Merola Opera Program presents opportunity for foreign participants (09/19/99)

Merola Opera Program presents opportunity for foreign participants

by Nadia M. Derkach

SAN FRANCISCO - Twenty-seven participants from various countries completed their 11-week program of training and opera performances as participants in the Merola Grand Finale 1999 Concert in the San Francisco Opera House on August 15. In lieu of prizes, the concert participants may apply for career grants ranging from $500 to $5,000.

The news of this prestigious opera training program will be of interest to young opera singers, opera apprentice coaches, and opera apprentice stage directors who read The Ukrainian Weekly in the United States, Canada, Ukraine and other countries, because the Merola Program selects its participants on the basis of auditions of qualified applicants from all countries throughout the world.

The Merola Opera Program was founded in 1957 and named in honor of Gaetano Merola, the founding director of The San Francisco Opera. The program was established to discover, nurture and train the very best young talent in the world of opera, and has served as the proving ground for hundreds of artists, including Sylvia McNair, Patricia Racette, Ruth Ann Swenson, Carol Vaness, Deborah Voigt, Dolora Zajick, Brian Asawa, Gary Lakes, Kurt Streit, Jess Thomas, Thomas Hampson and Patrick Summers.

The Merola Opera Program is part of the San Francisco Opera Center, which also includes The San Francisco Opera under Maestro Lotfi Mansouri, the general manager. James H. Schwabacher is the chairman of the Merola Opera Program Board of Directors, and Peter W. Davis is the president.

Additional information about the Merola Opera Program can be obtained from the program's website at http://www.sfopera.com/merola; via e-mail at mop@opera.com; or by writing to Merola Opera Program, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, CA 94102-4509.

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