Baylor Presents Opera Scenes April 26-27

by Richard Veit

Baylor University Opera Theater will present "An Evening of Opera Scenes" at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 26-27, in the Baylor Blackbox Opera Theater, which is located near University Parks Drive, between the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center and Waco Creek.
Both performances of opera excerpts--fully staged and costumed, with piano accompaniment--will be directed by Richard Aslanian, senior lecturer in music and director of opera.
Opening the programs will be Pamina's scene (with the Three Spirits) from the second act of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Magic Flute, followed by the second scene from Act I of Gioacchino Rossini's La Cenerentola ("Cinderella").
Also to be heard are the second-act "forest scene" from Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel and the first scene of Act II from Robert Ward's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Crucible.
Two excerpts from the opening act of Ruggiero Leoncavallo's verismo opera I Pagliacci, Nedda's aria and the duet of Nedda and Silvio, also will be presented.
The performances will close with the dialogue and trio from the third scene of Mozart's The Impresario.
All of the excerpts, with the exception of Hansel and Gretel and The Impresario, will be performed in the original languages.
These performances are free and open to the public. For more information, call the School of Music at 710-3991.