2011 Season
Die Fledermaus
Johann Strauss, Jr.
English translation by Vern Sutton
Conductor – Adam Kerry Boyles
Stage Director – Linda Ade Brand
Die Fledermaus (The Bat) is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée. The operetta premiered in 1874 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, and has been part of the regular operetta repertoire ever since. After committing a petty crime, the Baron von Eisenstein is due to start his eight-day jail term. Even though he tells his wife, Rosalinda, he is going to jail he actually decides to delay jail one day in order to attend a fancy ball at Prince Orlofsky’s with his friend Dr. Falke. Meanwhile, Rosalinda takes advantage of the situation and invites over her lover, Alfred. Confusion ensues when the next day the prison guard arrives and mistakes Alfred to be the Baron and takes him to prison.
Le Nozze di Figaro
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte
Conductor – Thomas Cockrell
Stage Director – Laura Johnson
Assistant Conductor/Chorus Master – Ace Edewards
One of Mozart’s most famous operas, Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) is a continuation of the plot of The Barber of Seville, several years later, and recounts a single “day of madness” (la folle giornata) in the palace of the Count Almaviva near Seville, Spain. Rosina is now the Countess; Dr. Bartolo is seeking revenge against Figaro for thwarting his plans to marry Rosina himself; and Count Almaviva has degenerated from the romantic youth of Barber into a scheming, bullying, skirt-chasing baritone. Having gratefully given Figaro a job as head of his servant-staff, he is now persistently trying to obtain the favors of Figaro’s bride-to-be, Susanna. He keeps finding excuses to delay the civil part of the wedding of his two servants, which is arranged for this very day. Figaro, Susanna and the Countess conspire to embarrass the Count and expose his scheming. He responds by trying to legally compel Figaro to marry a woman old enough to be his mother, but it turns out at the last minute that she really is his mother. Through Figaro’s and Susanna’s clever manipulations, the Count’s love for his Countess is finally restored.
Little Women
Mark Adamo
Conductor – Thomas Cockrell
Stage Director – Linda Ade Brand
Mark Adamo’s Little Women is adapted from American author Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel of a young woman’s understandable but doomed struggle to prevent life from taking her beloved sisters away from her. The story focuses on Jo, the second of four teenage daughters in a freethinking New England family during the Civil War era. Energetic and headstrong, Jo cherishes her perfect family life and doesn’t want it to ever change. However, as life progresses with its joys, tragedies, conflicts and resolutions, Jo comes to realize that the only way to the future is to accept the past as the past, no matter how happy yesterday was, because it can never come again. As she accepts this sad wisdom, a romantic interest enters her life.
The Pirates of Penzance
Gilbert & Sullivan
Studio Program Artists’ Production
Music Director – Adam Kerry Boyles
Stage Director – Linda Ade Brand
The Opera in the Ozarks touring version of The Pirates of Penzance offers something for all ages: raucous silliness combined with memorable music, a rollicking band of pirates (Aaarrgghh!), a bevy of beautiful maidens, a stalwart Major-General, and a young hero torn between his sense of duty and the woman he loves. Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operetta has delighted audiences ever since its first performance in 1880. Join the Pirate King and his crew as they wreak minor havoc in tuneful merriment. You will discover why Mabel and her sweetheart Frederic may have to wait sixty years before they can finally wed! And you will learn the secret the pirates have kept hidden deeper than their buried treasure!
