The Eastern Shore offers incredible opportunities to enjoy its water, food, boating, museums, community theatre, art galleries and all manner of music. What’s missing, according to Jason Buckwalter, the executive director of the Maryland Opera, is opera. Maryland Opera is launching a campaign to bring live opera to the Shore, and it begins May 22nd, at the invitation of the Friends of the Talbot County Free Library (TCFL). An entertaining Introduction to Opera will be performed Thursday, May 22, from 5:30-7:30 pm at the Easton Library. There will be a pre-show reception of complimentary beverages, including wine and beer, and light appetizers. Tickets are $25 each and can be reserved at tcfl.org. Seating is limited to 75.
In addition to staged productions and recitals, Maryland Opera has travelling ambassadors, such as the three talented performers who brought their popular Opera Puppets to the Easton library last year for the Chesapeake Children’s Book Festival, also sponsored by the Friends. They will be back for the 10th annual Festival in June. The Friends marked its 50th anniversary in 2024, and is proud to help launch the Library’s 100th anniversary celebration this year with this Introduction to Opera performance.
The history of Maryland Opera goes back some 200 years, and, in that span, legendary opera artists have performed in Baltimore. But Buckwalter says Baltimore’s esteemed place in the world of opera sadly came to a screeching halt in 2009, when economic conditions caused the Baltimore Opera Company to disband. Its successor, Lyric Opera Baltimore, worked for years to keep opera alive in Baltimore. But by the end of 2017, the funding to maintain that mission ended.
Buckwalter says the company rebranded as Maryland Opera and has been entertaining the Western Shore since then. All of Maryland, says Buckwalter, deserves convenient access to the beauty and emotion that live opera performance provides. “The Eastern Shore is a particularly beautiful locale … with a thriving arts community….and from outreach programs in schools and libraries to staged productions, we’re hoping to make opera accessible to all.”
To learn more about TCFL and its 100 years of serving our community, plus an update on the expansion of the St. Michaels Library, visit tcfl.org. Maryland Opera and its fascinating history can be found at marylandopera.org.
Emilie Knud-Hansen & Matt LaMotte
Friends of the Talbot County Free Library
