Our guest artist for the upcoming Beethoven Unleashed is one of the most exciting artists to emerge in recent years. Pianist Martina Filjak is garnering international praise for her poetic passion and technical mastery at the keyboard as well as for her charismatic personality and magnetic stage presence.

The talented cast of The Wizard of Oz in Concert has been hard at work rehearsing for this weekend’s performance. From left to right above (photographed during a rehearsal break at the Cotuit Center for the Arts), Anthony Teixiera portrays the Tin Man as well as his Kansas counterpart Hickory; Keirnon McDermott is the Scarecrow and Hunk; Jessica Curran takes on the iconic role of Dorothy; and the Cowardly Lion/Zeke is Jeffrey Clonts – note his “tail”!

There’s nothing quite like the moment when Judy Garland begins to sing, “Somewhere over the rainbow”…and the Cape Symphony will recreate that moment on February 9 and 10.

Researchers at the University of Turin, who analyzed data from the Internet Movie Database on 47,000 movies, recently came up with a list of the top 20 most influential films. The Wizard of Oz is number one!

“Carmen Fantasie,” based on themes from Bizet’s great opera Carmen, is part of Franz Waxman’s Oscar-nominated score for the movie Humoresque, a 1946 Joan Crawford melodrama about a violinist, Paul, and the married older woman, Helen, who becomes his patron.

You’re not alone! Many people are intimidated by opera, and perhaps most of all by an opera that sounds really confusing.