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Opera comes to the beach this weekend

Opera singer Andrea Arena made her professional debut at Opera Delaware shortly after graduating from the University of Delaware.

She has since performed in such productions as “Madame Butterfly,” “La Travita” and “Carmen” for opera companies from New York City to Des Moines.

On Sunday, the Delawarean will display her powerful voice in Rehoboth Beach for a benefit concert for the Italian American service organization, UNICO.  The program will include classical Italian music, opera selections and sacred music followed by a reception.

Arena, is a mezzo soprano. She says voices are best described as colors. A soprano for instance is a white or bright yellow. Meantime, a mezzo is more like a dark purple, or navy blue.

“It’s maybe six notes lower than a soprano,” she says. “It’s got a different timbre to it; a different color, its richer, its darker. And we mezzos usually play the witches or old ladies and we never get the tenor, the soprano gets the tenor," she adds with a laugh.

Andrea Arena performs at 2pm Sunday at historic St. Edmond Church in Rehoboth Beach.

This piece is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.