Opera Club

Everyone is invited to come and watch a new opera, “The Hours,” on Tuesday, June 6, at 1:30 p.m. in the Learning Center of Clubhouse 3. This will be the first opera the club watches in June.

“The Hours” is a 2022 opera in two acts with music by Kevin Puts and an English-language libretto by Greg Pierce, based on Michael Cunningham’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and its 2002 film adaptation, both with the same title. The opera was commissioned by New York’s Metropolitan Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Three lives are connected by Virginia Woolf ’s 1925 novel “Mrs Dalloway.” In 2001, Clarissa Vaughan (Renée Fleming), a New Yorker, prepares an award party for her AIDS-stricken long-time friend and poet, Richard (Kyle Ketelsen). In 1951, Laura Brown (Kelli O’Hara) is a pregnant California housewife with a young son, currently in an unhappy marriage.

In 1920s England, Virginia Woolf (Joyce DiDonato) battles with depression while struggling to finish her novel “Mrs Dalloway.” The opera takes place within the span of a single day in three different decades, alternating between them to follow the three women.

In the final scene, unique to the opera, the three female protagonists, Laura, Clarissa and Virginia, sing a trio, realizing that in their connection to one another across different times and places, they are not alone.

Viewers who are unfamiliar with the book or the film may want to read a full synopsis before attending the opera. The synopsis can be found on Wikipedia under “The Hours (opera)” The production is in English with English subtitles. Attendees are invited to wear masks indoors, if desired. No dues or fees are collected. For more information, email Opera Club President Margaret Gillon at MargaretGi@yahoo.com or call her at 562-370-3844.