I meant to get this post up a while ago, but I didn't, so I'm doing it now . . . anyways . . .  This Sunday (November 1st) I will be singing in a concert produced by Regina Opera (www.reginaopera.org).  The concert will be at Regina Hall (corner of 65th St. and 12th Ave, Brooklyn, NY) at 3:00pm.  Admission is $10 general, $5 for students, and free for children under 12. I'm not entirely sure what the whole program is going to look like (one of the singers had to drop out today so there will be some changes to the program) but notes on the selections I will be singing are below:

 "Brindisi" -- La Traviata
by Giuseppe Verdi; libretto by Francesco Maria Piave after the novel La Dame aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas, fils.
La Traviata is, according to Opera America, the third most performed opera in North America (behind Puccini's La Boheme and Madama Butterfly), and the "Brindisi" (drinking song) is probably its most recognizable tune (seriously, you may not know you've heard it, but you've definitely heard it!). 
Violetta Valery, a courtesan, is throwing a party to celebrate her recovery from illness (as if she's not gonna die at the end).  She and Alfredo Germont, a guy who has been hopelessly in love with Violetta from afar, lead the crowd in a toast. 

"Tomb Scene" -- Aida
by Giuseppe Verdi; libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni after a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette.
Aida tells the story of a forbidden love that ends in tragedy (surprise, surprise) between Aida, Ethiopian princess/Egyptian slave, and Radames, captain of the Egyptian guard.  After getting caught trying to help Aida and her father escape from Egypt, Radames is sentenced to be buried alive.  As he sits in his tomb he takes comfort in the fact that Aida is long gone until she shows up and tells him that she snuck into the tomb so she could die in his arms (romantic, eh?).  They expedite their deaths by using all the oxygen in the tomb to sing pianissimo high notes while Amneris, Egyptian princess who also loves Radames, laments the fact that she could not get his sentence commuted. 

"Csardas" -- Die Fledermaus
by Johan Strauss; libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genee.
This comic operetta begins with Gabriel von Eisenstein bidding his wife Rosalinda farewell as he prepares to spend a week in prison on some trumped-up charges.  But rather than go straight to jail he decides to accept an invitation to Prince Orlofsky's ball.  When his wife finds out she arrives at the ball disguised as an Hungarian Countess to obtain evidence of her husband's lies.  She sings the 'Csardas' -- a song of her homeland -- to prove to everyone that she is as Hungarian as she claims to be.

 "Art is calling for me" -- The Enchantress
by Victor Herbert; book and lyrics by Fred de Gresac and Harry B. Smith.
No one ever stages this operetta, but every soprano has to sing this song at some point . . . apparently it is sung in the show by 'Princess Stellina,' who is disenchanted with her royal life and wants to strike out as an opera singer.  It's basically just an excuse for sopranos to show off how soprano-y they can be . . .