As I return to the United States — and particularly to Louisiana to be with my family — please allow me to extend a personal invitation to you to attend the Natchez Festival of Music’s A Bel Canto Gala — “beautiful singing.”

This will be a fun and memorable night of music on Saturday, May 11, at Trinity Episcopal Church in historic downtown Natchez.

I am delighted to accept this invitation from the Festival’s Artistic Director Jay Dean and look forward to this concert of beautiful singing along with my fellow colleagues and Metropolitan Opera performers Lucas Meachem, baritone, and Emily Pulley, soprano, as well as with your regional treasure Maryann Kyle, soprano, and my former Louisiana State University professor and good friend, Bob Grayson, tenor.

The kind of performance we will provide in Natchez is usually only available in cities such as New York, London and Milan. The program is arranged so that it is filled with quite a variety of solos and duets — and there will be more.

Please join us for a night of spectacular music from some of the very best Broadway musicals such as Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” the Rodgers and Hammerstein production of “Carousel,” and Schönberg’s “Les Misérables.”

You will also hear operatic songs from all-time favorites such as “La Traviata” (Verdi), “The Barber of Seville” (Rossini), “La Bohème” (Puccini), “I Pagliacci” (Leoncavallo), “Rusalka” (Dvořák), “The Merry Widow” (Lehár), “Land of Smiles” (Lehár), “The Student Prince” (Romberg),  “L’elisir d’amore” (Donizetti), “The Pearl Fishers” (Bizet), and more.

So much of what we will sing surrounds you every day in the form of advertising media and on the big screen. For those new to Broadway musicals, the excitement and energy of live music on stage is sure to instill a desire to hear more.

For those who may think they are unfamiliar with these operatic tunes, we believe that you will know this music and have a wonderful time.

The instinctive draw and passion that A Bel Canto Gala provides to audiences live long after a single performance of beautiful music. We look forward to sharing our passion and enthusiasm through this music — the language through which performers are able to communicate emotions to audiences that connect and experience similar feelings.

Music has enormous powers! We also look forward to the famous hospitality of Natchez during this exciting weekend of entertainment and to the Festival’s celebration at antebellum Gloucester following our performance. This will be an evening of live music to remember!

 

Paul Groves is an internationally known Metropolitan Opera and Broadway performer who will perform in Natchez as part of the Natchez Festival of Music.