There's nothing ho-hum about the program Maria Cristina Fantini is offering at her Coquitlam recital next week.
The soprano plans to start her show with a variety of popular operatic arias then, after the intermission, she'll have her husband, Devon Wells, on stage to play his five-string banjo.
He will be followed by Seattle tenor and composer, Mark Power, who will perform excerpts from his new rock-opera, The Brothers Power.
"I've said to a lot of people who are coming out, 'You're definitely not going to be bored or fall asleep," the Coquitlam resident laughed. "It is a very diverse concert and just that itself will make it enticing and interesting to watch."
But the motley line-up isn't the only reason Fantini is celebrating her Serata Di Musica (An Evening of Music), a two-and-a-half-hour event on Nov. 5 at the Evergreen Cultural Centre.
She's also preparing for upcoming auditions with the Seattle, Vancouver and Calgary operas young artists' programs. Fantini said the Coquitlam show will give her some more performance time in front of a live audience before she goes before the company judges in November and December to apply for their intensive courses.
And if she's successful? "I'll definitely have to look at scaling some things back at home," said the 34-year-old mother-of-two boys, who also is on the Douglas College music faculty and teaches voice at a private studio, Blue River Music, that she co-owns with Wells. The couple has students ranging in age from "seven to 70. It's really a lot of fun to be with them and it's very rewarding work," Fantini said.
Originally hailing from Toronto, Ont., Fantini started singing at 13. After high school, she was a resident ARCT student at the Glen Gould Professional School of the Royal Conservatory of Music. She obtained her bachelor of music degree from York University, where she met Wells, before moving out west and later achieved her master's in music degree from the University of B.C. With the UBC ensemble, Fantini played several roles including as the First Lady in Die Zauberflute and the lead character in The Merry Widow.
Tickets at $20 for Serata Di Musica, to be held on Saturday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m., will be available at the door at the rehearsal studio at the Evergreen Cultural Centre (1205 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam).
