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March 22, 2007 issue


ASU Opera Theatre To Present Two Menotti Operas March 29 to April 1

Story by Celeste von Mangan

Gian Carlo Menotti wrote his first opera before he was 11 years old and became a popular and prolific opera composer, winning two Pulitzer Prizes. He died in Monaco on February 1 this year at age 95. ASU’s Hayes School of Music, in cooperation with the Blowing Rock Stage Company, the Mariam and Robert Hayes Performing Arts Center and the ASU School of Theatre and Dance, will present two of Menotti’s greatest works, The Telephone and The Medium on Thursday, March 29, through Sunday, April 1. Showtime Thursday through Saturday is 8:00 p.m., and a 2:00 matinee will be performed on Sunday. All performances take place at the Hayes Performing Arts Center in Blowing Rock.

“The Telephone has historically been used as a companion piece with The Medium,” said Hayes Performing Arts Center Executive Director Jeff Clark. “One is light-hearted, the other thought-provoking and disturbing. The telephone beckons us back to the time of the rotary telephone. It is the story of a young couple whose primary conflict involves this ‘wonderful’ invention. Lucy is obsessed with talking on the telephone and Ben, her boyfriend who desperately wants to propose to her, can’t seem to capture her attention because of this obsession. Therefore, he must resort to the one mode of communication Lucy understands.”

According to Menotti, The Medium, a psychological drama, “describes the tragedy of a woman caught between two worlds, a world of reality, which she cannot wholly comprehend and a supernatural world in which she cannot believe.”

The Medium tells the story of Baba, a fake medium, her daughter Monica and a young mute servant boy, Toby.

“Baba makes her living preying on the emotions of grieving parents by pretending to make contact with their deceased children,” said Clark. “She uses Monica and Toby to help create this illusion: Monica as the dead children and Toby as the stagehand. During a pretend trance, she feels someone or something touch her and from this moment forward, Baba spirals out of control, into a darkness from which she cannot hope to emerge. However, it is those around her who suffer most.”

Clark said that the productions feature outstanding singers and will be fully staged by Dr. Joseph Amaya, professor of voice in the Hayes School of Music. Dr. Jim Anderson, director of orchestral activities, will provide musical direction.

“We are thrilled to have the opera being performed in our facility,” added Clark.

Tickets cost $18 for adults and $9 for students. Purchase tickets by calling the box office at 828-295-9627 or clicking to the Hayes Performing Arts Center website at www.brcac.org.

 

Want To Go?

Dates: Thursday, March 29, through Sunday April 1
Times: 8:00 p.m. Thursday to Saturday/2:00 p.m. Sunday
Location: Hayes Performing Arts Center, Blowing Rock
Cost: $18 adults/$9 students