Also this issue:

Fall guide
-Debra Auspitz

Feeding Frenzy
An off-Broadway hit about the restaurant biz comes to Philadelphia -- and hits close to home.
-Toby Zinman photos by michael t. regan

Gearing Up: Tara Keating
-Debra Auspitz

Bittersweet Inspiration
Soul/R&B singer Vivian Green draws power from the pain.
-A.D. Amorosi Photo By Michael T. Regan

Wherever, Whenever
A peek behind the scenes at the dream world of Cirque du Soleil's Varekai.
-Deni Kasrel

Gearing Up: Sandra Blakely
-Debra Auspitz

Down To Zero
Bad-boy artist Neil Bernstein tries to do some good in a gallery near Ground Zero.
-David Warner photo by Jay Muhlin“

Scene Change
A look at nightspots, restaurants and shopping destinations set to open this fall.
-A.D. Amorosi Photo By Michael T. Regan

September 19-25, 2002

cover story

Gearing Up: James Valenti

Tenor James Valenti recently became a resident artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts, where the next production will be Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, based on Sir Walter Scott’s tale of star-crossed Scottish lovers. Valenti will portray Edgardo, half of the doomed couple (Cuban-born soprano and AVA resident artist Eglise Gutierrez, pictured with Valenti, right, and pianist Laurent Philippe, center, plays the title role of Lucia). Valenti has had a good year -- he won the 2002 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the 2002 Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Competition, and for the Jersey-born Valenti, his residency at AVA is a kind of homecoming. Lucia di Lammermoor runs Nov. 9-23.

What's unique about AVA

As a new resident artist, I'm trying to start with a clean slate. Every company works a little differently, and the benefit of this program is the intense musical preparation with Maestro Christofer Macatsoris before the staging even begins. In most professional companies, you usually have a day or two -- here at AVA we have a full three weeks of just music.

On preparing to play Edgardo

I performed Arturo [the man Lucia is forced to marry] and covered Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor for Minnesota Opera last year, so I know the opera well -- it’s nice to come back to it. I was able to watch Edgardo and think what I’d do differently.