An
age of beautiful songs
"The
Age of Bel Canto" – scenes and arias from operas of Rossini,
Bellini and Donizetti – will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday,
April 27, and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 28, in Miller Concert Hall. It's
the last performance this season for the Opera and Musical Theatre
Series.
Three
outstanding composers are most closely identified with the style
"bel canto," which literally means "beautiful song"
and describes the elegant Italian vocal style of the early 19th
century.
By
around 1850, when the music dramas of Wagner and the fiery melodrama
of Verdi were the rage, musicians began to use "bel canto"
to describe the previous era in which a light, florid delivery and
flowing melody was prized over weighty vocal tone and dense orchestrations,
says Marie Allyn King, director of opera and musical theater.
WSU
opera theater students will perform excerpts including Rossini's
amusing take on "Cinderella," "La Cenerentola;"
Donizetti's masterpiece "Lucia di Lammermoor;" and Bellini's
version of "Romeo and Juliet;" "I Capuletti e i Montecchi."
The
performance features many up-and-coming younger singers, as well
as numerous students from previous opera theater productions, King
says.
The
performance will be in Italian and French with English titles. Call
978-3233 to reserve tickets. Prices start at $10 with discounts
available.
