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| Lisette Oropesa & members of Palm Beach Opera - Palm Beach Opera 2026 Gala |
Palm Beach Opera 2026 Gala; Lisette Oropesa, Micheal Borowitz; Mediterranean Ballroom, The Breakers (1896, Palm Beach Inn), Palm Beach, Florida
Reviewed by Robert J Carreras (1 March 2026)
What do fireworks, opera and Cuba have in common?
Behind and over our shoulders, the first notes of Jules Massenet’s Gavotte served as a sound and voice check for one Lisette Oropesa. All relaxed systems go. Bird of passage concert galas like these bubble over when there is something of a laid back tone. [Lisette Oropesa sang the title role in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda at the Salzburg Festival last year, see Robert's review]
As Manon, Ms. Oropesa’s way invites something like insouciance. Her direct communications to the audience between numbers take another direction, inviting something of the formal. The soprano has a way of making a comfortable fit out of the fun and frolic and the glitz and glamour for Palm Beach Opera’s (PBO) 2026 Gala presentation.
Throughout Europe and the Americas in 2026, opera’s most historic spaces will play host to its most luminescent performers in concerts like this one. To have this event in Palm Beach is a bit of an exceptional coup, with one exceptional headliner after another dating back to when Renee Fleming came to town in 2013. Others that have topped PBO Gala marquees over the years – Joyce DiDonato, Diana Damrau, Sondra Radvanovsky, Christian Van Horn, Nadine Sierra, Matthew Polenzani, Piotr Beczala, and Anna Netrebko.
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| Palm Beach Opera 2026 Gala at The Breakers, Palm Beach |
A coterie of the company’s male resident artists, Lisette Oropesa’s escorts, framed the stage and the fireworks around the piano for that first number. The evening’s expectations may have been high, but the explosions came from the lower part of the stave as much as above it. Oropesa’s Manon, while still in warm-up mode, is the personification of the adage “youth is wasted on the young.”
The soprano aria from Gianni Schicchi is a crowd-pleaser, and this songstress is a good sport. Oropesa is in her element as elegant entertainer, inviting the gathered into that place: “We’re sharing a special moment together.”
The two Cuban selections were well-chosen, and Oropesa is just the idiomatic interpreter for these. She went to a deep place for Eduardo Sanchez de Fuentes. For Ernesto Lecuona, the depths were plumbed personally. Oropesa’s rendition of Maria la O is exotic in its temperature and folkloric in its musical temperament. What a delight for those who know this music.
By this time in the concert, it was evident Oropesa could slip easily into Manon, Lauretta, into Maria now, and Juliette, Liu, and spookily into Violetta Valery later. Rather than leave the concert environment, Oropesa takes the audience to the scene as if casting a spell.
Juliette is something of a signature role for Oropesa, celebrated for its newness and liveliness. In the context and along the expanse of this concert, the memory of her infatuated teenager is somewhat lost and overshadowed by her Traviata. One important point was gleaned from 'Je veux vivre' Oropesa’s upper range is intact. This finding led to other pointed inferences about how she comes at all her roles.
Oropesa goes right away into 'Signore ascolta' and right away one remembers things about Liu that had been forgotten. No recitative, and right away we have a wounded warbler, a Liu that contrasts greatly to the bird-of-prey of the opera’s name. Here, Oropesa's text is at its most rapt of the night.
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| Lisette Oropesa - Palm Beach Opera 2026 Gala |
Musically, Oropesa puts on no airs; she seems simply unmoved to excess. Even in the Harold Arlen song, she gave only as much as needed – a grace note here and there, no more. No less than congratulating Arlen, and complimenting the place this tune holds in the American Songbook.
Returning to a previous point, Oropesa’s low notes are even fuller now, richer tonight. Even though today she can negotiate with the most lauded of conductors apropos high notes, she opts for them here. There were fresh and free moving acuti when she wanted them, leading to the conclusion that she stalls the spin of some high notes as an interpretive act.
Oropesa seems skilled at using vibrato treatments to change musical character. A character’s deepest needs can also be communicated this way. She goes far deeper than where the libretto delves. This was quite evident in her portrayal of Violetta, a scene she takes as a kinetic pezzo chiuso.
At the cavatina, Oropesa slid through scales in a way suggestive of neurosis, a person losing control of their faculties. At the tempo di mezzo, her vocalism and manner shifted. Violetta stiffens long enough to see the person beyond the mania. At the cabaletta, the scales were hit with pinpoint precision. As she flirts with destruction, Oropesa’s Violetta ends the scene with the audience fearful of following too close. Lisette Oropesa had fooled us all, building up to her Violetta from the very first exalting of misspent youth to start the evening as Manon.
A note of praise for the voice returning Violetta’s calls in “Sempre libera;” me thinks there’s some of what a young James McCracken may have sounded like live in tenor Randy Ho. It is a beefy, round and full voice calling for major role assignments.
Ms. Oropesa is scheduled to debut her Norma at the Savonlinna Opera Festival later this summer, and she brings us “Casta Diva” as a final encore here. Joined by a larger ensemble of resident artists as the Druids of ancient Gaul, Oropesa is working on making this prayerful call to peace her own.
Micheal Borowitz takes his estimable piano playing with Lisette Oropesa dating back to 2018. That same year they collaborated on the album Aux filles du désert. The two introspective solo piano selections this evening were brilliantly chosen and well-set into the concert order. Borowitz's piano here is part Nachtmusik, part incidental music – more than enjoyable music-making.
What of fireworks, opera and Cuba?
Lisette Oropesa’s Cuban-immigrant parents left the island about a half-century after another notable event involving fireworks, sort of, and opera took place in Habana. Had you been on the streets downtown that June 13 Sunday of 1920, you may have witnessed an odd site: a grown man in highly ornamented ancient Egyptian warrior garb being rushed from the Teatro National. A matinee performance of Aida had been interrupted by bombing. That man you see is the first international recording artist, Enrico Caruso.
Jules Massenet (1842-1912) – Gavotte ("Obéissons quand leur voix appelle") from the opera Manon
World premiere: January 19, 1884, Opera-Comique in Paris
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) – “O mio babbino caro” from the opera Gianni Schicchi
World Premiere: 1918, New York (The Metropolitan)
Eduardo Sanchez de Fuentes (1874-1944) – “Tu” Spanish art song
Written: 1809, Cuba
Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963) – “Maria la O” from the Cuban zarzuela Maria la O
World Premiere: 1930, Habana
Charles Gounod (1818-1893) – “Je veux vivre” from the opera Romeo et Juliette
World Premiere: 1987, Paris
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) – “Signore ascolta” from the opera Turandot
World Premiere: 1926, Milan
Harold Arlen (Hyman Arluck) (1905-1986) – “Somewhere over the rainbow” part of the American songbook
Written: 1939
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesca Verdi (1813-1901) – “E strano...Ah fors’e’lui...Sempre libera” from the opera La Traviata
World Premiere: 1853, Venice
Encores
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesca Verdi (1813-1901) – “Libiamo ne' lieti calici” from the opera La Traviata
World Premiere: 1853, Venice
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (1801-1835) – “Casta Diva” from the opera Norma
World Premiere: 1831, Milan
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| Lisette Oropesa - Palm Beach Opera 2026 Gala |
Palm Beach Opera (PBO)
Palm Beach Opera was founded in the summer of 1961 as the Civic Opera of the Palm Beaches. On January 29, 1962, at the Palm Beach High School Auditorium, the organization presented its first-ever production, La traviata, to a sold-out audience of 1,200 with a live chorus and 26-piece orchestra.Even in its early years, the Civic Opera of the Palm Beaches—which became Palm Beach Opera in the 80s—attracted international stars like Beverly Sills and Robert Merrill.
Over the years, the company has been led by esteemed conductors and artistic directors and has presented some of the world’s most famous performers.
For more than 60 years, Palm Beach Opera has provided the magic of live opera to South Florida and has shown resilience, strength, and unwavering commitment even in the face of unprecedented challenges.
PBO Gala tradition
The Palm Beach Opera gala is a premier, star-studded annual fundraiser—often held at The Breakers Palm Beach—that features intimate recitals by world-renowned opera stars. The black-tie event supports the company’s main stage productions, educational initiatives, and artist training programs.
The Breakers (1896, Palm Beach Inn)
One of America’s most iconic resorts, The Breakers is an Italian Renaissance-style hotel situated on 140 acres of oceanfront property on the island of Palm Beach, Florida. Founded in 1896 by magnate Henry Morrison Flagler, and still in the hands of his heirs today, this legendary destination continues to thrive independent of chain affiliation.
Inspired by the magnificent Italian villas of the 1400s (specifically the Villa Medici in Rome), The Breakers' Mediterranean-style architecture features an eight-story palace by the sea with sun-filled North and South Loggias, iconic Twin Belvedere Towers and graceful arches throughout. The lushly landscaped 1,040-foot, palm-lined main drive leads to the resort’s Florentine Fountain, modelled after the Boboli Gardens in Florence. The hotel’s breathtaking lobby is influenced by the Great Hall of the Palazzo Carrega in Genoa (circa 1560).
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