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Event
Adventures in Opera: Previews of The MetLive in HD - Season I -- John Frey
Five Sessions: Wednesdays, October 9, 23, November 6, 20, 2019. January 8, 2020 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Odd Fellows Hall, San Luis Obispo
$25 for LLCC members, $50 for non-members
Register Soon for "Adventures in Opera" on Brown Paper Tickets
Your favorite opera expert John Frey will be enhancing your enjoyment of the upcoming New York Met Opera Season Broadcasts that will be shown at the PAC at Cal Poly. LLCC is sponsoring John's previews for each of these operas prior to their showings in the theater venues. The previews will be a discussion of the plots and characters that will prepare you to better understand and enjoy these new MET productions.
A list of opera performances for Season I (2019-2020) that will be broadcast to audiences in SLO County is presented below.
Name of Opera LLCC Previews* Live Shows** Encores at PAC***
Turandot WED- Oct 9 (1-3pm) SAT- Oct 12 (10am) SUN- Oct 20 (2pm)
Manon WED- Oct 23 (1-3pm) SAT- Oct 26 (10am) SUN- Nov 3 (2pm)
Madama Butterfly WED- Nov 6 (1-3pm) SAT- Nov 9 (10am) SUN- Dec 1 (2pm)
Akhnaten WED- Nov 20 (1-3pm) SAT- Nov 23 (10am) SUN- Jan 12 (2pm)
Wozzeck WED- Jan 8 (1-3pm) SAT- Jan 11 (10am) SUN- Jan 26 (2pm)
*LLCC previews at Odd Fellows Hall, 520 Dana St, SLO
**Downtown Cinema (SLO), Galaxy (Atascadero)
***Performing Arts Center, Sponsored by Cal PolyArts, OperaSLO
Tickets for the actual The MetLive in HD showings must be purchased at the various venues independently of the fees for this preview course.
Turandot
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian. The Chinese Princess Turandot, is destined to marry but has pledged to thwart any attempts of suitors because of an ancestor's abduction by a prince and resultant death. With each suitor, Turandot poses three riddles. If the suitor answers all three riddles correctly, he wins the hand of the princess. If he fails, he loses his head. This opera features the great aria Nessun Dorma (No one Sleeps) popularized by Luciano Pavarotti.
Manon
Manon is an opera in five acts by Jules Massenet based on the 1731 novel Lhistoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost. When the young lovers meet Manon is sixteen. We follow her through her famous arias, as she evolves from a naive provincial girl into a young woman made for pleasure with an instinct for making her own way in the world. Manon is a tragic beauty who yearns for the finer things in life. The desperate love of Chevalier des Grieux for Manon proves their undoing.
Madama Butterfly
This is an opera in two acts, by Giacomo Puccini, with words after the drama of David Belasco. Madama Butterfly, is the story of a Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio-San, who is loved and then abandoned by an American naval officer in the port city of Nagasaki about the year 1900. Cio-Cio-San is forced into the profession of geisha to make a living following her fathers hari-kari. Pinkerton is a young US naval officer. Reaching Japan, he falls in love and marries Butterfly. She abhors the geisha system into which poverty and the rules imposed by Japanese society have forced her. If she can become an American she believes she will be protected.
Akhnaten (opera)
Akhnaten is an opera in three acts based on the life and religious convictions of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), written by the American composer Philip Glass in 1983. Akhenaten is an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who rules for 17 years and dies in 1335 BC. He is noted for abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on the Aten (the disk of the sun in ancient Egyptian mythology). The text is sung in the original languages, linked together with the commentary of a narrator. Egyptian texts of the period are taken from a poem of Akhenaten himself, from the Book of the Dead, and from extracts of decrees and letters from the seventeen-year period of Akhenaten's rule. Other portions are in Biblical Hebrew
Wozzec
Wozzeck is an opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg based on a fragmentary literary work,
Woyzeck, by Georg Büchner. The opera was first performed in 1925.. The subject matter - the inevitability of hardship and exploitation for the poor and his fatal romance with Marie is uncompromisingly presented. The opera depicts Woyzecks descent into madness and murder as the inevitable consequence of sexual betrayal.
The course uses DVDs of complete musical productions and a 65-page syllabus including biographies. production sources and history, commentary, analysis and synopses.
John Frey taught chemistry and engaged in chemical research for 45 years at several universities and is now retired. He serves on the Board of Directors of OperaSLO, the Lifelong Learners of the Central Coast and the SLO Master Chorale. He teaches courses on opera and musical theater for LLCC and OperaSLO. He has had over 7 decades of singing experience with various choral groups and has performed in the chorus of OperaSLO.
If you would like to have the password for the member price for this course, go to www.lifelearnerscc.org for information on how you can become a member.
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LocationOdd Fellows Hall (View)
520 Dana St.
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
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