{"id":2276159,"date":"2026-02-10T18:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2276159"},"modified":"2026-02-10T18:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:41:12","slug":"opera-louisianes-sing-swing-gala-is-feb-21-entertainment-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/opera-louisianes-sing-swing-gala-is-feb-21-entertainment-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Opera Louisiane&#8217;s &#8216;Sing &#038; Swing&#8217; gala is Feb. 21 | Entertainment\/Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-breakout=\"1\" style=\"position:relative;\">\n<div class=\"col-md-8\">\n<p>Voting is happening now, though the singers won&#8217;t take the stage until Feb. 21, at Opera Louisiane&#8217;s &#8220;Sing &amp; Swing&#8221; gala.<\/p>\n<p>The company&#8217;s annual fundraiser starts at 7 p.m. in the Crowne Plaza Executive Center, 4728 Constitution Ave., featuring live music by the Michael Foster Project, dancing, buffet dining and drink options and a silent auction filled with unique items and experiences.<\/p>\n<p>But the stars of the show will be local favorites competing in the gala&#8217;s Celebrity Sing-Off.<\/p>\n<p>On the playlist are Ralph Bender, Ava Sardi and Pablo Isaza and Deborah Todd.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Last year&#8217;s winner was Bob Courtney,&#8221; said Paul Groves, Opera Louisiane&#8217;s general director. &#8220;He sang &#8216;Green Green Grass of Home.&#8217; Each year, the winner comes back and does an encore performance, so Bob will be back with his Bobette backup singers to sing &#8216;Green Green Grass.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div data-breakout=\"2\" style=\"position:relative;\">\n<div class=\"col-md-8\">\n<p>Pre-gala voting is easy by visiting Opera Louisiane&#8217;s website at <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/operalouisiane.com\" target=\"_blank\">operalouisiane.com<\/a>. &#8220;Sing &amp; Swing&#8221; immediately will pop up with the competitors&#8217; photos. Choose a singer and click on his or her photo.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is a karaoke-inspired celebrity competition with a twist,&#8221; Groves said. &#8220;It\u2019s not about being perfect. It\u2019s about bringing the energy, having fun and supporting a great cause. The winning celebrity will take home the title, a trophy and an encore performance at next year\u2019s &#8216;Sing &amp; Swing.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As for the cause, all gala proceeds benefit Opera Louisiane&#8217;s operational costs and programs, including money raised from the silent auction.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have some interesting items in the silent auction, including two tickets in the general director&#8217;s box and dinner with the cast of a production at the Metropolitan Opera,&#8221; Groves said. &#8220;And then we have two tickets in the director&#8217;s box and dinner with the cast of a production at the Houston Opera. Richard Lipsey is also offering a duck hunting weekend at his private place in south Louisiana. Those are just a few of the great experiences and items we&#8217;re offering.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div data-breakout=\"3\" style=\"position:relative;\">\n<div class=\"col-md-8\">\n<p>And if that&#8217;s not enough, Opera Louisiane also is offering VIP tickets that include a cocktail hour before the gala, featuring a performance by Groves.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I won&#8217;t be singing in the competition, but I will be singing some arias at the cocktail hour,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Catering for the gala will be done by the Crowne Plaza, and the dress is formal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Groves added that Opera Louisiane chose to stage its gala after Mardi Gras so it wouldn&#8217;t get lost in the season&#8217;s revelry.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It gives everyone a chance to recover from Mardi Gras,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Then they&#8217;re ready for another celebration.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Individual tickets are $125 and $225 for VIP and can be purchased at <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/operalouisiane.com\" target=\"_blank\">operalouisiane.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.theadvocate.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Voting is happening now, though the singers won&#8217;t take the stage until Feb. 21, at Opera Louisiane&#8217;s &#8220;Sing &amp; Swing&#8221; gala. The company&#8217;s annual fundraiser starts at 7 p.m. in the Crowne Plaza Executive Center, 4728 Constitution Ave., featuring live music by the Michael Foster Project, dancing, buffet dining and drink options and a silent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2188078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2276159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Baton-Rouge-area-arts-and-cultural-events-for-Dec-7.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2276159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2276160,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276159\/revisions\/2276160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2188078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2276159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2276159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2276159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}