Event Details: Opera - Fanciulla/Don Pasquale

$30 prepay, $35 at the door

Includes Dessert and Coffee/Tea

Contact GMus David Palladino at 732-718-4934 for more info & payment through Zelle/Venmo

Event Details: Book Club - Faust Part I

Just in time for Halloween, the Central NJ Book Club on Wednesday, October 7, 2026 at 7:30 pm in the basement will be on the tempting Faust Part I by Goethe.

Faust: Part I is a tragic drama set in verse about a scholar who, dissatisfied with the limits of human knowledge, makes a pact with the devil for boundless experience, leading to the seduction and ruin of a woman.  This is one of the central works of German and world literature, posing questions about ambition, desire, guilt, salvation, and what it means to seek meaning beyond ordinary life.

Contact Bro. Kerr Reno at kreno586@gmail.com for more information, the Zoom link, and an informational PDF. 

Hope to see you there!

Event Details: Opera - Carmet (Bizet)

$30 prepay, $35 at the door

Includes Dessert and Coffee/Tea

Contact GMus David Palladino at 732-718-4934 for more info & payment through Zelle/Venmo

Event Details: Book Club - The Prince [Election Day read]

For Election Day (the next day), the Central NJ Book Club on Sun, November 1, 2026 at 7:30 pm in the basement will be covering the original political science classic The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli.

The Prince is a short (80-150 pg. depending on translation) 16th‑century political treatise in which Machiavelli offers blunt, often amoral advice to rulers on how to acquire and maintain power, arguing that effectiveness and stability can require deception, force, and the appearance of virtue.

Note: I recommend reading The Prince with an introduction that explains the political situation in Renaissance Florence in which Machiavelli lived and the Italian peninsula overall.

Contact Bro. Kerr Reno at kreno586@gmail.com for more information, the Zoom link, and an informational PDF. 

Hope to see you there!

Event Details: Opera - Parsifal/Schauspieldirektor

$30 prepay, $35 at the door

Includes Dessert and Coffee/Tea

Contact GMus David Palladino at 732-718-4934 for more info & payment through Zelle/Venmo

Event Details: Book Club - Middlemarch [Huge Book]

Well, so far this year I've been "nice" in terms of the size of the book club selections, but of course it would only be a matter of time before I went back on Santa's "naughty" list. The Central NJ Book Club on Wednesday, December 2, 2026 at 7:30 pm in the basement will be on the quite large Middlemarch by George Eliot. So get reading now!

Middlemarch is a 19th‑century realist English novel subtitled “A Study of Provincial Life,” following the intertwined lives in an English town. 

So why read such a large book? Many critics and writers consider Middlemarch the greatest English novel because of its extraordinarily rich, omniscient narration, the psychological depth and moral complexity of its characters, and its vast yet precise portrayal of an entire provincial community over time. In particular it explores marriage, vocation, class, and the complex web of social and moral responsibility.

The book is between 700-900 pages, depending on footnotes/annotations.

Contact Bro. Kerr Reno at kreno586@gmail.com for more information, the Zoom link, and an informational PDF. 

Hope to see you there!

Event Details: Opera - L'elisir d'amore (Donizetti)

$30 prepay, $35 at the door

Includes Dessert and Coffee/Tea

Contact GMus David Palladino at 732-718-4934 for more info & payment through Zelle/Venmo