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When Jennifer Stanton Smith and Dean Jorgenson sang at the March meeting of the Maine Grand Opera Company, it was just a taste.
The full banquet will come Saturday, when the new company holds its first gala at 7 p.m. at the Camden Opera House.
Singers from throughout the country will present a program ranging from classics such as “Tosca” and “Rigoletto” to Broadway tunes from “Kiss Me Kate” and “Porgy and Bess.” Accompaniment will be provided by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra.
The gala is an event that Karen Eisenhauer, founder and artistic director of Maine Grand Opera, hopes will be the kickoff to a successful first season for the regional company.
Soprano Alison England, who has performed with orchestras from Los Angeles to Japan, will be one of several singers taking part in selections from “La Boheme.”
In addition to touring with her “Opera, Broadway and Beyond” show, she is featured on the TV series “Dharma and Greg.”
Also presenting songs from “La Boheme” will be Lisa Daltirus, a soprano who has performed with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic.
Constantinos Yiannoudes, a baritone from Cyprus who has sung at Carnegie Hall, will offer “Largo al Factotum” from “The Barber of Seville.” He also will perform “Some Enchanted Evening” from “South Pacific.”
England, Daltirus and Yiannoudes are among the seven singers gleaned from two sets of auditions in New York, Eisenhauer explained.
Four singers came on board after the first auditions, held in February at the University of Maine.
The singers from Maine are: Smith, from Bar Harbor; Jorgenson, from Camden; John David Adams, a bass-baritone from Searsport; and Amie Lavway, a lyric soprano from Portland.
The four are enthusiastic about Saturday’s production.
“It’s so exciting. There’s nothing like it up here,” Smith said last week.
Smith, a University of Michigan School of Music graduate who works in computer graphics at the Jackson Laboratory, is just getting back to singing after several years.
She is taking this week off from her job in order to rehearse in Camden, where she and the other Mainers will participate in ensemble pieces from works such as “Carmen,” “Kiss Me Kate,” “Candide” and “A Little Nice Music.”
For her audition in February, Smith chose “I Could Have Danced All Night” and a portion of “La Traviata,” one of her favorite operas. She also enjoys oratorio singing.
Jorgenson, who has lived in Camden for nine years, said his role in the gala would mainly be to support the other singers.
Raised in Wisconsin, he spent several years singing in Germany in cities including Cologne. His musical interests range from opera to the tunes of popular singers such as Frank Sinatra.
The abundance of talent in the visual arts in this region is well-known, Jorgenson said, and he believes there’s also a lot of musical talent.
As for the Camden Opera House, “It has the whole atmosphere of opera, and it is intimate,” he said of the 496-seat auditorium.
For Jorgenson, the gala is “a chance to work with professionals. It’s the idea of excellence.”
Those professionals include Eric Fennell, a tenor performing this season with the New York City Opera; Tara Venditti, a mezzo soprano who has sung with the same company; Ravil Atlas of Italy and the United States, who has had 30 leading roles in opera; and Phoebe Yadon, whose work has been acclaimed by New York critics.
The breadth of works in the gala’s program is intentional, Eisenhauer explained. Board members of the nonprofit organization want the company’s offerings to be of high quality, but accessible to patrons throughout Maine.
Thus the program will include selections from “Sweeney Todd,” “Annie Get Your Gun” and “Carmen,” as well as “Nessun Dorma” from “Turandot.”
Upcoming productions will include “The Magic Flute” in December and “Hansel and Gretel” next spring. Both will be performed in English and directed by Camden resident Beaumont Glass.
Interest in the Maine Grand Opera Company is growing, Eisenhauer said.
“We had a wonderful turnout June 5 for ‘An Evening at the Opera’ – information about opera in general, the company plans and then singing. It was held at the Camden Library and was very successful,” she said.
Eisenhauer also has heard from other Maine singers who are interested in participating in upcoming activities. Smith said she definitely plans to audition for “The Magic Flute.”
Saturday’s gala is black-tie optional.
The conductor for the night is Janna Hynes Bianchi from the Indiana Symphony. Guest moderator is Susan Prince from WQXR radio in New York, and the director is E. Randall Hoey, who has done galas on Broadway.
Tickets to the Maine Grand Opera Company gala at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Camden Opera House are $40 each. For reservations, call 763-3071.
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