South to tout Italian music
by Mike McDermott, reporter

    The classical music of Italy continues next week as the South Campus’ Opera Workshop presents Opera Italian Style.

    Two performances are scheduled Thursday, April 26, and Friday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m. in the Carillon Recital Hall.

    The performance echoes the Italian theme for this semester’s programs, which began with the Italian Street Festival presented earlier this month by the music department.

    The program will feature the works of Italian composers including Puccini, Verdi and Menotti, the latter an Italian American who wrote in English.

    The evening will also include scenes from The Marriage of Figaro and Idomeneo, both by Mozart, who wrote in Italian, the accepted language of opera in his time. The four scenes from Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief will be performed in English.
    Many of the performers, current and former students of Darlene Marks, voice instructor, have appeared in Opera Workshop performances in past semesters.

    “I’m glad we’re doing different scenes from a variety of works,” said Carla White, voice student and Opera Workshop veteran.

    “We put on an entire opera last time,” she said, referring to The Magic Flute, a Mozart work presented by the class in Spring 2000.
    “It was a monumental task and worth every note, but the variety offered this time will expose the audience to more operas and introduce the students to many works with which they may not have been familiar,” she said.

    “South Campus has an opera performance history that most people do not realize,” Patty McCormick, associate professor and stage director, said.

    The Old Maid and the Thief, directed by McCormick in 1973, was the first opera performed on campus.

    Previous operas performed in Music Theater Workshop before 1988 include The Medium and The Telephone, other works by Menotti; Susannah, performed last year by the Fort Worth Opera, and The Marriage of Figaro, included in the roster for this performance.

    Opera music was heard once again in 1998, when Marks revived the opera workshop in its current form.

    The evening will also feature Jo Anne Thomson, vocal coach instructor, as accompanist.

    Both performances are free, but donations will be accepted for the Fine Arts Scholarship Fund to help aspiring actors, singers, musicians and technicians learn their craft.