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Opera for the People Pre-show speech: September 27, 2009 Hello, and welcome to our Fête of Fanciful Farce in French. My name is Laura Virella, and I am the artistic director of coópera: Project Opera of Manhattan. Three years ago, I founded this company hoping to provide an opportunity for myself and fellow young artists to perform and create, in every discipline involved with opera production. Our goal was to create a cooperative exclusively of young artists, to focus on artistic excellence, minus the unnecessary fanfare that usually comes with it. And who would have thought that three and a half years and seven productions later, we would be so recognized and so lucky as to stand on this very prestigious stage of The Players... And for that, I would like to thank everyone at The Players that has been so incredibly supportive for the past three productions, and especially, John Martello, who has allowed us to make of this space our home. Founded by young artists for young artists, coópera also believes in opera for the people. We believe that the average person can be the driving force behind our endeavor. And it is because of that that we recently launched the Facebook/Twitter $1o Challenge: because it is not about how much you can give, but about how many people we can get interested and involved. With 700 friends on Facebook (that I have), if each and every single one of those friends would pledge $10 to the company, they would single-handedly sponsor this entire production. I invite you to ponder on this notion. And I also invite you to consider the rarity that it is for a group of young artists to get together and make an opportunity for themselves, rather than wait for an opportunity to happen. And if you can agree with that, I exhort you to make your pledge today. Spread the word about what you see on the stage. Get involved and get others involved. Knowing that one of our biggest convictions is the fact that quality is achieved through simplicity, you can rest assured that every dime, every penny that you give, will go to directly support what's on the stage and nothing else. So think about it, and sign up to donate once or be a monthly $10 donor. Today's performance will run approximately an hour and forty minutes long, with no intermission. Please silence your cell phones and any other noise making device you might have, however feel free to make as much noise yourselves and express yourselves during the performance. So sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Participate in the Facebook/Twitter $10 Challenge
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