News

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Opera Theatre will present “Scenes of Death and Daggers” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 11 in Abbott Auditorium.  

The performance is a collection of scenes from selected operas containing themes of murder, suicide, poison and daggers. Sprinkled throughout the unifying dark theme are bursts of comedic scenes.

Also included in the scenes will be singing in foreign languages. SIUE theater students will perform all of the scenes in their original language, including French, German and Italian.  

The program contains scenes from popular repertoire, including Hansel and Gretel, Rigoletto, Cosi fan tutte, Dead Man Walking, Hamlet, The Magic Flute, The Mikado and Carmen.

“The quality of singers at SIUE continues to improve every year, and this has enabled us to program repertoire that is much more challenging,” said Marc Schapman, associate professor in the Department of Music and director of SIUE Opera Theatre.

“The students have embraced this challenge beautifully resulting in our most challenging scenes program to date, both vocally and dramatically,” he added. “The growth of SIUE Opera Theatre is extremely exciting. I feel strongly that we are preparing students for a career in opera. The scenes program also helps students to prepare for larger roles in complete operas.” 

General admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and free for SIUE students with a valid ID.

For tickets or more information, call the SIUE Box Office at 618-650-2774. Tickets can also be purchased at the door the evening of the performance. 

SIUE Opera Theatre will present The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on March 17 and 18, 2016, in Dunham Hall Theatre. The opera will be sung in German with English supertitles.

Photos:

Graduate students Amanda Furrow and Jon Garrett rehearse a scene from Carmen.   

Practicing one of the scenes is music teaching assistant Grace Yukiko Fisher.