 |
     |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Five College Opera Project presents a classic and a modern masterpiece
With its upcoming production of the Seven Deadly Sins and Dido and Aeneas, the Five College Opera Project presents two popular English-language operas composed some 250 years apart. Drawing on performers, directors and production crews from each of the campuses, Five College operas have become a major cultural event in the Pioneer Valley. More than a thousand patrons were treated to La Liberazione di Ruggiero and L'Enfant et les Sortileges at sold-out shows in 2006. This year, Mount Holyoke theater professor Roger Babb stage directs a cast and crew of nearly 100 students with musical direction by Lanfranco Marcelletti, a faculty member at UMass Amherst, and Five College Early Music Program Director Bob Eisenstein. "The students are amazing," says Babb of the dozens of students who have come together from each campus for the operas. "It's been interesting working with music directors and opera students. The production is going to be really exciting." The two operas were paired for their contrasts—baroque music and modern, an epic classic and an existential satire, a small orchestra/large cast and a large orchestra/small cast—offering varied opportunities for participants and audiences alike. Considered by many to be England's foremost opera, Dido and Aeneas was composed by Henry Purcell in 1692 to a libretto by Nahum Tate. Inspired by Virgil's Aeneid, it tells the story of the love between Aeneas (played by Uriah Rodriguez of UMass), a Trojan in exile after his city's destruction by the Greeks, and Queen Dido of Carthage (played by Alicia Cho of Smith College). It is also thought to be an allegory of England's Glorious Revolution and the rise of William and Mary to the throne. Composed by Kurt Weill in 1933 to a Bertolt Brecht libretto, The Seven Deadly Sins satirizes the immorality of Depression-era American culture. In it, Anna I (performed on different nights by Rachel Spector of UMass and Julia Moorman of Amherst College) and her sister/alter ego Anna II (Marissa Sicley of Mount Holyoke) are "tempted" seven times, and in the upside-down reality of American morality, their ethical choices are considered sins. Tickets for both operas, which will be staged at Mount Holyoke College's Rooke Theatre from February 26 through March 1, 2009, go on sale February 2. They are priced at $15 for general admission and $5 for students and seniors. Call (413) 538-2406 or email rookeboxoffice@gmail.com. A director's pre-performance talk will take place on February 28 at 7 p.m., at Mount Holyoke's Pratt Hall. For more information about this year's Five College Opera Project, visit the Five College Music Departments Web site. This year's Five College Opera Project production is sponsored by Five Colleges, each of its member campuses, the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music and the Mount Holyoke Theatre Department. Page created 2/2/09 Home
| About
Us |
Academic
Programs |
Administrative
Programs ©2003
Five Colleges, Inc. | 97 Spring Street, Amherst MA 01002 | 413.256.8316 |
