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FSU’s Department of Music to Present Opera Theatre Performance, “A Night of Love, Magic and Death, With Music From Purcell to Puccini”

Frostburg State University’s Opera Theatre will present “A Night of Love, Magic and Death, With Music From Purcell to Puccini” on Tuesday, Nov. 14, and Monday, Nov. 20, at 7:30 p.m. in the Pealer Recital Hall of FSU’s Woodward D. Pealer Performing Arts Center. This event is free and open to the public.

Directed by Dr. Tory Browers, this gala concert will feature operatic scenes from “La Bohème,” “Roméo et Juliette,” “The Magic Flute” and “Dido and Aeneas.”

“La Bohème” was composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on the novel “Scènes de la vie de bohème” by Henri Murger, a collection of vignettes portraying young bohemians living in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1840s. The libretto focuses on the relationship between Rodolfo and Mimì, ending with her death. “La bohème” has become part of the standard Italian opera repertory, and it is one of the most frequently performed operas worldwide.

“Roméo et Juliette” is an opera by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare. The libretto follows the story of Shakespeare's play. The opera was first performed in Paris in 1867. It is notable for the series of four duets for the main characters and the waltz song “Je veux vivre” for the soprano.

“The Magic Flute” is by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered in 1791 in Vienna, just two months before the composer's premature death. In this opera, the Queen of the Night persuades Prince Tamino to rescue her daughter Pamina from captivity under the high priest Sarastro; instead, he learns the high ideals of Sarastro’s community and seeks to join it. Separately, then together, Tamino and Pamina undergo severe trials of initiation, which end in triumph, with the Queen and her cohorts vanquished.

“Dido and Aeneas” was written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate, composed no later than 1688. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil’s “Aeneid.” It recounts the love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for the Trojan hero Aeneas, and her despair when he abandons her. A monumental work in Baroque opera, “Dido and Aeneas” is remembered as one of Purcell’s foremost theatrical works. One of the earliest known English operas, it was also Purcell’s only true opera, as well as his only all-sung dramatic work.

Opera students include sopranos Jenna Blosser, Hannah Miller and Marsé Romero; mezzo-soprano Pateley Bongiorni; tenors David Cook and Gabriel Harper; and baritone Raymond Sorenson. Joseph Yungen will accompany the group on the piano.

For more information, contact FSU’s Department of Music at 301-687-4109.

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