Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 24, 2003|Volume 32, Number 8

Pictured is a scene from a recent Yale Opera production. The program marks its return to Sprague Hall with scenes from famous operas on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. The renovated hall features an overhead screen with super-titles.

Yale singers to take audiences
on 'tour' of famed operas

Opera fans will have the opportunity to take a two-day "tour" of the world of opera when Yale singers present scenes from a dozen famous operas Friday and Saturday, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.

The Yale Opera will be guided by noted stage director Vera Lúcia Calábria for the performances, which will take place both nights at 8 p.m. in Morse Recital Hall of Sprague Hall, corner of College and Wall streets.

Each evening's concert will offer its own distinct program. On Friday, the concert will feature scenes from Janacek's "Káta Kabanova," Leoncavallo's "I Pagliacci," Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette," Massenet's "Werther," Verdi's "La Traviata" and Poulenc's "Les Mamelles de Tirésias."

Saturday's program will include scenes from Mozart's "Don Giovanni," Weber's "Der Freischütz," Rachmaninoff's "Aleko," Dvorak's "Rusalka," Ward's "The Crucible" and Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor."

As the first opera productions to take place in the newly renovated Sprague Hall, the performances will offer the public its first glimpse of the new amenities specifically built into the hall to enrich operatic shows. Most notably, super-titles for all scenes not sung in English will be projected on a small screen overhanging the stage. Sprague Hall's new state-of-the-art theatrical lighting system will also be utilized.

During her 20-year career, stage director Calábria has worked extensively with such directors as Gian Carlo Menotti, Harold Prince, Roman Polanski and the late Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, among others. She worked with Ponnelle on the U.S. premiere of Reimann's "Lear" for San Francisco Opera in 1981 and has since staged numerous performances for the opera company, including "Carmen," "Falstaff" and "Pagliacci." Her directing credits elsewhere include "Madama Butterfly" in Strasbourg and Cologne; "Le nozze di Figaro" and "Idomeneo" in Salzburg; "Manon" in Vienna and Munich and with New York's Metropolitan Opera; "Parsifal" in Barcelona; and "Tannhäuser" in Honolulu.

Tickets for the concerts are $8 and $12; $5 for students. For more information, call (203) 432-4158, visit the School of Music website at www.yale.edu/music, or visit the School of Music Box Office in Sprague Hall, which is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday.

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Campus Notes