by Lisa Schnabel
What began as one woman’ s wish to share her love of opera has, over the past fifteen years, become a warm, fun, and enlightening musical tradition in the American Women‘ s Club of Hamburg. On January 30, members of the long-running Opera Club gathered to celebrate its fifteen-year anniversary, as well as its founder, Elizabeth, whose first small meeting in 2011 has grown into an established and lively group that continues to entertain and welcome newcomers with open arms( and plenty of coffee, cake and drama).
The anniversary celebration took place at Carol Harbers’ lovely apartment, where around fifteen members, plus a few extra music lovers, came together after the holiday break to reconnect, reminisce, and raise a glass to the club’ s beginnings.
It wasn’ t a typical Opera Club morning. Usually, members have about a half an hour of socializing before Elizabeth gently calls the room to order and the group settles in with their coffees and libretti for her wonderful and entertaining presentation for the opera they will later attend together. The anniversary gathering offered more time than usual to just hang out together and mingle with a glass of Sekt.
Everyone brought something for the buffet. Carol‘ s table overflowed with cakes and salmon rolls. Longtime member WangDi brought a decadent chocolate torte crowned with a gold“ 15,“ a very appropriate operatic centerpiece.
Still, the heart of the event was“ classic Opera Club.” After enjoying the longerthan-usual socializing, everyone was seated and Elizabeth took her place in front of the group and presented a slideshow filled with photos from the past fifteen
years highlighting operas studied, opera lunches downtown shared with talented guest singers, and memorable trips to performances outside of Hamburg to places like Leipzig and Prague. The images offered a charming timeline of the club’ s evolution. There was happy commentary and reminiscing and even laughter at changing hairstyles, the era of wearing masks to the opera during the pandemic, and recalling delightfully absurd bits of theater that had been witnessed over the years.
Elizabeth was then presented with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a Staatsoper OpernCard for the new Opera Club season, an affectionate gesture that captured the group’ s gratitude for her steady leadership and contagious enthusiasm.
Elizabeth said fifteen years ago that it was never just about finding someone to go to the opera with; it’ s always been about learning together and sharing the delight of discovering how music, drama, and history weave into a splendid evening at the opera.
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