“International Women’s Day Concert” by Julia W. Rath

Women in the arts took center stage at a tribute extravaganza concert held in honor of International Women’s Day on Tuesday night, March 8, 2022. Bellissima Opera and Working In Concert presented an all-star cast of operatic vocalists at the Good Shepherd Church, in Oak Park, Illinois. The program featured three outstanding soprano soloists Michelle Areyzaga, Jonita Lattimore, and Christine Steyer, and contralto Corinne Wallace-Crane. Backed by graceful paintings by visual artist Mimei Sakamoto, the performance consisted not only of opera but also dancing by Halau I Ka Pono—The Hula School of Chicago. The emcee for the evening was Mary Grace Bertulfo, who introduced the performers and read poetry in keeping with the larger theme of the tenacity of women and their common fight for justice and equality worldwide.

The program began with a brief meditation on the current situation in Ukraine. The audience was asked to silently send a message to Ukrainian women and their families as a sign of support for their cause. Then we were asked to do the same thing for the Russian women who have bravely defied their government and have called for peace. All this was in keeping with the spirit of International Women’s Day, held every year on March 8th. This year’s theme was “Break the Bias” (#IWD2022), and the audience was then encouraged to yell this out from time to time throughout the show. What this phrase means is making sure that everybody is taught about both conscious and unconscious biases as they relate to women’s roles and expectations for behavior regarding career and family. Breaking the bias also means smashing stereotypes about women and assumptions about their goals, ambitions, and abilities. It means creating a world where women are treated equal to men while, at the same time, they are celebrated for their uniqueness.

While the church atmosphere made the program homespun and special, all of the opera singers were absolutely amazing; and in that respect, it was a five-star performance. Lattimore started out the evening with “If I Could Give You All I Have” with her stirring, powerful vocals. Wallace-Crane, who we discover has quite the vocal range, sang, among other numbers, “Mon Coeur s’ouvre à ta voix” from Saint-Saëns “Samson and Delilah.” Later in the program, Areyzaga, dressed as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, forcefully sang words from a talk that the late justice once gave, in a modern composition, written by composer Patrice Michaels, who was seated in the audience. And Steyer, who is also the artistic director of Bellissima Opera, vigorously sang original operatic compositions that she wrote in conjunction with composer David Shenton as well as composer Christina Lee, also in the audience. A shout-out must also be made to collaborative pianists Dana Brown and Jennifer McCabe, who both did a wonderful job accompanying the soloists.

In the midst of all of the operatic singing was a performance by Halau I Ka Pono—The Hula School of Chicago, a troupe that danced to lyrics in the Hawaiian language. This was a very easy hula, with minimum steps and a lot of expressive arm movements. What this meant was that the audience didn’t need to sit directly in front of the dancers to watch them move across the floor, and we could enjoy their movements from the back of the church as well as from the front. The Hawaiian costumes were not traditional but lovely, with the women wearing sparkly long purple dresses and matching masks, and the men dressed in purple to coordinate. All wore colorful yellow leis around their necks and heads.

If there was any one issue I had with the performance, it was that Bertulfo should have used a microphone when making the introductions, since she wore a mask. (Note that except for all the hula dancers, the other performers did not wear face coverings, but COVID restrictions were clearly in place for the audience.) Perhaps one of the more memorable moments of the evening occurred when she read a Philippine poem in translation that dated from roughly the year 600. She read a line that said, “We danced our praises” and suddenly she added “and lost our places.” That last part was ad hoc; she actually did lose her place while reading the poem, but it was a better lyric than the original, a near-rhyme!

Steyer had the idea of putting this concert together and explained how she wants to bring opera to the classroom and get young people involved through outreach programs. At some level, Tuesday night’s concert was meant as a plug for a much larger world premiere production called “Future Perfect” to take place on June 23-26, 2022, at The Kehrein Center for the Arts, in Austin, where 1,300 Oak Park and Chicago youths will be involved.

All in all, this two-hour performance in honor of International Women’s Day was exceptional. And I’m looking forward to future events being held by Bellissima Opera and Working In Concert.

For more information about this event, go to: https://workinginconcert.org/iwd/?d=bo.

For information on “Future Perfect”, please visit: https://workinginconcert.org/futureperfect/?d=bo.

To see additional offerings and obtain general information about Bellisma Opera, an initiative of Working In Concert, see https://bellissimaopera.com/.

To see additional offerings and obtain general information about Working In Concert, see https://workinginconcert.org/.

You may also contact Christine Steyer: 773-531-7927, President of Working In Concert, Bellissima Opera Artistic Director, christine@workinginconcert.org or
Claudia Hommel: 773-509-9360, Executive Director of Working In Concert, Cabaret Connexion Artistic Director, claudia@workinginconcert.org to learn more about how you can help promote the mission of both of these impactful music organizations.