The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower will resonate with Voices of Beauty Friday evening, an hourlong concert presentation by Opera San Antonio with the Classical Music Institute.
Proceeds from ticket sales will support refurbishment of the 93-year-old basilica’s antique bronze bells.
E. Loren Meeker, general and artistic director of Opera San Antonio, said both Tobin Center for the Performing Arts resident companies saw the event as an opportunity to deepen their outreach to the West Side. The concert will serve as both an educational and artistic experience for the audience, she said.
“It’s the first attempt, and hopefully the first of many times that we’ll be able to get out into that community with an event that we hope sparks interest for the performing arts,” Meeker said.
The concert program will include familiar composers such as Mozart, Vivaldi and Schubert, along with pieces by French composer Francis Poulenc, Venezuelan composer Aldemaro Romero, Mexican American composer María Grever and Mexican composer Agustín Lara.
Poulenc’s Dialogue des Carmélites was the starting point for the collaboration between the arts groups and the church, Meeker said, as the basilica was founded by the Discalced Carmelite Friars Catholic order.
Paul Garro, chief development and external relations officer for the Little Flower Basilica, was aware of the opera and approached Meeker with the idea of a performance. She then worked with Paul Montalvo, president and CEO of the Classical Music Institute, to weave together a program of operatic classical music appropriate to the occasion.
“We’re trying to pull on a lot of threads to bring the breadth of classical performing arts together into one concert,” Meeker said.
Featured soloists for the evening will be baritone Efraín Solís, soprano Elizabeth Sutphen and pianist Mario Marra. The artists will introduce each piece, Meeker said, to “share a little bit about the context … and will help weave all of the pieces together into a narrative that takes the audience on a journey.”
Tickets for the Voices of Beauty concert are $20, or $10 for students and military, available through the Little Flower Basilica website.