In February of 2009 I had the pleasure of meeting a very talented lady named Virginia Stewart Britton. We performed together in a great production of one of my favorite Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, Gondoliers. As we got to know each other, Virginia began telling me about her new project called Once Upon an Opera, a unique art form featuring timeless stories set to the greatest hits of classical music. The stories are fairy tales with a 'Virginia' twist. I told her I wanted to be involved, so in October we premiered her first three operas in Northridge. I played the role of the narrator for all three of the stories which included The Three Piggy Opera, Red Riding Hood and the Ninjas and The Kid Who Cried Wolf.In December the group performed the Three Piggy Opera at Simi Community Christmas, and it was a big hit.
In June we remounted all three operas, and I began serving as a producer of sorts, sort of organizing the communications, coordinating performance details, and serving as jack of all trades. We performed on June 12th at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to an enthusiastic crowd of about 325 people. We repeated performances at the Madrid Theater two weeks later.
Virginia has since completed Sleeping Beauty and is working on Cinderella, both of which will be performed next Spring.
These mini 20 minute operas are the perfect vehicle for schools and churches to bring music into their programs. Check us out at OnceUponanOpera.org.
1 comment:
My boys STILL talk about it. Every time we hear some of the classical music represented in the show, they ask me "isn't that from Wolf Tales?"
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