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Moon Over Palm Beach Palm Beach
The Breakers Resort and Hotel
03/02/2026 -
Jules Massenet: Manon Lescaut: Gavotte – Thaïs: Méditation
Giacomo Puccini: Gianni Schicchi: “O Mio Babbino Caro” – Turandot: “Signore, ascolta!”
Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes: Tú
Ernesto Lecuona: María la O
Charles Gounod: Roméo et Juliette: “Je veux vivre”
Johnny Mercer: Fools Rush In
Harold Arlen: Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Giuseppe Verdi: La traviata: “Sempre libera” & “Libiamo ne’ lieti calici”
Vincenzo Bellini: Norma: “Casta diva”
Lisette Oropesa (soprano), Michael Borowitz (piano)
L. Oropesa (© Scott McIntyre)
A full moon shone over Palm Beach on March 2, as Palm Beach Opera’s growing roster of generous supporters gathered for a sumptuous evening of cocktails, dinner, dancing, and a recital by the noted soprano Lisette Oropesa, who appeared between engagements at New York’s struggling Metropolitan Opera. Past galas here have featured Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming, and, last season, even the controversial Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, who despite mild protests and some disapproving media returned to performance in the North America for the first time since 2019, after which political issues around the war in Ukraine effectively barred her from our continent’s stages.
Palm Beach Opera’s courage in featuring Netrebko last year figured acutely on the Florida resort town’s mind as the champagne poured. Across the bridge in West Palm Beach, the Palm Beach Symphony’s simultaneously scheduled “masterworks” concert went ahead without its long-announced soloist, the Russian violinist Vadim Repin, who was removed from the program without explanation at four days’ notice amid allegations from fringe pro‑Ukrainian activist groups that he and his ballerina wife have ties to Vladimir Putin and that he should therefore not be permitted to perform. This bout of cancel culture is unusual in Florida, where, in addition to Netrebko’s opera gala appearance, the Symphony has in recent years hosted Domingo as well as the Israeli pianist Yefim Bronfman, whose 2023 concert with the ensemble was protested by pro‑Palestinian activists, and the Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng, whose symphonic overture Triumph of Humanity had its world premiere at the Symphony despite allegations of racism that caused his employer, the University of Michigan, to remove him from the classroom and place him under a disciplinary investigation.
Palm Beach Opera’s enthusiasm was unabated for Oropesa, who made a stunning entrance singing the Gavotte from Massenet’s Manon Lescaut to the accompaniment of members of the company’s young artists program. Also known by its French title, “Obéissons quand leur voix appelle,” she gave it her all but not without some inelegant sharps in the coloratura runs. Sometimes squally, the upper end of the register also struggled with the top notes in “Je veux vivre,” from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, and, unfortunately, in the last selection on the announced program, from Verdi’s La Traviata.
That piece, the cabaletta “Sempre libera,” is a perennial challenge. Although it was billed as such, Oropesa’s presentation in fact started with its larghetto, “Ah, fors’è lui.” Here Oropesa was much more grounded in the solid middle register, which appears to portend heavier roles to which she may be better suited. Her first professional performance of “Signore, ascolta,” Liù’s aria from Puccini’s Turandot, swelled with rich, creamy sonorities, as did the celebrated “O mio babbino caro,” from the same composer’s Suor Angelica. Her second encore, “Casta diva” from Bellini’s Norma, likewise suggested a stronger fit in the lower parts, despite some persistent thinness in the upper register.
By far the most intriguing singing came after in impassioned deliveries of two Cuban songs, Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes’s Tú, a sultry habanera familiar from the Havana scene in the second Godfather film, and Ernesto Lacuona’s María la O. Oropesa, herself of Cuban heritage, threw herself into those hits of yesteryear with a cabaret mastery that drew warm applause.
Throughout the evening, she was ably accompanied by the fine pianist Michael Borowitz, who added to the evening’s entertainment with a soulful rendition of the famous “Méditation” from Massenet’s Thaïs and, later on, a jaunty performance of Johnny Mercer’s 1940 jazz standard Fools Rush In.
The latter piece set the tone for Oropesa’s spirited singing of Harold Arlen’s Somewhere Over the Rainbow before launching into Violetta’s apposite enthusiasm. Ther merriment continued in the first encore, the brindisi that precedes her raptures. Palm Beach Opera’s young artist Randy Ho, a splendid tenor, introduced the music in an impressive entrance that showcased a fine technique bound to take him far.
Paul du Quenoy
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