Faces from Elderhostel

Marie Finelli, of Ohio, went “kicking and screaming” to her first Elderhostel in 1995 on the urging of a good friend and was quickly hooked. Her second Elderhostel venture was at Peabody, for a program including Mozart’s Magic Flute and the operas of Benjamin Britten. For Finelli the opera lover, it was Nirvana. She’s since been back to Peabody for 21 Elderhostel programs. “The bottom line is, I love to learn,” she says. “It’s just a matter of time until I come back to Peabody for another one.”

Growing up in Italy, Ugo Volpati has always loved classical music and opera in particular. “When I close my eyes and listen, I come into the spirit of what the composer was trying to say through the music,” he explains. A retired international business executive, Volpati and his wife, Ceil, have participated in 26 Elderhostels; Vixen marks their third trip to Peabody. “Elderhostel is a great gift for people like us who have many interests in life and the time to travel and learn,” he says. “I always wish I had another week.”

Back home in Vermont, Carol Corwin belongs to an opera group of 12 women who meet each month to watch an opera on DVD and discuss it afterward. She and her husband, Bill, who taught instrumental music for 38 years, prepared for their week by viewing a 1954 German production of Vixen, in Czech. For the Corwins, the week at Peabody offered an added bonus: The couple was able to coordinate their week with good friends Judi and Bill Schwab, who now live in Pennsylvania.

Having made his European operatic debut with Cunning Little Vixen in Spoleto, Italy, Elderhostel faculty member John Weber was a knowledgeable guide for his enthusiastic students. Well-spoken and personable (he’s a frequent guest on WBJC’s popular Face the Music), he peppered his daily class presentations with behind-the-scenes anecdotes from his own experience. On March 1, he’ll return to the classroom at Peabody for Opera From Russia.

Vixen’s lighting designer Douglas Nelson, who served as host of the group’s backstage tour on Wednesday, has served as production manager for Peabody Opera since 1985. A graduate of Yale, he has designed for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Jeunesses Musicales in Evian-les-Bains, and the Young Victorian Theatre Company. Clearly at home on the stage in Friedberg Hall (and behind and below it), Nelson is Peabody’s resident lighting designer.

Carol Lidard, Elderhostel and Peabody Inn manager, is the smiling face and problem solver participants turn to throughout their week in Baltimore. Lidard, who leads a team of four cheerful and unflappable coordinators, began her professional career as a teacher of dyslexic children. Before coming to Peabody, she served a stint as director of finance and administration for the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, helping to lead that operation through a period of significant growth.