Starting on Wednesday, Nov. 11, SUU Opera will present Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Medium” with classic scenes from the opera and musical theater repertoire. Featuring stage and vocal direction by Carol Ann Modesitt, this SUU Opera production, produced by the department of music, runs Nov. 11-14 at 7:30 p.m. in the Thorley Recital Hall within SUU’s music building.
“The Medium” was commissioned by New York’s Columbia University where it was produced in May 1946. The opera drew instant acclaim and was subsequently produced professionally in New York as part of a double bill in winter 1947 before transferring to Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theater, running for over 200 performances with a revival in 1950 running over 100 additional performances.
A supernatural operatic treat, “The Medium” is an atmospheric chamber opera guaranteed to excite anyone with a bent for musicalized melodrama. The piece centers on Madame Flora (known as Baba), a charlatan spiritualist who conducts phony seances in her parlor. Assisted by her daughter and a deaf-mute orphan boy she took in off the street, Madame Flora cons grieving parents into believing that they are communicating with the spirits of their dead children. However, on a particular night, Madame Flora’s fake seance is visited by an unsettling phantom, leading the medium to question her sanity. Set in New Orleans, the hour-long opera echoes the sensibilities of a Southern Gothic short story. Sung in accessible English, Menotti’s score abounds in influences from American vernacular and jazz music, making for the kind of musical piece equally at home in a Broadway theater or the Metropolitan Opera House.
The cast for “The Medium” features alternating singers in certain roles. Madi Davis and Rebecca Dayley alternate in the role of Madame Flora (Baba). Flora’s daughter, Monica, is sung by Michelle Reid and Ashlee Shipp. The role of Toby, the mute assistant, is performed by Ben Cano. The role of Mrs. Gobineau is sung by Gabrielle Szczerbiak and Leslie Perkins, while Mr. Gobineau is sung by Jordan Sanders. Jen Davis and Shayla Rowley alternate as Mrs. Nolan.
Featuring music by Mozart, Puccini, Cole Porter, and Frank Wildhorn, the evening will also include a series of scenes from the opera repertoire and songs from the musical theater. From the opera realm, Jocelyn Taylor and Corlissa Jensen sing a scene from Otto Nicolai and Salomon Hermann Mosenthal’s “Merry Wives of Windsor,” based on the classic Shakespeare comedy. A pair of scenes from Mozart’s delightful “The Marriage of Figaro” are sung by Jen Davis, Clairissa Dalton, Macey Naumann, and Kalina Stokes. Exquisite duets from Delibes’s “Lakme” performed by Amanda Gagnon and Corlissa Jensen, Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale” sung by Ben Lieske and Macey Naumann, and Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” sung by Claire Robinson and Lindsey Lopez are also on the program. Contemporary opera is represented with selections from Michael Ching’s “Speed Dating Tonight!” performed by Amanda Gagnon, Cameron Pruett, Jordan Sanders, and Jocelyn Taylor.
From the musical theater stage, there is “The Honeymoon Is Over” from Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s “I Do! I Do!” performed by Jeremy Ream and Emily Day. The rousing “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” from Cole Porter’s beloved “Kiss Me, Kate,” is sung by Ben Cano, Ben Lieske, and Jordan Sanders. A scene from Frank Wildhorn’s “Jekyll and Hyde” will be sung by Andrea Church and Gabrielle Szczerbiak, and a selection from Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boubill’s Martin Guerre is sung by Bertrand Keatley Smith and Ben Lieske.
Tickets are $6 for adults, $4 for SUU alumni with card, and $3 for children. SUU faculty, staff and students are admitted at no charge with a valid I.D. For more information on the SUU College of Performing and Visual Arts events, please visit suu.edu/pva/arts.
