June 29-July 5, 2006
Arts : Artspicks
Arias Alfresco
If you've always wanted to hear an AVA performance but have never managed to get into the tiny, perpetually sold-out Helen Corning Warden Theater on Spruce, here's a chance, and it's free. Five AVA singers will break out of that Victorian cocoon and spill out into the open air of Rittenhouse Square to present a hit parade of music by Bizet, Gounod, Wagner and Puccini, under the direction of David Lofton, conducting a chorus and orchestra. Yes, opera-phobes, they will be singing music from your least favorite art form, but this crowd-pleasing programming might just win you over, especially as performed by the vivacious AVA singers, who are amongst the best in the world. Who knows? You might even be tempted to mark your calendars for the fall opera season. This event kicks off the citywide July 4th festivities, vocal fireworks to go along with the stuff that lights up the night sky.

