About this Event
3015 Merida Avenue, Fort Worth, TX 76109
#LeadOnTCUMusicPlease join the School of Music for the presentation of Offenbach: The Island of Tulipatan and Dan Shore: The Beautiful Bridegroom by the TCU Opera Studio.
Admission $10/$5 with non-TCU student ID/free with TCU ID
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The Island of Tulipatan
Opera in English w/subtitles
Music by Jacques Offenbach
New English Dialogue by Jack Helbig
New English Lyrics by Gregg Opelka
Directed by David Gately
Musical Direction by Stephen Carey
Edited by Tyson Deaton
Subtitles by Dr. Corey Trahan
A madcap adventure on the Island of Tulipatan which is situated about 15,000 miles from Texas and takes place about 473 years before the invention of the spittoon. The piece pokes fun at gender norms and what is acceptable behavior by the two sexes. It tells the unlikely tale of a romance between the young maiden, Hermosa and the handsome Prince Alexis.
It seems that Hermosa, born as a boy, was raised as a girl by his very eccentric parents Romboidal and Theodorine. They did so to avoid sending a son away to war sometime in the future. And so Hermosa indeed thinks himself a girl and yet doesn’t seem to take to “girlish” things and can’t understand why.
Meanwhile, “Prince” Alexis was actually born a girl, but is raised as a boy because her mother just couldn’t bring herself to tell her husband Duke Cacatois XXII that she had produced a third daughter for her husband. The Duke, oblivious to the fact that Alexis was born a girl, raises her/him to be a boy and just can’t understand why she/he is so taken with “girlish” things.
Complications and hilarity ensue as each of the young lovers discover that they have been raised as the “wrong” sex. The piece plays with gender expectations, and while the happy ending is what might be expected, it has to be considered ahead of its time for a piece that was originally written in 1868.
The Beautiful Bridegroom
Opera in English w/Subtitles
Music and Libretto by Dan Shore
Directed by David Gately
Musical Direction by Stephen Carey
Edited by Tyson Deaton
Subtitles by Dr. Corey Trahan
A hilarious romp! A unique one act opera in that composer Dan Shore scored it for six sopranos! A perfect piece for the Opera Studio at TCU where this year we have a preponderance of incredibly talented Sopranos!
Synopsis
The widowed Terentia (Jeannie Miller), after a visit to the city to find a husband for her daughter Laruentia (Janell Stallard), decides that she herself would like to marry – not her wealthy neighbor Jeroniumus, who has made repeated offers, but rather a young man in his twenties! As she would like to keep this a secret from her two daughters Laurentia and Leonora (Olivia Flores), she charges her indignant maid, Pernille (Kathryn Piña), to keep quiet.
Leonora is trying to learn how to dance, which she hopes she will be able to do soon at a wedding for her older sister Laurentia. Laurentia herself is uninterested in getting married, which confuses the amorous Leonora. They spot an agitated Pernille, who lets slip that she is on her way to see Madam Kirsten (Marcie Duplantis) the local matchmaker. The two girls believe that she will be bringing a husband for Laurentia.
Madam Kirsten muses on her unusual assignment, and the fact that Pernille has asked her to help expose Terentia’s folly. The Matchmaker meets with Terentia and encourages her to accept her old neighbor Jeronimus as a husband, but Terentia prefers the kind of man she has seen in the city: young and beautiful. Madam Kirsten suggests the captain Frands von Frauenliebe (Maggie Williams) who is, in reality, Madame Kirsten’s young niece and who could pass for a beautiful young man! Madame Kirsten has hatched a plot!
Pernille, Laurentia, and Leonora prepare frantically for the coming visitor, unsure of how best to proceed. Kirsten enters and presents Captain von Frauenliebe, who captivates all of the ladies. To the horror of Laurentia and Leonora, the marriage is arranged between Frauenlibe and Terentia.
While Terentia exults over her coming wedding, Pernille excoriates her for not having the captain marry Laurentia instead. Madam Kirsten enters in tears: the handsome young man has mysteriously been transformed into a woman! Frauenliebe enters and bewails her fate. Terentia, humbled, agrees to marry Jeronimus. Laurentia is still mysteriously attracted to the female captain…. And perhaps it remains for Pernille to teach Leonora how to dance!
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