Rare cooperation between Portland Opera and the Oregon Symphony

As the comment to the previous post noted, Jossie Perez will be singing a selection from Carmen at the Oregon Symphony's Waterfront concert tonight. Perez is a rising star in the opera world, especially noted for her performances of the naughty girl who works in a cigarette factory in Spain and runs around with gypsies who are involved in illegal activities near the border. That's part of the story of Carmen, which the Portland Opera will be performing later in the month. I'm not crazy about the photo of Perez that Portland Opera is using to promote Carmen, but Perez does have some delicious pics of herself on her website: jossieperez.com.

In any case, I think that this marks the first time in many, many years that someone is appearing in a Portland Opera production and with the Oregon Symphony. I'd like to see more of this kind of thing. It's cross promotion and well worth the effort. And I'd like to see Carlos direct a Portland Opera production some day, too.