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EVANSTON, Ill. --- A fully-staged production of Mark Adamo’s “Little Women” and a vocal master class taught by Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato are the keynote events of Northwestern University’s winter 2014 opera season.
Mark Adamo’s “Little Women”
Presented by the University’s Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music, “Little Women” will be staged at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 27; 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 28; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 1; and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 2, in Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson St. on Northwestern’s Evanston campus. Adamo’s opera will be performed in English.
Directed by Michael M. Ehrman, Bienen School artist-in-residence and director of opera, “Little Women” will feature a score performed by the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra under the direction of guest conductor Hal France.
Adamo, who composes opera, chamber music, symphonies and choral works, prepared the music and libretto as an adaptation of the classic Louisa May Alcott novel. “Little Women” was Adamo’s highly-praised debut opera, premiering at the Houston Grand Opera in 1998. It has been performed in more than 80 cities worldwide. In Tokyo, it served as the official U.S. cultural entrant to the 2005 World Expo.
“Little Women” follows the stories of the four March sisters -- Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy -- through the memories of tomboyish Jo, as they grow up in Civil War-era New England.
The shared role of Jo, the opera’s main character, will be sung by Bienen School graduate students Kelsey Park and Melissa Serluco. Opera tickets are $16 for the general public and $7 for students with valid IDs.
Joyce DiDonato vocal master class and webcast
DiDonato will lead Bienen School voice and opera students in a public master class at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 12, in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. The New Yorker called DiDonato “perhaps the most potent female singer of her generation,” and she was named Musical America’s 2013 Vocalist of the Year. Her recent performances include a recital tour of South America, the title role of “Maria Stuarda” at the Metropolitan Opera, and the title role of “La donna del lago” at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. She received the Met’s Beverly Sills Award and was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame. Master class tickets are $8 for the general public and $5 for students with valid IDs.
Di Donato’s March 12 master class will be webcast live. For more information, visit Pick-Staiger.
To order tickets, call the Pick-Staiger Ticket Office at (847) 467-4000 or visit www.pickstaiger.org. For more information, call the Pick-Staiger Concert Office at (847) 491-5441 or visit www.pickstaiger.org. For information regarding the current south campus construction project parking and directions, visit www.pickstaiger.org/construction.
