SCENE AND HEARD
'Opera Scenes' more than music

Office of News and Media Relations
Jessica Stark
Media Relations Specialist
Email: stark@rice.edu

People don't often get the chance to enjoy more than one opera in an evening, but Rice's Shepherd School of Music is making that opportunity available to students and the community with weekend performances.

At 7:30 p.m. Feb. 2 and 2 p.m. Feb. 3,, the school will present "Opera Scenes" in Alice Pratt Brown Hall's Wortham Opera House.

Juniors, seniors and graduate students enrolled in the opera workshop class will perform pieces including Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Debussy's "Pelleas et Melisande," Strauss' "Die Fledermaus," Bizet's "Carmen," Bernstein's "Candide," Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffmann," Floyd's "Of Mice and Men," Rossini's "Le Comte Ory," and Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro,” "Don Giovanni” and "Die Zauberflöte.”

"'Opera Scenes' is a chance to see great performances," said Richard Bado, professor and director of opera studies. "Equally importantly, it's a chance to hear our great singers trying out parts of roles for the first time -- roles that one day they could be singing around the world!"

Bado and other opera faculty members select scenes for students that they feel would be a good fit but still challenging. The students work with their voice teachers and coaches with the hope of adding the scenes to their audition repertoires.

Bado said that "Opera Scenes" also gives students the experience needed to fine-tune their musical skills and acting ability in front of an audience. The students learn to make adjustments based on the live feedback they receive, better preparing them for auditions.

The pieces will be performed in the original languages in which they were written, including Italian, French, German, English and Russian, but introductions will be provided to the audience to provide context and background information for each scene.

Admission to both concerts is free and open to the public.