Tag Archives: Operisima Mexico

San Miguel de Allende

Amazing grace of Operisima’s holiday concert

It is times like these that you realize what a precious treasure Operisima Mexico is for San Miguel de Allende.

The operatic troupe’s Christmas Concert in the Iglesia San Francisco added rocket fuel to an already soaring holiday spirit.

Nearly a dozen elegantly dressed singers poured heart and soul into a program of popular and sacred seasonal music under the direction of Rogelio Riojas-Nolasco and in conjunction with Casa Europa Mexico.

Here’s a small taste of the evening. It repeats tonight (Sunday, Dec. 14, by the way. You can walk up and get tickets $300 — 600 mxn.

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Reviews, San Miguel de Allende

So much to do this week in San Miguel de Allende, my head is about to burst

Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle will be performed this week in San Miguel (See information below.)

Ah, that special time of the year when you ask yourself, “Why can’t I be in two places at once? Or three?” That time is now.

This is the time when people with money from the north pour across the border unchallenged and settle in for one month or several and begin to madly buy up tickets to a vast number of events – all of which we only see a hint of the rest of the year.

But few and far between though they might have been, you could reasonably trust that an empty seat could be claimed moments before a performance would begin.

You know the Season is here because – even though arts and cultural events have multiplied like sex-crazed rabbits – you will frequently hear that dreaded phrase, “Sorry. Completely sold out,” from a voice that actually sounds quite chuffed and hardly sorry at all.

Facebook, in a marvelous act of undercounting, posts a message to me on Monday morning: “Reminder: You have five events coming up this week.” It didn’t even get the right five.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende

Making the Bohemian scene

Ok, there probably wasn’t a real Bohemian within 10 blocks of this amazing venue. But “La Boheme” was indeed being performed inside.

Mighty lavish surroundings for a tragic tale of starving students and prostitutes. That’s the Italians for you. That’s opera for you.

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San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel’s fledgling Operisima Mexico finds a glamorous new home in a garden of earthly delights

Rogelio Riojas-Nolasco, founder and music director of Operisima Mexico, reflects on the opera studio’s first year in front of Villa Puccini on the morning of their premiere performance here of “La Bohème.” The owners of Villa Puccini, John and Joy Bitner have opened their doors and hearts to the opera troupe.

The modest wooden door in the high garden wall opens into El Rio y La Paloma No. 2 in the distant and dusty San Miguel outpost of Los Frailes. Stepping through the portal feels a bit like Dorothy stepping out of Auntie Em’s farmhouse into Oz.

Behind this wall is indeed another world so unexpected and beautiful as to momentarily throw you off balance.

The path before you leads to a distinguished columned building in the Greek Revival style — now to become an opera house. To the left is a fountain with a sculpture of Hercules riding the back of a dolphin. In the distance, another fountain celebrates Dionysius. To the right is an Italian villa and beside it is a weighty and somber stone Medieval tower.

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