UTC Opera Presents Three American Operas:
Slow Dusk, A Hand of Bridge, A Game of Chance
Friday November 6, 2009 at 7:30pm
Sunday November 8, 2009 at 3:00pm
Roland Hayes Concert Hall in UTC Fine Arts Center
Release Date: 10/16/2009
On Friday, November 6th at 7:30 pm and Sunday, Nov. 8 at 3:00 pm, the UTC Opera Workshop, under the direction of Assistant Professor Ronald Ulen, will perform a series of three different American Operas to produce one outstanding show! The performances will be held in the Roland Hayes Concert Hall at the UTC Fine Arts Center (corner of Vine and Palmetto St.) Tickets are $7.00 general admission and $5.00 for seniors. UTC Faculty and Staff receive two complimentary tickets and UTC students receive one complimentary ticket with UTC ID. Tickets are available from the UTC Box Office (423-425-4269) Monday through Friday, 10:00-4:00 PM and go on sale Monday, October 19.
Alex Bryant, Laura Marshall,
and Justin Hipp in Slow Dusk
The evening will open with Carlisle Floyd’s first opera, Slow Dusk. The performance unfolds a Romeo and Juliet-like tragedy of a May afternoon, which alters the course of a young girl’s life. In Slow Dusk, like all of his works, Floyd is able to bring his great abilities as a librettist and a dramatist to the elegant composition of opera.
Samuel Barber’s A Hand of Bridge is an evening at home with friends. Often deemed one of the many “minute operas,” this work is short, but does not lack pizzazz. Its four ariettas delineate the inner thoughts of the four card players, and what was once a light story now becomes much deeper. It is a joke with murderous overtones.
Melody Dale, Maria Mathes, Sarah
Trotter, and Zach Cavan
in A Game of Chance
Finally, the evening will conclude with A Game of Chance, by Seymour Barab. It is a comedy where three bored knitting ladies find out what would happen if their dreams came true. The moral of this comic opera: We all want to much or too little.
The UTC Opera Theater is an auditioned group of highly talented students who perform a variety of scenes from multiple operas, sets of arias and ensembles, multiple one-act operas, and full-length masterworks. Recent productions have included Mozart: Marriage of Figaro in 2007, Jonathan Bailey Holland's Naomi in the Living Room and the zarzuela La Verbena de la Paloma in fall 2008, and Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus in spring 2009. They are under the direction of Assistant Professor Ron Ulen.
For more information, please contact the UTC Music Dept. at (423) 425-4601.
