Événement

ITALIAN OPERA WEST-COAST PREMIERE BY LESLIE LEWINTER-SUSKIND

Leslie Lewinter-Suskind's hysterical lampoon Italian Opera roasts the art, the business, and everything in-between. Like the medium it mocks so well, the operetta sets desperate housewife Lucrezia Scarpoletto (Katherine Cooper) opposite shameless philanderer Nemorino Pollione (Michael RJ Campbell) in a plot to drag Lucrezia's inattentive husband Mario Scarpoletto (Jonathan Blum) back into bed. But when the suspicions of Nemorino's simpering spouse, Vestalina, (Naomi Wilson) are aroused, helped in no small part by the wily maid, Zerbinetta, (Janet Motenko), chaos ensues. No opera composer is safe in this delightful musical romp.

Lewinter-Suskind, a resident of Sacramento, wrote Italian Opera while a graduate student at the University of New Orleans in the late 1990's. Selected for competition in the 1997 Region VI Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in Baton Rouge, LA, it went on to the regional competition at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, where it won the award for Excellence in Playwriting. California Stage mounts Italian Opera, Leslie's score arranged for the production by Peter Kagstrom and David Taylor. Ray Tatar, award-winning California Stage Artistic Director will direct. Scenic and Lighting design is by Niels Larsen.