BU College of Fine Arts Dean's Blog

2001 Fall Fringe Festival

The Fringe Festival, now in its 15^th season, is a collaboration between the Schools of Music and Theatre and The Opera Institute.  Its mission is to produce new or rarely performed works of significance in the opera and theater repertoire, bringing performers and audiences close together in unique theatrical settings.

October 2011

Bluebeard’s Castle

Composer: Béla Bartók

Librettist: Béla Balázs

Based on a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault

Conductor: William Lumpkin

Stage Director: Jim Petosa

Friday, October 7, 8:00pm

Saturday, October 8, 6:00pm and 8:00pm

Sunday, October 9, 2:00pm

Lane-Conley Studio 210

A psychologically probing tale of a young bride’s insistence on opening all the locked doors of her new husband’s castle.  Despite his protestations she persists, with disturbing consequences.

Three Decembers

Composer: Jake Heggie

Librettist: Gene Scheer

Based on an original play by Terrence McNally

Conductor: Allison Voth

Stage Director: Tomer Zvulun

Friday, Saturday, October 14,15 at 8:00 pm;  Sunday, October 16, 2:00pm and 6:00pm

Lane-Conley Studio 210

This powerful and poignant one act opera explores the painful and complex relationships between a famous actress and her two grown children through three Decembers of their lives (between 1986 and 2006), as they unfold the family’s hidden truths: infidelity, separation, homophobia and aids, tragedy, and loss.

Jake Heggie on Jake Heggie

(Art Song Meets Theatre)

Friday, October 28, 8:00pm

Lane-Conley Studio 210

This evening of staged songs is the culmination of a residency by renowned composer Jake Heggie (Moby Dick, Three Decembers, Dead Man Walking). Mr. Heggie will be at the piano, having coached the repertoire both musically and dramatically.  The program, selected from his vast song literature to enhance the CFA year-long theme of VIOLENCE, will include selections from a new cycle on the occasion of the 10^th anniversary of 9/11, plus songs on themes of war, spousal abuse, and duets from A Word or a Touch, about the persecution of gays during the holocaust.

The evening will feature singers from The Opera Institute and Vocal Performance degree programs.

Limited seating:  Admission is Free, but requires a ticket.

December 2011

Winter Opera Scenes

December 3, 4,  Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 pm

Concert Hall, 855 Commonwealth Ave

Singers from the Opera Institute, Opera Theatre and Opera Workshops, with musical and stage direction by opera faculty and guests, perform staged scenes and arias, and a one-act opera from the standard and “not-so-standard” operatic repertoire.

February

FEBRUARY MAINSTAGE

Il Matrimonio Segreto

Composer: Domenico Cimarosa

Librettist: Giovanni Bertati

after The Clandestine Marriage (1766) by George Colman the Elder and David Garrick.

Conductor:  William Lumpkin

Stage Director:  TBA

February 23 – 26, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 7:30

February 26, Sunday at 2:00

Boston University Theater, Mainstage

This farcical domestic comedy features arranged marriages, dowries, feuding sisters, tangled circumstances, banishment to convents, and misdirected romantic aspirations.  Inspired in part by Hogarth’s painting series “Marriage A-la-Mode,” it lives as a musical bridge between Mozart and Rossini, with both beautiful lyrical melodies, and brilliant challenging ensembles.

March Opera Marathon

March 3, Saturday

March 4, Sunday

Concert Hall, 855 Commonwealth Ave

Please see BU calendar on the web after February 1 for specific times and venues

Now in its third year, the Marathon brings together singers from all opera programs who join forces to present one act operas and operatic and theatrical scenes spaced throughout the weekend. Musically directed and staged by BU opera faculty, guest artists and directing students, this year’s Marathon especially celebrates the 100^th birthday of Gian Carlo Menotti.

Free admission

April

APRIL MAINSTAGE

The Dialogues of the Carmelites

Composer: Francis Poulenc

Libretto by Francis Poulenc and Emmet Lavery

from the drama by Georges Bernanos,

based on the novel by Gertrude von Le Fort

Conductor: William Lumpkin

Stage Director: Sharon Daniels

April 19,20, 21, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 7:30

April 22, Sunday at 2:00

Boston University Theater, Mainstage

A poignant and tragic look at the French Revolution from the viewpoint of a young woman from an aristocratic family who has entered a monastery of Carmelite nuns in Compiegne to deal with her pathological fear of life itself, only to witness the revolution unfold around her.  The opera is based on the true story of the thirteen sisters of Compiegne, who defied the dictates of the revolution even after their order was dissolved, by meeting secretly to worship, and were ultimately martyred at the guillotine.