BLANDFORD HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESENTS...
DID YOU KNOW?
It almost all started with a bake sale.
Thirty-one years ago, the future of Blandford's iconic White Church was uncertain.
The church desperately needed repairs, but where would the money come from?
Standing outside the Porter Memorial Library, one of the women from the Blandford Historical Society suggested a bake sale to get the ball rolling.
It wasn't a bad idea. Bake sales have helped churches and community groups for generations.
Then part-time Blandford resident Eve Queler, who spends the rest of the year in Manhattan, walked up. She had another idea.
"I'll do a concert."
Not just any concert.
By then, Maestro Queler was world famous in opera, having gone from studying music in the Bronx to founding the Opera Orchestra of New York and conducting more than 100 operas at Carnegie Hall. Her concert-style performances put singers and orchestra front and center. She built a reputation for reviving rarely performed operas, helping return long-neglected works to major stages. Along the way, she broke barriers in a fiercely male-dominated field. She also worked with legendary artists including Plácido Domingo, Montserrat Caballé, Renata Scotto, and Carlo Bergonzi.
She believed she could bring outstanding rising opera talent to Blandford and ask people to support the church by buying a ticket.
That simple offer changed everything.
Saving a Landmark
Nearly every summer since, Maestro Queler has returned to The White Church with emerging artists.
Around that same time, another church fundraiser was born—the Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival. For its first several years, it contributed about $33,000 before outgrowing Blandford and moving to larger venues. We told that story in an earlier Did You Know? column about Pat Lucas.
The opera concerts, however, remain.
Over three decades, they have raised more than $200,000 for the 1822 landmark, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2006, the Blandford Historical Society took on ownership responsibilities and, with support from the Opera concerts, donors and grants, completed a three-year restoration in time for the building's 200th anniversary in 2022.
Today, The White Church is known for its beauty and remarkable acoustics.
Opera for Everyone
Here's another surprise.
This isn't a four-hour opera with elaborate scenery and costumes.
It's an evening of opera's masterpieces sung by exceptional voices, with Eve Queler and pianist Douglas Martin.
This year's concert features works by Mozart, Johann Strauss, Wagner, Bizet, Delibes, Leoncavallo, Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, and Donizetti, performed by four guest artists whose careers are already taking them to the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, major European competitions, and leading opera companies across America.
Never been to an opera?
Here’s your chance to give it a try.
Come as you are. No need to understand Italian. No opera expertise required.
Just ninety minutes of extraordinary music in one of New England's most beautiful churches—a place your ticket will also help preserve.
Not bad for a town of about 1,200 people and an idea that almost started with a bake sale.
The 31st Annual Bel Canto Opera Concert will be held Saturday, August 29, at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $45, and may be purchased online at www.thewhitechurch.org or www.blandfordhistoricalsociety.org, or at the door with cash, check or credit card. Children 16 and under are free.
Donations for the church's preservation and maintenance, in memory or honor of someone if you so choose, can be made on either website.
DID YOU KNOW?
It almost all started with a bake sale.
Thirty-one years ago, the future of Blandford's iconic White Church was uncertain.
The church desperately needed repairs, but where would the money come from?
Standing outside the Porter Memorial Library, one of the women from the Blandford Historical Society suggested a bake sale to get the ball rolling.
It wasn't a bad idea. Bake sales have helped churches and community groups for generations.
Then part-time Blandford resident Eve Queler, who spends the rest of the year in Manhattan, walked up. She had another idea.
"I'll do a concert."
Not just any concert.
By then, Maestro Queler was world famous in opera, having gone from studying music in the Bronx to founding the Opera Orchestra of New York and conducting more than 100 operas at Carnegie Hall. Her concert-style performances put singers and orchestra front and center. She built a reputation for reviving rarely performed operas, helping return long-neglected works to major stages. Along the way, she broke barriers in a fiercely male-dominated field. She also worked with legendary artists including Plácido Domingo, Montserrat Caballé, Renata Scotto, and Carlo Bergonzi.
She believed she could bring outstanding rising opera talent to Blandford and ask people to support the church by buying a ticket.
That simple offer changed everything.
Saving a Landmark
Nearly every summer since, Maestro Queler has returned to The White Church with emerging artists.
Around that same time, another church fundraiser was born—the Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival. For its first several years, it contributed about $33,000 before outgrowing Blandford and moving to larger venues. We told that story in an earlier Did You Know? column about Pat Lucas.
The opera concerts, however, remain.
Over three decades, they have raised more than $200,000 for the 1822 landmark, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2006, the Blandford Historical Society took on ownership responsibilities and, with support from the Opera concerts, donors and grants, completed a three-year restoration in time for the building's 200th anniversary in 2022.
Today, The White Church is known for its beauty and remarkable acoustics.
Opera for Everyone
Here's another surprise.
This isn't a four-hour opera with elaborate scenery and costumes.
It's an evening of opera's masterpieces sung by exceptional voices, with Eve Queler and pianist Douglas Martin.
This year's concert features works by Mozart, Johann Strauss, Wagner, Bizet, Delibes, Leoncavallo, Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, and Donizetti, performed by four guest artists whose careers are already taking them to the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, major European competitions, and leading opera companies across America.
Never been to an opera?
Here’s your chance to give it a try.
Come as you are. No need to understand Italian. No opera expertise required.
Just ninety minutes of extraordinary music in one of New England's most beautiful churches—a place your ticket will also help preserve.
Not bad for a town of about 1,200 people and an idea that almost started with a bake sale.
The 31st Annual Bel Canto Opera Concert will be held Saturday, August 29, at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $45, and may be purchased online at www.thewhitechurch.org or www.blandfordhistoricalsociety.org, or at the door with cash, check or credit card. Children 16 and under are free.
Donations for the church's preservation and maintenance, in memory or honor of someone if you so choose, can be made on either website.
Melanie Spector, Soprano
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Catherine Wethington, Soprano
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Ben Brady, Bass Baritone
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Joseph Sacchi, Tenor
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Douglas Martin, pianist, has long been a mainstay of Maestro Queler’s performances in Blandford
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Eve Queler Autobiography Published in 2018 and On Sale on Amazon
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Program Cover For This Year’s Concert
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The performers in the 2025 Bel Canto Opera take a bow.
