Lunch & Lecture: Operas & Literature

Join us in celebrating the 5th anniversary of our wildly popular Lunch & Lecture
Series with a complimentary glass of bubbly and 25% off the ticket price of this
first lecture of the season!

Lunch & Lecture: Operas & Literature

Rachel Cox, violin
Anne Roberts, piano

Many of musical theater’s great operas and classics began as literary ideas. The abstract power of music and its ability to inspire images of reality and connect with the human experience—attributes observed by the ancient Greeks—will be analyzed in this presentation.  The ability to relate to a melody and follow its ultimate destination is similar to the development of a dramatic character.  Explore how a novel or novella, poem, play, or myth comes to life musically and how the libretto transforms the work to fit the operatic stage.  Selections from the operas and musicals that will be performed include L’Orfeo, Le Mariage de Figaro, Faust, Cavalleria Rusticana, Thais, Romeo and Juliet, Les Miserables, Cats, and The Phantom of the Opera.  Excerpts from literary sources will accompany each musical selection.

Rachel Cox, violinist, and violist has performed with the Naples Philharmonic, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum Chamber Orchestra. A member of the SWF Symphony Orchestra since 1998, holding the positions of principal viola, acting assistant and principal second violin, and acting assistant concertmaster. Rachel holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Viola Performance from the New England Conservatory in Boston, studying with Walter Trampler, and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from IMPAC University in Punta Gorda, FL. Performance credits: Carnegie Hall under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas, broadcasts on WGBH-FM’s “Off the Record” program, guest artist at the 2006 Ohio Federation of Music convention, a guest performer with the New York Viola Society, and two PBS nationwide broadcasts as a member of the Naples Philharmonic under the direction of Erich Kunzel. In 2002, Rachel started the music scholarship at FGCU which ultimately led to the formation of the Bower School of Music.

Karen Davis studied music at the University of Illinois and received a master’s in piano performance at the University of Maryland.  She maintained an active piano studio for 35 years. Karen performed at the French, Austrian and Italian embassies in Washington DC and gave concerts in Europe. With her piano partner, Anne Roberts, she has played in several dueling piano concerts in Southwest Florida.

Lunch Menu:

Chicken Salad Croissant
Mediterranean Pasta Salad
Fresh Fruit
Chips or Cookie