Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts Announces INTRODUCTION TO THE JOYS OF OPERA

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts has announced their new online workshop titled Introduction to the Joys of Opera, an enlightening and empowering survey of opera led by soprano Ashley Galvani Bell and stage director Antón Armendariz Diaz. The class is open to kids and adults ages 13 and up and will be held as part of Bay Street's new online programming platform Bay Street To-Go. Classes will be held for eight weeks starting May 14 through July 2, meeting on Thursdays from 4 to 5 p.m. via Zoom! Registration is $200 for eight sessions. For more information, visit baystreet.org/education or contact Allen O'Reilly, Director of Education, at allen@baystreet.org.

Introduction to the Joys of Opera will introduce participants to the core of opera's history and origins in an inviting and interactive atmosphere that will serve to refute the typical stereotypes surrounding this unique art form. Ashley Galvani Bell and Antón Armendariz Diaz will discuss the myriad ways that opera has influenced live theatre and popular music, with sessions that are designed to be informative yet stimulating. Participants will come to understand the power behind the music, its impact on society, and why it has been a successful medium for centuries.

Bay Street audiences will recognize Ashley Bell from her sold out performance as Donna Anna. The soprano has performed as a soloist in the United States, Italy, Spain, France, and Russia. In 2018-2019, she made her Carnegie Hall debut as soprano soloist in Hadyn's Nelson Mass and Schubert's Mass in C, debuted as Madama Butterfly with Townsend Opera, and debuted as Mimi in La Bohème with both the Mississippi Opera and the Natchez Festival. She has performed as Elle in the critically acclaimed performance of La Voix Humaine at the Rioja Forum in Spain and at the New York Opera Fest.

Antón Armendariz Diaz debuted as a soloist with the Coral Santa Maria de la Redonda in 2002 in Spain. In 2008, after several master classes he discovered he was a tenor, and has been working to solidify this new register. Since his debut as an opera singer he has been recognized for his powerful and visceral acting. His repertoire includes a wide range of Spanish song, baroque, Italian chamber music, and oratorio. In opera he has sung the roles of Don Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro, Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte, and Don Gasparo in La favorite. He debuted as director with RiojaLirica, directing L´Elisir D´Amore, Cosi fan tutte, Don Giovanni, El sueno de Mozart, and more.

Bay Street To-Go, Bay Street's virtual entertainment and education program, is an all new online platform that provides engaging live theater experiences for our audience and patrons, at a time when in-person programming just isn't an option. We are excited to bring our community this creative outlet in the form of Facebook streams, virtual sing-alongs on Zoom, or online education classes. While we continue to respect quarantines and mandatory lockdowns, we are eager to be able to explore this new online platform, and hope to keep it as a programming option at Bay Street Theater even when we're all able to gather together again under one roof.

Bay Street Theater is a year-round, not-for-profit professional theater and community cultural center which endeavors to innovate, educate, and entertain a diverse community through the practice of the performing arts. It serves as a social and cultural gathering place, an educational resource, and a home for a community of artists.

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