Go back in time to when live radio shows ruled the airways as the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Music Department presents its Opera Workshop, April 21-22.
“Dial M for Moore Menotti,” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 21-22, in Michelsen Hall in the Noel Fine Arts Center, 1800 Portage St., Stevens Point. Tickets are $17 each and are available at 715-346-4100, tickets.uwsp.edu or at the Information and Tickets Office in the Dreyfus University Center.
The performance is of three American operas, “Gallantry,” by Douglas Moore, and “The Telephone” and “The Old Maid and the Thief” by Gian Carlo Menotti. Each will be presented like a staged radio show from the 1950s, with performances by vocal music students under the direction of Associate Professor Matthew Markham, voice, and music director Kristin Ditlow, a guest artist and faculty member at the University of New Mexico.
Between the shows, commercials will be performed by the cast, with original jingles by Professor Mathew Buchman, jazz studies. The commercials will feature area business sponsors, such as Mullins Cheese.
“It’s a very funny show for all ages,” said Markham. “We have lots of Stevens Point references throughout, with relatable small-town characters.”
“Gallantry” is a literal soap opera, with a dramatic half-hour story about soap. “Telephone” is a half-hour comedy about an intrusive phone call. “The Old Maid and the Thief” is the longest of the three at one hour, and tells the story of an old maid who takes in a boarder and becomes the subject of gossip.
“The Opera Workshop gives our vocal music students the opportunity to act, sing and perform as well as get donations, market the show and help create the set, lighting and costumes,” said Markham. “Everyone pitches in.”