Maestro Wroe is Music Director of the New Jersey Festival Orchestra, Principal Conductor at Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice in New York, and a frequent conductor of L’Orchestre Régional de Normandie in France.
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Hollywood in the Hills 2022
August 7, 2022 @ 8:30 pm - 11:30 pm
$40.00
Hollywood in the Hills
Live Performance including 100 Chorus Singers & Live Orchestra, David Wroe Conductor.
Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice in collaboration with The Woodstock Film Festival is presenting an immense concert, Hollywood in the Hills, with 100+ people on stage! This humor filled joyous family friendly concert features Opera from some of your favorite movies such as Philadelphia, Shawshank Redemption, Fatal Attraction and much more. Take in the Jumbotron vignettes from these films and their featured Opera’s, alongside live world class soloists, a full chorus and orchestra conducted by Maestro David Wroe. A unique concert not to miss!
Woodstock Film Festival
Alongside these Big Apple giants, the Phoenicia Festival of the Voice will present an amazing and innovative concert featuring ‘Opera in the Movies’ with full chorus and orchestra, vignettes of the films which were enhanced by opera’s incredible drama and the world class soloists you’ve heard every year now for over a decade in collaboration with The Woodstock Film Festival. ‘The Shawshank Redemption’, ‘Pretty Woman’, ‘The Rabbit of Seville’ and ‘Fatal Attraction’ are just a few of the opera/movie combos to which you will be treated.
Sunday August 7, 2022
Hollywood in the Hills (Opera in the Movies)
The Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice in conjunction with The Woodstock Film Festival share some of their favorite moments when Opera has stolen the scene in the movies.
Opera is a genre of excess. Emotions are heightened, passions intensified, settings more exotic, characters larger than life. In many ways it’s a natural partner for Hollywood, and more than one director has turned to opera to help amp up the dramatic volume.
Opera has made some memorable cinematic cameos, whether in thrillers Fatal Attraction, Mission Impossible Rogue Nation or comedies The Rabbit of Seville and Mr. Bean’s Holiday and dramas A Room with a View, Pretty Woman and Driving Miss Daisy. But directors should beware; opera can easily turn a supporting role into a starring turn, and over the years has stolen the scene from everyone from Tom Cruise to Glenn Close.
The Phoenicia Int. Festival of the Voice combines forces with the Woodstock Film Festival to bring you an extraordinary live experience with famous film scenes which are heightened by opera. International opera stars Kristin Sampson, Yulan Piao, Ta’u Pupu’a and Matthew Gamble will perform arias such as ‘Nessun dorma’, ‘O mio babbino caro’ ,‘Largo al factotum’ and ‘Un bel di’ which vividly enhanced the films they graced.
Opera is a wonderful tool for filmmakers who want to add drama or intensity to a scene a musical shorthand for emotion and high-drama as in Philadelphia. But just occasionally it can also help bring comedy, as in the brilliant comedy, Mr Bean’s Holiday or Warner Brother’s Bugs Bunny classic, The Rabbit of Seville.
Hollywood in the Hills (Opera in the Movies) is a brilliantly astute comment on opera’s popular association with tragedy and over-the-top emotion. No one puts opera in a corner, least of all the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice. Come see iconic film clips accompanied live by chorus, orchestra and internationally acclaimed soloists on Aug. 7.
It’s the perfect conclusion to a weekend of grand opera provided by Teatro Grattacielo’s Don Giovanni and New York City Opera’s La Traviata!
Blog Post
The Opera Scene in Philadelphia
I often listen to a piece of music before I begin writing. While working on the script for Philadelphia, I had chosen the aria, La Momma Morta, by Umberto Giordano, and sung by Maria Callas, to serve as my inspiration.
Ron Nyswaner, Los Angeles, April 29, 2022
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Ron Nyswaner, Screenwriter Philadelphia
Festival 2022 Highlights – Hollywood in the Hills
In Loving Memory
Girishbhai Tapubhai Maher