Opera Anyone? Symphony by the Sea

Yesterday the Cabot Theater hosted an absolutely over-the-top musical production, “Opera Anyone?,” featuring the full orchestra of Symphony by the Sea, with Donald Palma directing the excellent musicians on their strings, winds and tympani. But it was the two guest artists who held the spotlight and enraptured the audience, as they sang through a wonderful selection of arias, starting with Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” and eventually finishing with a piece from Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia.”

Britt Brown’s commanding mezzo-soprano vocals may have had the theater vibrating along with everyone’s eardrums. It is a rare privilege to hear an operatic performance of this quality in a theater as intimate as the Cabot. Ryne Cherry, baritone, played the perfect operatic partner, their pantomime and gestures removing any language barrier to the two hours of transporting musical experience, much of it in Italian. We have learned that an operatic production is an annual event with Symphony by the Sea. Subscribe to Cape Ann COSMOS and you will know when they will bring opera to Beverly again.