ENTERTAINMENT NOTES : Operatic voices, soulful strings fill the air with beautiful music
Posted on Sunday, May 11, 2008
Students of the Chotard Institute of Music will stage two one-act operas by Benjamin Britten — Abraham and Isaac and The Golden Vanity — at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, 4823 Woodlawn Ave., Little Rock.
Abraham and Isaac is based on the story of sacrifice and dedication to God from Genesis. Davis Fleming and Rachel Madigan will sing the title roles.
In The Golden Vanity, which Britten composed in 1966 for the Vienna Boys’ Choir, a double chorus of treble voices tells the story of a sea battle involving Turkish pirates, a treacherous sea captain (Alisia Amos ) and the humble cabin boy (Tony Chacko ) who saves the day. Fleming, Madigan, Katharine Carter, Caitlin Mahaffy and Annie Dunnagan round out the cast.
Ann Chotard is stage director with accompanist Stratsimir Pavlov.
Admission is free. Call (501 ) 664-7440. Soprano’s benefit Soprano Allison Stanford, winner of the Music Teachers National Association’s 2008 Young Artist Competition, will give a benefit recital, “A Night of Opera and Musical Theatre,” at 7: 30 p.m. Thursday at First Presbyterian Church, 2400 Prince St., Conway.
Stanford’s program will include “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Puccini; “A simple sailor lowly born” from H. M. S. Pinafore by Gilbert & Sullivan; “Je dis que rien” from Carmen by Georges Bizet; and several standards, including “Moon River,” “ Fly Me to the Moon” and “Night and Day.” Stanford says she’s still settling on an accompanist.
Stanford, a graduate of Conway High School and the University of Mississippi, this month is receiving her master’s degree in music with an emphasis in opera performance from Arizona State University.
Admission is free; Stanford is accepting donations to help her study this summer at the Lyric Opera Studio of Weimar in Germany.
Call (501 ) 329-6483. Sapphire and spring Sopranos Deleen Davidson and Katherine Cronin, trombonist Steven Suter, string bassist Bill Huntington and pianists Barbara Richards and Marilyn Davidson will give a concert called “Sapphire Sky, Voices of Spring” at 7: 30 p.m. Thursday in the Woodlands Auditorium, Ponce de Leon Center, DeSoto Boulevard and Balboa Drive, Hot Springs Village.
All the performers except Cronin have ties to New Orleans, where most of them made their homes before Hurricane Katrina drove them north.
The program will include the premiere of Eugenie Rocherolle’s arrangement for two pianos, four hands, of her twopiano, eight-hand composition Jambalaya, plus music ranging from opera to Broadway and jazz.
Tickets are $ 15. Call (501 ) 922-4231. String students The University of Arkansas Preparatory Orchestra, Northwest Arkansas string students ages 8-18, will give a concert at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall, Fine Arts Building, UA Fayetteville.
The program will include arrangements of “Air” (“ on the G String” ) from the Orchestra Suite No. 3 and a fantasia on “Sleepers, Awake” by J. S. Bach; “Pie Jesu” from Requiem by Gabriel Faure; “Entrance of the Queen of Sheba” from Solomon by George Frideric Handel; Earl of Oxford’s Marche by William Byrd; and Molly on the Shore by Percy Grainger. Joshua Russell conducts.
Admission is free. Call (479 ) 575-4701. Schoolhouse auditions Community Theatre of Little Rock will hold auditions at 7 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, in the Fellowship Hall of Pulaski Heights Presbyterian Church, 4401 Woodlawn Ave., Little Rock, for Schoolhouse Rock Live, Too !, the musical sequel to Schoolhouse Rock Live !, based on the ABC Saturday morning cartoon series created by George Newall and Tom Yohe.
Parts are available for six main characters and a chorus, ages 16 and up. Auditioners should prepare a song — bring sheet music for the accompanist; there will also be a dance component (wear comfortable clothing ) and readings will be from the script.
Production dates are July 18-20 and 25-27.
Call (501 ) 663-9494 or visit the Web site, www. communi tytheatreoflittlerock. com. A few good men...
The River City Men’s Chorus will hold open auditions starting at 5: 30 p.m. Thursday at Trinity United Methodist Church, 1101 N. Mississippi St., Little Rock.
Director David Glaze likes to keep the auditions loose, so no preparation is necessary. Concert dates are Sept. 21-22, Dec. 7, 8 and 11 and April 26-27, 2009.
Call Board President Brian Bush at (501 ) 377-3408 for more information or to schedule an appointment.
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