Plainfield Opera House Winter-Spring 2023 Series
Seven performances from January to May
Tickets online (click "Tickets" below) or at the door
Masks optional
The Fyre and Lightning Consort - culminating concert!
The concert was tremendous! Thank you ALL of you who turned out!
Link to the video recording coming soon...
May 21 Diana Fanning One of the most accomplished pianists in Vermont, Diana Fanning has toured extensively as a solo performer and chamber musician throughout the U.S. and in England, France, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, the Czech Republic, Canada and Germany. In recent years she has performed at the Schloss Leopoldskron (“Sound of Music” castle) in Salzburg, and in Prague at the invitation of the International Dvorak Society. Ms. Fanning has performed on numerous occasions as a concerto soloist with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. She was featured as soloist in a performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in the debut concert of the Champlain Philharmonic Orchestra and was invited back for performances of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. After a solo recital in Munich, a critic wrote that “Diana Fanning stunned her listeners with the rich spectrum of subtle colors and tonal nuances she revealed. Her recital seized the audience with a veritable deep magic.” Diana will perform works by Schubert, Chopin, Ravel and Boulanger.
April 23 The Champlain Trio - "Brilliant Colors” As spring arrives, it brings with it the brilliant colors of mother nature. This program creates a vibrant world for the imaginative listener, encompassing a rainbow of colors, textures and styles. The program includes pieces by Lili Boulanger, Jennifer Higdon, Maurice Ravel and Erik Nielsen. We asked the Trio (Letitia Quante, violin, Emily Baubl, cello and Hiromi Fukuda, piano back this season after a sold out performance last year. Not to be missed if you like contemporary classical music played with incredible energy, great ensemble and personal virtuosity. Any opportunity to hear Quante, Taubl and Fukuda perform is well worth the effort. ~ Jim Lowe, Times Argus
January 22 Hilari Farrington, Benedict Koehler, Sarah Blair Three of Vermont’s most inspiring and exciting Irish musicians! Hilari is a masterful harp and button accordion player, Benedict is internationally famous for playing uilleann pipes (among other things), and Sarah Blair is a fantastic Irish fiddler. Together the three friends will create an unforgettable concert of Irish music.
Friday & Saturday, February 10 & 11 at 7 and Sunday, February 12 at 4 Trumbo: Red, White and Blacklisted Renowned actor, organizer, producer and long-time Plainfield resident Donny Osman will present the play “Trumbo: Red, White and Blacklisted” by Christopher Trumbo. Taking the words of his father, one of the “Hollywood Ten” whose suspected membership in the Communist Party would land him before the House Un-American Activities Committee, followed by a year in jail for contempt of Congress – “As far as I was concerned, it was a completely just verdict. I had full contempt for that Congress” – Christopher Trumbo draws a sympathetic portrait of a man whose letters from jail testified to a spirit unbowed, and a wit both wicked and childlike. It is these letters, some of which seem as carefully crafted as had they been intended for performance or publication – and they were in fact published, six years before Trumbo’s death – which drive the play, at times with a power, lyricism and stamina evoking the oratory traditions of ancient Greece. ~ Leslie Weismann
March 26 4-5 pm (no intermission) Karen Kevra and Jeffrey Chappell Karen Kevra, flute and Jeffrey Chappell, piano will perform music by French composers with connections to unexpected lands. The French/Spanish connection is revealed in Ravel's sultry "Habanera" as well Bizet's virtuoso variations from Carmen. Louis Moyse had an affinity and even a little ancestry from Japan and it shows in his exotic Introduction, Theme, and Variations (on a Japanese chant). Karen, of Capitol City Concerts fame (among many other accolades) and her dear friend and fantastic pianist Jeffrey are sure to bring out our local incredible lovers of classical music. What an honor to have them at the Opera House!