SIUE Opera Theater presents: An Evening of Tragedy and Comedy
[Video] March 23rd and 24th, SIUE Opera Theater demonstrated their range in both musical ability and content with two one-act operas.
The evening began with a tragedy, “Suor Angelica,” by Giacomo Puccini. The opera, performed in the original Italian, tells the woeful tale of a nun who learns of the death of her illegitimate child. Stricken with grief at the news she poisons herself only to be grief stricken by the knowledge that she will be unable to join him in heaven as a result. In the end, she begs for mercy and forgiveness in her dying moments.
And then, for something completely different, the group performed, “A Little Nightmare Music,” by P. D. Q. Bach (a pseudonym for Peter Schickele), a comical one act opera about the night that Wofgang Amadeus Mozart died and Antonio Salieri didn’t.
“It’s really a great evening, it gives a taste of something contemporary and humorous,” Marc Shapman, stage director, actor, and conductor for the evening shared.
Filed Under: General CAS Stories • Music • Theater & Dance
