Opera News, that 73-year-old golden standard of American opera magazine publishing, will host their Fifth Annual Opera News Awards on Thursday, November 19, 2009 at NYC's Gotham Hall. The event is co-hosted by two opera singers who segue flawlessly into talking heads, Susan Graham and Thomas Hampson. Tickets to the privé event start at $450 USD (dinner and program) and top out at $8500 USD (entire evening for a party of 10), boasting a 6pm cocktail reception, followed by a 7pm dinner, which sets up the award presentation. Honorees Martina Arroyo, Joyce DiDonato, Gerald Finley, Philip Glass, and Shirley Verrett will be toasted by presenters Stephanie Blythe (presenting an award to Joyce DiDonato); Danielle de Niese (presenting an award to Gerald Finley); Audra McDonald (presenting an award to Shirley Verrett); Paul Simon (presenting an award to Philip Glass);and Deborah Voigt (presenting an award to Martina Arroyo).
At the helm of Opera News is the silver-tongued heavy-hitter, NYC-born F. Paul Driscoll, ON Editor-in-Chief since 2003. Luckily for us, Artsjournal writer Amanda Ameer just ran another eloquent interview in her "Talk to me about..." series, profiling the Opera News pugilist. Go for the keen insight on glossy opera publication marketing & publicity strategies, but stay for Mr. Driscoll's sparkling anecdote about Leontyne Price, where he turns ~Ms. Price~ into ~Ms. Priceless~.
