Classical music notes: This Tuesday night UW Opera to feature scenes from “Carmen,” “Pagliacci” and other famous opera

By Jacob Stockinger

Last Wednesday, when I listed the free and public University Opera workshop coming up this Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. in Music Hall, at the foot of Bascom Hill, I didn’t have a program for the event of snippets and scenes — with minimal costumes and the suggestion of sets ( That’s unlike the photo, below, of UW graduate student and soprano Emily Birsan in the title role of Jules Massenet’s “Thais,” which was University Opera’s most recent full production.)

Now I do, and it might well appeal to some fans and draw new ones.

This performance will present selected scenes from several famous operas such as Bizet’s “Carmen,” Boito’s “Mefistofele,” Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel,”Donizetti’s “L’elisir d’amore” and Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci.”

Well, OK, maybe Boito isn’t so famous. But the rest certainly are.

A reception for the musicians and the audience, sponsored by Opera Props, will follow and will be held in the lobby of the Carol Rennebohm Auditorium of Music Hall.

For more information, here are two links:

http://www.music.wisc.edu/opera

http://www.uwoperaprops.org/home.html

If you go, let us know what you thought — high points, low points, overall quality — and whether you encourage others to attend the workshops.

The Ear wants to hear.

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Posted in Classical music