEROSITY, WE ARE NOW TWO-THIRDS OF THE WAY TO OUR $6,000 goal for our online Suor Angelica campaign. If you didn’t give last week, please consider making a donation this week instead. As the start of the rehearsal process for this show is now just under a week away, your gift will help us to start production from a place of financial security, a gift that is so invaluable to our little collective of multi-tasking artists. Thank you so much again for supporting opera nouveau. Let’s keep this good energy going TOGETHER!
Our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas, is distributing $1,000 to 20 different projects for their annual Spring Match campaign. Every donation made to Sotto Voce THIS WEEK ONLY – between Monday April 15 and Friday April 19, 2024 – gives us an extra chance to receive the $1k. Please consider making a donation of any amount to improve our odds, and be sure to share our fundraiser far and wide—every donation counts! Note also that Fractured Atlas is a non-profit arts service organization, and so contributions for the charitable purposes of Sotto Voce are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
When you donate this week, your gift will support our June 2024 production of Giacomo Puccini’s Suor Angelica. Check out a sneak preview of the show above, with Sotto Voce founding director Jessie Downs performing the famous aria, “Senza Mamma.” This video was directed and produced by Jessie’s co-director and partner Alex Huddleston with piano accompaniment by Sotto Voce Key Artist Jon Vogtle. Please check it out, like, comment, and subscribe! Anything you can do or give helps us so much! From all of us, thank you!
On our campaign page (linked above) you can also read more about this show and our “opera nouveau” take!
Sotto Voce 