Oklahoma City University’s award-winning Oklahoma Opera and Music Theater Company will present a haunting version of Gaetano Donizetti’s classic opera “Lucia di Lammermoor” Nov. 15 to 17.
Performances will be held at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with a 3 p.m. Sunday matinee on the university’s historic Kirkpatrick Auditorium stage, 2501 N. Backwelder. Tickets are $14 to $28 and are available online at okcu.edu/tickets or by calling 405-208-5227.
The production, based on a tragic novel by Sir Walter Scott set in the Scottish Highlands, features a cast of 28 singers and a 43-member orchestra.
Director Karen Coe Miller notes that the bel canto opera offers “a wrenching portrait of a desperate woman caught between warring clans and forced by her brother into an unwanted marriage, culminating in one of opera’s most powerful and provocative scenes.”
“Lucia di Lammermoor” made its debut at Naples’ Teatro San Carlo in 1835. Last season it was one of the top 20 most-performed operas in the world, with 48 productions across the globe. OCU’s version will be performed in Italian, with English supertitles.
A free director’s talk will be held 45 minutes before each performance. Miller noted, “Lucia is trapped in a world dominated by men. She is sold in marriage by her brother and ultimately betrayed by her lover. Unfortunately, the abuse of power against women resonates through the ages to the present day. Does Lucia go mad, or is she fighting back in the only way she can?”
Music professor Jan McDaniel will conduct the Oklahoma Opera and Music Theater Company Orchestra. The production features scenic design by professor Jason Foreman and prop design by professor Lawrence Heyman. Lighting design is by Megan Fouts and original costumes are by Reagan Williams, both of the School of Theatre’s Design and Production program.
OCU’s Oklahoma Opera and Music Theater Company, the nation’s longest-running collegiate-based opera and music theater troupe, has won seven National Opera Association Production Awards in the past six years. The school was named to Playbill's 2018-19 and 2019-20 lists of Top 10 collegiate training grounds for Broadway performers.
The ensemble’s 68th season continues with Johann Strauss II’s “Die Fledermaus,” performed in English on the Kirkpatrick stage, Feb. 21-23; Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” in Burg Theatre, Feb. 28-March 1; and Eric Idle’s “Spamalot” in Kirkpatrick, April 24-26. For details on additional performances at the Bass School of Music, visit okcu.edu/music/performances.
