Modesto becomes Mansfield Park: The Jane Austen weekend takeover of downtown wraps up
An “All Things Jane Austen” weekend, aka Modesto JaneCon, wrapped up three days of events on Sunday.
At its heart was Opera Modesto’s Story Into Song Literacy Initiative, which included performances of the opera “Mansfield Park,” based on one of Austen’s novels.
Other events included a tea at the State Theatre, dance lessons at the Mistlin Gallery, a Jane on Ice session at Modesto on Ice, lectures, and workshops on things like costume and bonnet making.
Opera Modesto plans to continue Story into Song in future years, with next year built around Cervantes’ “Don Quixote de La Mancha” and Anaya’s “Bless Me, Ultima.”
The opera’s general and artistic director, Roy Stevens, called the first year of the literacy initiative “everything we had hoped for, and more. ... The whole thing has been a hugely successful experiment.”
Of attendance to the opera alone, he said in an email, “We had 360 on Saturday and 70 walked up today (Sunday) to get us to 354. For a ‘modern’ opera in Modesto, that is incredible. ... Many new to opera and/or new to Opera Modesto.”
This story was originally published January 12, 2020 at 1:28 PM.
