Punch Howarth
Linus Lerner will conduct opera this summer at the San Luis Potosi Mexico Opera Festival from July 7 to 21. Members of the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra will be performing. SASO will be the main orchestra for a performance of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutti on July 29. SASO members will join with members of the Festival Orchestra in Bizet’s Opera Carmen performed in a bull ring, Plaza de Toros in San Luis Potosi on July 21. Conductor Lerner holds an annual voice competition in San Luis Potosi. Next season’s SASO five concert series is set and will be reviewed in a later article.
A new venue will take place here at SaddleBrooke this summer. The Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR) will offer summer classes for the first time in cool heat buffeting locations. Some of these classes will be completed when this paper issue is published; How to Prevent Heart Disease by Barbara Ruger and Understanding and Appreciating Wine with Tom Ostinger.
Two other offerings will be Chuck Stump’s Brief History of Aviation in the U.S. 1890-2018, starting June 21 in various locations and Great Conductors Then and Now in Concert and Rehearsal presented by this writer. Where most of my music classes stress the musical content, this new five-week get together will focus on great conductors and how they made music. Some of the great “time beaters” will include Toscanini-Ormandy-Szell-Furtwangler-Reiner-Weingartner. Add to this two great composers, R. Strauss and Hindemith. Also, several top present-day baton magicians are included. This class is designed to minimize the instructor and maximize the video. Class starts at 1:00 p.m. on June 18 in the Sonoran Room at the MountainView Clubhouse ending at 2:30 p.m. in time for midday refreshments.