'Sisters Sings' event features top vocalists

Some of the finest singers to be found anywhere will grace the stage at Bronco Billy's Ranch Grill & Saloon on Saturday, June 26, as "Sisters Sings" brings light opera and show tunes to Sisters.

The event is a fund-raiser for Bel Canto Northwest International Vocal Institute and the Sisters Rotary Club.

It may seem incongruous to some to stage opera at a Western-style saloon, but it's actually a type of event that has deep roots in the West where theatrical and opera companies from major metropolitan areas would entertain miners and cowboys in the roughest camps and towns.

"I think it's a blending of cultures," said Mary Rynerson, a Crossroads resident who is spearheading the event.

Rynerson has roots in opera herself -- her father was involved with opera at the New York Metropolitan Theater -- better known simply as The Met.

Maestro Nicholas Carthy will fly in from Vienna, Austria, for the event, according to Bel Canto Director Mark Beudert.

Bel Canto Northwest Festival and Vocal Institute is an advanced, intensive, and individual three-week training program for dedicated young professional and pre-professional singers.

It is based at Portland State University.

The program enables talented young singers to work with the best in European and American teaching in the classroom, on the concert platform and on stage. Daily instruction in vocal technique, acting for singers, musical skills, and diction and style coaching help prepare the young singer for a career in the profession.

In Sisters, the group will perform a selection of arias and songs at 7 p.m., following a 6 p.m. buffet.

After a dessert-and- coffee intermission, they will perform Mozart's "The Impressario."

Rynerson said the performance is "comedic; it's delightful, it's light. You'd be hard-pressed not to enjoy it even if you're not a fan of what's considered 'heavy' opera."

Rynerson says the response to the promotion for the event has been very strong so far and she said the performers and staff of Bel Canto are excited.

"They perceive coming to Sisters as a fabulous thing," she said. "Which, of course, it is!"

Tickets are $75 per person (light supper, dessert and coffee).

For information and tickets call 1-800-821-6233.