Tag Archives: opera

EVENT
Opera & Oratorio Ensemble Presents: Death, Demise, Damnation

Maggie Feldman-Piltch ’14 has been in a cheerful mood ever since her interview feature, so it’s no wonder she’s inviting you to an operatic event themed around death, demise, and damnation:

Do you enjoy opera, oratorio, or poetry organized around a clear theme? Looking to (further) procrastinate your work on a Sunday evening?

Need a good, solid cry but tired of watching the same old videos of Beyonce flashmob wedding proposals and solider’s being reunited with their dogs?

Then come to the Opera and Oratorio Ensemble Show!

Date: Sunday, April 28
Time: 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Place: Crowell Concert Hall
Cost: Free

EVENT
Phoolan Devi Opera @ South Church

Joseph Getter GRAD writes in about a “unique and powerful performance” at Middletown’s South Church this Saturday, cofunded by Wesleyan’s music department and featuring members of various Wes performance groups:Phoolan Devi, a new raw untouchable opera, will have its world premier on Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 8pm at South Church in Middletown, CT. The composer is Gayathri Khemadasa, from Sri Lanka, currently a Fulbright scholar at Wesleyan University. Jeff Hush, a former Shakespeare scholar from UC Berkeley and the University of Chicago, is writing the libretto and producing the opera, with Darren Large.

The orchestra features members of Wesleyan’s Taiko, Balinese Gamelan and Chinese music ensembles, and includes Anupa Khemadasa, Gabriel Kastelle, Sarah-Jane Ripa, Dirck Westervelt, Pete Steele, Tim Gaylord, Matt Albert, Michael Pestel, Alec McLane, Will Northlich-Redmond, Banning Eyre, Sandy Yudhistira, Yuki Ohmori and Fumi Tanakadate. Sound design is by Mick Bolduc with videography by Kerey Viswanathan.

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MUSIC
Pianist and TA Needed For Opera and Oratorio

Wesleyan’s Opera and Oratorio class is looking for a piano accompaniest and TA for the upcoming semester. Duties are very simple, namely accompanying one night a week and leading a TA session one other day. Normaly Wesleying doesn’t post jobs, but this does pay well, or you can take it for credit, and Professor Gale (who is a wonderful professor) is in need of a pianist immediately.

You can read more about the class here on wesmaps. Having done this once myself, I can say it was a lot of fun and wish I could do it again, but senior obligations make that difficult, so if you are at all interested, please contact Professor Priscilla Gale at pgale (at) wesleyan (dot) edu

MUSIC
The Old Maid and the Thief

Cheryl Tan ’11 invites you to her senior music recital, a staged singing/reading of the one-act opera The Old Maid and the Thief, from 1939 by Gian Carlo Menotti. The piece runs about an hour and is about a lonely old woman and her servant in small-town America. A mysterious wanderer rolls into their lives one day at the same time that a thief escapes from prison in a nearby town. Shenanigans!
Starring:
Miss Todd – Meghan Twible ’12
Miss Pinkerton – Chelsea Goldsmith ’13
Laetitia – Cheryl Tan ’11
Bob – Matthew Getz ’14
Also featuring:
Andrew Chung ‘11.5 – Music
Julia Baritz ’13 – Narrator/Stage Manager/Publicity
Samuel Friedman ’13 – Foley Artist

Date: Tomorrow, April 10th
Time: 7pm
Place: Crowell Concert Hall
Cost: FREE!

Links: Facebook Event CFA Blog Post

EVENT
Opera & Oratorio

Jordan Brown ’10 writes:

Come see the culmination of this semester’s Opera & Oratorio class! The show is FREE and un-ticketed. Arrive early to get a good seat. The oratorio starts promptly at 7pm.

Here’s the program for the night, courtesy of George Frideric Handel:
The Choice of Hercules, an oratorio
Hercules, an opera

Don’t worry, the opera is abridged!

When: April 24th, 7-9pm
Where: Crowell Concert Hall
Cost: FREE

EVENT
Senior Thesis Opera: Bad Island

Come see Bad Island, an opera by Ben Bernstein ’10 based on the book by William Steig. One day on an island filled with horrible, ugly, rotten monsters, complacent in their horrible life, a beautiful flower comes out of nowhere. The monsters then explode into a new kind of violence. This staging uses 16 singers, many instruments, visuals, vibrant costumes and choreography to depict layers of treachery, pride, and violence.

Tickets are available day of at the box office. Capacity is extremely limited. Sponsored by Second Stage and the Wesleyan Music Department.

Date: Friday, February 26th and Saturday, February 27
Time: 8:00PM both nights, 1:ooPM matinee on Saturday
Place: ’92 Theater
Cost: Free Friday show and Saturday matinee; $5 Saturday night: all proceeds and donations go to benefit the Matenwa Community Learning Center in Haiti.

Box Office Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 10:30AM-4:30PM

EVENT
She Unnames Them: An Opera

“She Unnames Them: An Opera”, the music thesis of Xiaoxi Tu ’09, is happening this weekend. No tickets are required, but show up early to get a good seat.

Credit to Alex Fink ’09 for the excellent photo.

xiaoxis-opera

Three chances to see this post-modern opera, with hoe downs, raps, and arias from the mind of Xiaoxi Tu. Inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story about Adam and Eve naming (and unnaming) the animals in the Garden of Eden.

Cast:
Brittany Fowler, Adam Black, Amanda Facelle, Tess Smagorinsky, Elizabeth Greenwald, Emily Weiss, Benedict Bernstein, Jared Keller, Charles Kurose, Tresne Hernandez, Emily Brown, Sophie Ackoff, Sara Duchovnay, Ari Edmundson. Cameo by: Brunhilde the Dinosaur

Musicians:
Miller Nuttle, Sylvia Ryerson, Ben Sachs-Hamilton, Avi Smith, Matt Patterson, Emily Busch, Joseph Getter, Ruby Ross, Michelle Brown, Julia Milton, Sam Tilin, Katherine Nilson, Andew Mulkey, Claire Trissel, Ellen Bartolini, Christine Hsueh, Chloe Wardropper, Noah Heau

Dancers:
Katherine Bascom, Emily Busch, Olivia Dooley, Beverly Fong, Maggie Hanay

Facebook

Date/Time:
Saturday, April 4 at 7pm;
Sunday, April 5 at 2pm and 7pm

Place: World Music Hall

Black Friday, This Weekend

Black Friday, the epic rock opera music thesis of Sam Ottinger ’09, debuts tonight and is playing until Saturday at the ’92 Theater.

This description is from early last semester, but according to Aural Wes the show still promises to be a macabre musical tale of American consumerism and blind religious rapture:

This opera is inspired by God, Death and the mall. The music, a mix of stoner metal/drone/jazz/classical & tom waits. The place, anytown U.S.A. Shopping Mall built inside of a MEGA-CHURCH. The day, Black Friday, the annal orgy consumer culture. The people, Seven sinners left behind after the rapture by a Zeus like Demi-god who urges them on as they decide their fates. There’s a chorus of shoppers, a chorus of angels and demons, a pervert who loves God more than anything but can’t help watching women change, an alcoholic security guard, a money grubbing evangelist and a power crazed prophet. EVERYONE DIES…almost…

Free Preview:
Wednesday, Feb 25th: 11:00pm
(No ticket necessary, just show up)

Performances:
Thursday, Feb 26th: 8:00pm
Friday, Feb 27th: 8:00pm
Saturday, Feb 28th: 2:00pm and 9:00 pm
(tickets available for free at the box office the day of the performance)

The show will run about two hours, including a fifteen-minute intermission.

More info on Facebook and Aural Wes.

Audition for spring rockopera "Black Friday"

Auditions start today for Black Friday, “A New Rock Opera,” written and composed and music directed by Sam Ottinger ‘09, and directed by Ross Shenker ‘11. It is:

“A tragic tale of crazed Shoppers, hopeless Romantics, Perversion, Piety, and Vice set against the backdrop of Judgment Day. Lead by a power-crazed prophet, Angels and Demons vie for the souls of those left behind. “

Audition times are Thursday, November 20th (6:30 – 9 USDAN 108) and Friday, November 21st (4:30-7 Fayerweather). Callbacks are on Saturday, November 22nd.

Show dates are Thursday February 26th 8PM, Friday February 27th 8PM, and Saturday February 28th 2 PM and 8PM.

You can find sign ups for auditions and more information on the callboard of the CFA Theater Studios. Feel free to e-mail sottinger@wes or rshenker@wes with questions.

World’s first Yiddish Opera… with composer speaking!

Jared Gimbel ’11, current President of the Wesleyan Yiddish Club and a Jewish Renaissance Fellow, sends in:

Solomon Epstein of Agawam, MA is bringing a film version of his Opera, “The Dybbuk”, to Wesleyan. It was adapted from a libretto from the St. Petersburg Society for Jewish Folk Music, whose efforts were sundered by the persecutions of Stalin and of Hitler.

Performed first in Israel in 1999, “The Dybbuk” is the world’s FIRST Yiddish Opera, and a grand step to bringing Yiddish and that vanished world from oblivion to the 21st century.

The opera will be screened with its original cast on SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2008 at 8:00, in PAC 001. Sol will be showing the connection between traditional Jewish folk melodies and his opera in a musical demonstration, in addition to answering questions afterwards.

This is a meaningful historic work, and you should NOT miss it.

When: Sunday, Nov. 16 at 8 pm
Where: PAC 001
Why: awesome Yiddish opera, with the dude who made it there in person!