SMETHPORT — Lyric tenor Gino Luchetti, who has performed with the Seattle Opera and Seattle Symphony and is familiar to area musical audiences, returns to Smethport for another appearance.
At 3 p. m. on October 13, at the Smethport Fire Hall, the McKean County Historical Society will present “A Taste of Italy — Dinner and Music with Gino Lucchetti and Company.”
Volunteers from the historical society will have the fire hall decorated appropriately.
“The program, which will last for about an hour-and-a-half to two hours, will be divided into three musical sets, all pertaining to the courses of the meal,” Lucchetti told The Era. “The first is the appetizer set followed by the main course with a lot of wonderful food, and finishes with the dessert set.”
Lucchetti called this concert “a fun show.” While the music will include some operatic selections from Rigoletto,” “Carmen” and the comic opera, “Gianni Schicchi,” it’s not all opera.
“We’ve also scheduled wonderful popular music — tunes that everyone will recognize,” Luchetti said.
As an example, Lucchetti will sing a selection from the zany Marx Brothers’ famous 1935 movie, “A Night at the Opera.” which has been preserved by the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.
Lucchetti has a surprise for the audience with the finale as he performs a sing-along number for which he wrote the words.
While Lucchetti, an avid fisherman and outdoorsman, did not spend his entire public school years in the Smethport district, he visits this area every year to enjoy the fishing.
Lucchetti from Smethport Area High School in 1975. Lucchetti holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in fisheries and wildlife from the University of Washington and Virginia Tech, respectively,
After earning his graduate degree, Lucchetti returned to the Pacific Northwest and worked for the U. S. Forest Service, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service and the Tulaip Indian Tribe in Washington. In 2015, he retired as King County, Washington’s senior environmental scientist.
Now semi-retired, he resides in Washington State, where he owns and operates K2B Environmental Consulting.
Asked about some early influences on his musical career, Lucchetti said he grew up in a musical family, but also pointed to two retired Smethport Area School District music teachers. “David Kitchen asked me to sing two solos at my sixth grade graduation at the Hazel Hurst Elementary School, he recalled. “In high school. it was Bernie Reap who directed the Swingin’ 70s.”
Tickets for “A Taste of Italy-Dinner and Music with Gino Lucchetti and Company” cost $30 and are available at the Old Jail Museum in Smethport at 814-887-5142. Reservations will be taken for tables of eight. Otherwise, it is open seating.
No tickets will be sold at the door.
