The Victor Herbert Renaissance Project LIVE!

The title alone is worth a headline: “Victor Herbert Renaissance Project LIVE!” It is the world’s only production company uniquely devoted to American music composer Victor Herbert. And: It begins its first-ever season with a kick-off concert titled Art Is Calling For Me on November 20, 2014.

VHRP LIVE! was formed in 2014 to produce – for the first time in 100 years – a full orchestral reading of Herbert’s entire 1911 Grand Opera Natoma. (ORCA reported on that concert.) Now, the company’s Artistic Director Alyce Mott and Music Director Michael Thomas present a season of three eagerly anticipated evenings showcasing their selections from Herbert’s most relevant works arranged to grab the audience’s attention and re-awaken affection for the American master’s original musical genius.

Their kick-off concert with a best-of Victor Herbert will be followed by a performance of his stunning 1899 operetta Cyrano de Bergerac on February 26, 2015 and concluding with one of America’s finest operettas, Naughty Marietta, on April 23, 2015.

The performances will be in Christ & St. Stephen’s Church, an acoustically-excellent 400-seat venue in New York City. Performers include Stephen Faulk and Nathan Brian who made such an impression during this summer’s Ohio Light Opera Festival. It is a delight to see and hear these two operetta crusaders again – in this repertoire. (Remember their stand-out performances in Herbert’s Dream City and the Magic Knight at OLO? A DVD will be released next year.)

For tickets, click here.

And just to get into the festival mood properly, here is the great song “Art Is Calling For Me” from Herbert’s The Enchantress, sung by Kiri te Kanawa (in one of her more memorable outfits.)