(Credit: Frances Marshall)

Back in 2006, renowned opera expert Fred Plotkin began hosting events at NYU’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò in New York City. 

The set up was straight forward – a conversation between the host, Plotkin and the guest, a well-known opera star, that also included video and audio clips throughout. The conversation would explore musical matters as well as anecdotes pertaining to the guest’s life and experiences. Since this was taking place at Casa Italiana, the conversation would also focus on the guest’s relationship to Italy. 

It wasn’t long before the events would become a full-fledged series and transform into “Adventures in Italian Opera with Fred Plotkin.” Throughout the years, guests would include such opera stars as Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Sondra Radvanovsky, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Diana Damrau, Roberto Alagna, Barbara Frittoli, Angel Blue, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Speranza Scappucci, Violeta Urmana, Quinn Kelsey, Thomas Hampson, Stephanie Blythe, Ailyn Pérez, and James Conlon, among others. Moreover, opera legends from the past, including Renata Scotto, Mirella Freni, Sherrill Milnes, Catherine Malfitano, and Martina Arroyo, have also made appearances. 

“The first thing that makes this series special is how welcoming and accessible it is: as is the case with all of our programming, these events are free and open to everyone,” Julian Sachs is the Program and Media Coordinator at New York University’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, told OperaWire before explaining that the series has been recorded for the past 14 years, “making them available for free on our website www.CasaItalianaNYU.org. This allows present and future opera lovers not only to experience these events from afar or at a later date, but also to catch a glimpse at some of these great artists at a significantly earlier stage of their career.”

But for Sachs, who is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Italian Studies at NYU, currently teaching a course titled “A Night at the Opera,” the core of the series is none other than Plotkin himself. 

“Fred is an extremely gifted communicator – both as a live speaker and as an author,” Sachs noted. “It helps that he has an abundance of great stories to tell. During the 1980s, he was Performance Manager at the Metropolitan Opera, where he was in close contact with the opera stars of those years – think Pavarotti, Sutherland, Domingo, Price etc. – and was involved in technical issues on the stage, broadcasting, development, media relations, and union contract negotiations.

Plotkin has also published several books about music, including the essential “Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera,” and his other passions, in primis Italian traditions and cuisine.

“Our audience enjoys seeing how much fun the guests have when dialoguing with Fred about all cultural matters and how much they are able to learn from each other in the process,” Sachs added.

The series returns this March with four events featuring René Pape (March 5, 2025), Federica Lombardi (April 1, 2025), Isabel Leonard (April 22, 2025), and Corrado Rovaris (April 29, 2025), following a fall semester that showcased such guests as Christian Van Horn, Ryan Speedo Green, and Patrick Carfizzi.

Of particular note is the lone conductor on the roster and one that Sachs spotlighted. 

“Maestro Rovaris began his career as Assistant Chorus Master at La Scala and rose to fame conducting in many of the principal Italian opera houses before debuting in Philly in 1999,” noted Sachs. “In my opinion, conductors bring the deepest and most interesting views to the table, so I cherish the opportunity to welcome to our stage such a knowledgeable figure of the opera world.”

As the series continues to evolve over the years, Sachs believes that “whether you are a veteran opera lover, an emerging artist, or have recently become acquainted with the world of musical drama, here is an opportunity to attend a fun and intimate event, in close contact with great artists, and to learn things firsthand that will not come across in a performance or a masterclass.”

He also noted that his greatest hope is that “more of our students from NYU and other universities will find out about this series and begin to attend regularly, which is one of the reasons I have been nurturing these new audiences across a number of other projects.”

In addition to “Adventures in Italian Opera with Fred Plotkin,” Sachs is heavily involved with “Opera for the People,” a program that he founded in hopes of providing opera-curious friends with a pre-performance experience. Eventually he got support from the Casa Italiana with the focus shifting toward NYU students who have since grown increasingly involved in the activity. 

“For many of them it is the first opportunity to attend opera live and I believe that coating that experience with a bit of preparation (historical context combined with some familiarity with plot, stylistic language, and musical themes) will ensure that they will want to go back for more and hopefully turn them into regular opera-goers for the rest of their lives,” Sachs added. “No other performing artform can compete with the expressive power of opera, but sometimes it takes a little bit of help from a passionate instructor to reveal the secrets that allow for an unforgettable experience. I’m so glad that Casa Italiana provides a platform for this to happen through the courses offered in the Department of Italian Studies, student clubs like “Opera to the People,” and public series like “Adventures in Italian Opera with Fred Plotkin.”

This article is part of a sponsored series for New York University’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò.