It was going to be the Sand City Opera Society, but we nixed that idea thinking that people would think we were in really desperate need of help!

Our motto is "Great, Unusual Opera for All".
Want a T-shirt?

Gustav Mahler was generally recognized as the greatest opera composer who never composed an opera We may well prove to be the greatest Opera company that never produced a complete opera.

The following are some of our main objectives:

1. Give local people a chance to hear live opera and song without having to
   drive at least 100 miles round trip.
2. To give musicians chances to learn and express themselves through music.
3. Exhume vocal treasures from the past, many unrecorded.
4. Gradually work into some programs that consist of a series of scenes from operas, with spoken dialogue to fill in the gaps.
5. In these disastrous economic times provide vocal entertainment for a fraction of the cost of established Opera Companies.

We also recognize that for this endeavor to succeed the performers must enjoy themselves. A little over 100 years ago mechanical recording came in. Prior to that singers had work all over the place. If people had little opportunity to hear live opera they had piano transcriptions of operas by Liszt, Busoni and others. We know its very different today when every live performance is compared to the greatest performers alive and dead recorded in their prime.

Nobody gets paid except our accompanist, after all this is much cheaper and much more fun than psychotherapy. Any recognition from audiences is secondary. A hundred years ago Sir Edward Elgar stated "God hates art, of this I am convinced, everything that is mean & trivial has its reward". Well, what would the old boy say today?

So what are we doing? At this time lots of songs by the great opera composers Bellini, Rossini, Donizetti, Strauss, Mozart. Liszt (yes, he wrote one opera), Handel, Vaughan Williams, Brahms (well, he didn't write any operas either). Maybe an actual opera extract may creep in, who knows?

Specifically one of our programs featured the Brahms four serious songs and the Liszt Petrarc sonnets.

We are in the process of accumulating enough audio recordings to make a CD. If interested we can send you some clips. We are always looking for competent, fun loving, singers who, like us, treat singing as an avocation. We would like to be able to include more ensemble items.
If interested e-mail us at alfredharris@montereybay.com or call 521-1584.