Rain, schmain: St. Pete Opera’s ‘pop-up’ shows are back
An afternoon rainstorm threatened to sing along with St. Petersburg Opera Company’s “Three Tenors’” pop-up performances in September, so the highly anticipated outdoor event was scrubbed, for the time being.
With a month and the seasonal showers (hopefully) now past, SPO is trying it again Sunday (Oct. 11). The singers, who will perform on the back end of a 14-foot flatbed trailer, are Chris Romeo, Eric Ferring and John Kaneklides, with Teresa Ancaya on piano. With a program of Verdi, Massenet, Gounod, and Leoncavallo, Neapolitan songs and Broadway hits.
Romeo talked about the pop-up opera series on the Sept. 11 edition of The Catalyst Sessions.
Sunday’s schedule calls for three “pop-ups”:
4-4:30 p.m. “under the oaks” at Westminster Suncoast, 1095 Pinellas Point Drive S. This is free and open to the public.
A ticketed show, from 5:15 to 5:45 at Cage Brewing, is sold out.
6:30-7:30 p.m. in the grassy, shaded area on the north side of the Museum of Fine Arts, 255 Beach Drive. Free and open to the public.
Bring a chair or blanket to sit on.
“I was so happy to see how thirsty the community was for live performance,” executive and artistic director Mark Sforzini said after the inaugural “Popera” in August.
“We should have been doing this all along as an entertainment offering. So I think when we get back to what is normal for us, we’re still going to be going around doing pop-up opera, because we’re reaching a lot of people who didn’t even know that there was an opera company.”
