Thu 11/10-Sat 11/12 @ 8PM
Sun 11/13 @ 2PM
Oberlin Opera Theater gives its vocal students a chance to do something they might not encounter later in their careers: tackle some unfamiliar and off-the-beaten track material far from the endless crowd-pleasing Butterflies and Bohemes opera companies stage to pay the bills.
This week it’s offering a double bill of one-act operas it’s never produced before: Jacques Offenbach’s Offenbach’s Le mariage aux lanternes (The Wedding by Lantern Light) and Gioachino Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro (Opportunity Makes a Thief). While both composers are familiar on opera stages (Rossini wrote 39 operas), these particular works are not.
The program will be performed four times at Oberlin College’s Hall Auditorium, with the double-cast student casts led by guest conductor Joseph Mechavich (’92). Longtime Oberlin Opera associate professor Jonathon Feld, who will be retiring the end of the school year, directed the works.
Both the operas are lightweight and fun — no bodies carried off at the end or arias of agonized lament. Le mariage aux lanternes is a farcical romance set in a French country village, with an overture and seven musical numbers interspersed with spoken dialogue. It will be sung in French with English supertitles. L’occasione fa il ladro is also a comic opera featuring mistaken identities and changing attractions — mainstays of the comic stage. It’s in Italian, with English supertitles.
“Each opera has its individual flavor that comes from the countries of origin: France and Italy,” says Field. “The French opera deals with the rustic life that was still a part of the culture, with songs that everyone can enjoy even now. The Italian work has a more complex plot, dealing with mistaken identities and mixed up luggage, which we are calling ‘Love’s Luggage Lost.’ Our design and technical team have created worlds that are modern, yet keep the unique flavor of each piece.”
General admission tickets are$10, $8 for students. Call 800-371-0178 or go to oberlin.edu/tickets.