The Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra: A Night at the Opera

Milford and opera....

Here at Claflin Hill, we're just cleaning up from this past Saturday evening's concert, "A Night at the Opera" which featured highlights from a number of the world's most popular operas - music from Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro", "Cosi fan tutte", "The Magic Flute" - Rossini's "Barber of Seville" and the second half of the concert is devoted to Giuseppe Verdi's Act II of "La Traviatta." In Milford, Giuseppe Verdi is known as "Joe Green"!!!!!

Some may ask, "why opera?", "why here in Milford?" "Is that a stretch for our audience???"

Well, NO not at all! In fact, opera was probably the most widely appreciated form of cultural experience in Milford in the last century. 

In the early 1900s, Italian immigrants came to the Milford area to work as stonecutters in the many granite quarries in the area - not only were they renowned as stone workers, but the granite they mined was a highly sought after commodity - Milford Pink Granite, which today adorns the facades of many great architectural masterworks throughout our nation.

The Italians came to Milford, and settled in the area of town known as "The Plains"  They built their church, Sacred Heart of Jesus on the corner of Main and Beach Streets, and re-created something of the villages and towns they came from in Italy in that neighborhood - houses with gardens, grape arbors, bocce courts - shops and stores selling goods and products from the old country - introducing the Milford community to a new cultural and culinary experience which today has become just an expected "flavor of Milford."

They also built an opera house, and started an opera society - because that was their music from home, and they brought it here, and introduced it to us. The Opera House still stands today on the corner of Main and Pine Street - it recently housed a racquetball club and the remnants of the theater inside are now only remembered in a few pictures - but great opera voices of the 1900s actually came and sang here in Milford - Ezio Pinza and Enrico Caruso to name just two of the biggest - almost like having the Pope come to town!

CHSO Board member Steve Trettel - a lifelong Milfordian and son of Italian immigrants recalls making deliveries from his family's farm on the outskirts of town through the Plains in the afternoons, and hearing opera pouring forth from houses lining the lanes and streets in the neighborhood.

This was the music of a working class - they weren't upscale, rich folks, they were eking out a living in the New World, whistling and singing while they worked to sounds from home. Opera spoke to them, to their life experience, and it still speaks to us today.

Whether you understand the words of a foreign language or not, music is the universal language - the language that bridges ALL nationalities, ethnicities, religions and ideologies. Hearing the arias pour forth out of the throats of fellow human beings, defining emotions and feelings that we all share - it is the music of our lives, our loves, our travails, our hopes, and our dreams.

If you missed Saturday evening's concert, we've posted a video clip on our web site. www.claflinhill.org  We call it 'Dueling Baritones,' and it features David Murray and John Andrew Fernandez. What talented voices singing right at our own Milford Town Hall. And there's more music coming up. 

On Sunday, March 24 at 3 p.m. we present Gypsy Whimsy - Our Annual Family Symphony Concert.  On Friday, April 12th, our Chamber Series at the Singh Performance Center in Whitinsville continues with Brass Venture- a lively and fun brass quintet.  And the symphony season concludes its 13th season on Saturday, April 27th with Springtime Phoenix.  More information can be found on our web site.  Click 'Symphony' to find out all about our programs.