Lincoln, Neb., Sept. 19, 2002 -- The University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music will take its production of the opera "The Bohemian Girl" on the road internationally. A cast and crew of more than 40 will leave Sept. 24 for Waterford, Ireland in preparation for a Sept. 26 performance at the Royal Theatre.
UNL's performance of the opera first took stage this April in Lincoln before embarking on a summer tour to opera houses in the Midwest. It wraps up the tour Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at the Red Cloud (Neb.) Opera House, the same venue where Willa Cather saw her first performance of the opera.
At the Royal Theatre, the fully staged and costumed production will feature the best of the UNL Opera Program's student singers and two faculty members. The baritone role of the Count will be performed by William Shomos, who, in addition to directing the UNL opera program, has a flourishing career as a director and performer in regional companies. Ariel Bybee, UNL artist-in-residence in the School of Music, and James Ford, associate professor of English, are co-directing the production.
The Bohemian Girl was the most popular operatic work in English for over 70 years, from the time Michael William Balfe created it in 1843 until well into the 20th Century. It is a rousing light opera in a style once described as "Rossini meets Gilbert and Sullivan."
The story is full of intrigue, danger, and romance; it is also full of beautiful music. George Bernard Shaw wrote that Balfe's ballads were "better than Tchaikovsky's." Two arias are still in the concert repertoire: "I Dreamt That I Dwelt in Marble Halls," (Joan Sutherland's favorite encore number) and "You'll remember me."
When Philip Kennicott, Chief Classical Music Critic of The Washington Post, heard of UNL's revival of "The Bohemian Girl," he wrote: "I'm thrilled to hear that Balfe's opera will be performed (in a restored opera house). I can't think of a more appropriate theatrical environment in which to present this work, so little known yet so vital to American opera history. It seems that a national revival of the score is just about inevitable, and long overdue." The trip is funded by a grant from James and Rhonda Seacrest of Lincoln.
Contact: Michael Edholm, School of Music, (402) 472-6865
( medholm2@unl.edu )
For questions regarding these releases, contact:
tsimons1@unl.edu
(402) 472-8514, Fax: (402) 472-7825