Shannon Jennings Joins Opera Orlando's Season Lineup

Cap off the summer with the alluring songs of ocean nymphs and explorers when Opera Orlando finishes its annual Opera in Concert: Summer Concert Series with Cuban-American soprano Shannon Jennings. Central Florida native and a graduate of Lyman High School,  Ms. Jennings returns to Orlando on August 27 to present A SIREN’S SONG at the University Club of Winter Park. This program of arias and art songs inspired by the ocean, nature, and mermaids is a preview of her appearance in the title role of the Company’s Opera on the Town presentation of Antonin Dvořák’s Rusalka—a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. For this concert in the series, Ms. Jennings will be joined on piano by world-renowned pianist Ammon Perry Bratt. 

“Shannon’s intoxicating soprano floats on the waves like the mermaids she channels in ‘A Siren’s Song.’  It promises to be quite an enchanting afternoon of music,” says Opera Orlando general director Gabriel Preisser. “It is a really special opportunity for our Summer Concert Series patrons to get to know Shannon before seeing her in Rusalka.”

Praised by The Washington Post for her dramatic intensity and vocal ability, Shannon Jennings has also been acclaimed Pittsburgh in the Round as “a vision… [singing] treacherously difficult music with what seemed to be the greatest of ease and with a voice of beautiful quality and quantity." Ms. Jennings has starred in many leading roles, including as Mimi in La bohème with Kentucky Opera and Newport Classical, First Lady in Die Zauberflöte with Palm Beach Opera,

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and as the title role in Tosca with Annapolis Opera. She was also a featured soloist for Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino in the world premiere of his ADVENT for NASA’s 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. Additional credits include roles with Wolf Trap Opera, Virginia Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and Pittsburgh Opera. 

Shannon Jennings will open her program with the stunning “Song to the Moon” from Rusalka, and has filled the rest of her program with ravishing tunes like “La mer est plus belle que les cathedrales” and “Beau soir” by Claude Debussy, “Sure on this shining night” by Samuel Barber, and “Estrellita” by Manuel Ponce. 

Accompanying Ms. Jennings will be pianist Ammon Perry Bratt, an artist of considerable virtuosity and emotional range. He is a frequent guest soloist with chamber and symphony orchestras, touring internationally throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Recently, Mr. Perry Bratt performed in Carnegie Hall and at the Austria Summer Music Festival where he is a faculty member. Other recent performances include Palais Montcalm in Quebec City and Assembly Hall in Salt Lake City. He has also garnered numerous awards from regional, national, and international piano competitions, and is a frequent pianist for the Opera’s Summer Concert Series.

Summer Concert Series performances take place at the University Club of Winter Park, located at 841 North Park Avenue, Winter Park, Florida 32789. All concerts are nearly sold out with only partial view seating available. Subscribe to the full Summer Concert Series line-up for $125 or pay $49 for each individual concert. Admission includes meet-the-artist receptions following each concert, with light hors d'oeuvres and wine graciously donated by Winter Park Wine. Get tickets online at www.OperaOrlando.org/Summer23 or call (407)512-1900, ext. 0.

Audiences will get to see Ms. Jennings again in March, as she returns to Opera Orlando to play the mermaid Rusalka opposite tenor Isaac Hurtado, who is also featured in the Summer Concert Series. Tickets for the On the Town production of Rusalka at the Art and History Museums of Maitland on March 8 and 9 are on sale online at www.OperaOrlando.org/Rusalka.

Additionally, Opera Orlando’s 2023-24 Opera on the MainStage subscriptions are also currently on sale through the Dr. Phillips Center’s Bill & Mary Darden Box Office, (445 S. Magnolia Avenue, Orlando), online at www.DrPhillipsCenter.org, or by calling (407) 839-0119, ext. 0.

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