Opera Scenes to Be Presented Nov. 17-18

by Richard Veit

Baylor University audiences will be treated to excerpts from six famous operas at 8 p.m. Nov. 17-18, in Roxy Grove Hall. The performances will be conducted by Richard Aslanian, lecturer in music and director of opera, and will feature student singers from Baylor Opera Theater.
Both presentations will be fully staged and costumed, with piano accompaniment.
Highlights from two of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's operas will be heard: the trio from his one-act farce, "The Impresario," and the finale from Act I of his two-act opera, "Così fan tutte." Both will be sung in their English translations.
A scene from one of the most popular of all American operas, "The Ballad of Baby Doe," will also be featured. The fifth scene of Act I is set in Denver, Colo., during 1880. "The Ballad of Baby Doe" is of relatively recent vintage and was written by American composer Douglas Moore (in English, of course) in the mid 1950s.
Other excerpts will include scenes 7 through 9 of the first act of Gaetano Donizetti's "The Elixir of Love," and Act I, scene 4 from Francis Poulenc's "Dialogues of the Carmelites." These, too, will be performed using English translations.
Scenes 4 through 6 of the opening act of Amilcare Ponchielli's "La Gioconda" will conclude the two events, and in this case the music will be sung in its original Italian.
Both evenings of opera scenes are free and open to the public. For more information, call the Baylor School of Music at 755-3991.