UD Opera Theater to Present Così Fan Tutte in Thompson Theater
- Street Scene
Operatic activity in the UD Department of Music continues its strong trajectory of growth. It started auspiciously with the 250th birth year of Mozart, 2006, with the master’s The Magic Flute, this was UD’s first full production with orchestra. Singing Andrew Porter’s highly literate English translation, the all-student cast and all-student orchestra performed to two sold out houses in Loudis Recital Hall.
Spring 2007 saw the production of the 1947 Kurt Weill/Langston Hughes/Elmer Rice crossover masterpiece, Street Scene. Featuring a large cast and an excellent professionally custom-built set, our production was awarded a $5000 grant from the internationally distinguished Kurt Weill Foundation. There was also an outstanding academic forum discussing this ground breaking work featuring panelists Dr. Howard Johnson, Black Studies professor, Dr. Michael Cotsell of the English Department, Professional Theater Training Program professor Heinz-Uwe Haus, and the Department of Music’s own Jon Conrad.
- Street Scene
This year the music department will make its debut in the beautiful new Thompson Theater in the Center for the Arts. We are excited to present one of pinnacles of achievement in opera buffa, Mozart’s Così fan tutte: a comedy, which like all great comedies, reveals profound truisms about life, love and human nature. In the nineteenth-century this demonstration of the fickleness of amorous relations was actually considered obscene, and completely re-written to conform to the mores of the time. It wasn’t until the 1920’s that Cosi’s funny, meaningful insights were rediscovered. Our production will be sung in English in a translation prepared for a famous production in the 1950’s directed by Broadway theatrical legend Alfred Lunt at the Metropolitan Opera.
The student cast and orchestra will present this delightful show on Friday, April 11th at 8pm and Saturday, April 12th at 8pm in the Thompson Theater at the Roselle Center for the Arts.