It’s known as one of the most rollicking comic operas in all of history; and this summer, it will come to Missoula. Montana Lyric Opera has announced that tickets go on sale today for its production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” which runs at the Montana Theatre on the University of Montana campus August 10, 12, and 14.
The centerpiece of Montana Lyric Opera’s third annual Summer Opera Festival, the production promises a full immersion in Mozart’s classic score, with full sets, costumes, and a pit orchestra, said Luis Millan, music director for the Missoula-based professional opera company.
“It’s simply one of the great operas; that’s the most basic reason we chose to do it,” said Millan, who will conduct the performances. “It has this broad public appeal, with beautiful music, a funny story; and it’s touching in the end.” [Read More...]
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One of the most awesome and easily enjoyable operas of the latter 20th century, John Adams’ “Nixon in China,” will be presented at the Roxy Theatre in Missoula this Saturday as part of the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD Series. For anyone who (understandably) still labors under the misperception that contemporary classical music and opera are difficult and unpleasant, this is simply a must-see. [Read More...]
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About five years ago, a woman named Maria Laubach arrived in Western Montana and took a job at the DirecTV call center in Missoula. Apart from the slight accent that betrayed her childhood upbringing in South Africa, Laubach probably didn’t stand out too much at her new workplace. That was by design. Hers was a story like so many: Pulled to this region by the allure of natural beauty and a slower pace, she and her new husband, Richard, settled south of Stevensville, where they could quietly raise horses and ride motorcycles and live out their shared dream of the Western lifestyle.
“On our very first date we discussed moving out west and having land,” she recalls today. “It’s something we both really wanted to do. So when my husband had the opportunity to transfer out here, we took it as a sign and just did it.”
It was a dramatic shift for Laubach, who left behind more than her maiden name, Jooste, when she married Richard. In the years before the couple moved here from Maryland, Maria Jooste had become something of a young celebrity in the east-coast operatic world. [Read More...]
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Sheila Sorge still remembers that day when she first noticed that her granddaughter loved to sing. It was Christmas Eve, and Emily Peragine was only three years old. The congregation at her church began singing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” and young Emily began singing along.
Loudly.
“She didn’t know any of the words, she couldn’t read, but she could just sing,” recalls Sorge. “People kept turning around looking at this little thing standing on the pew. You could tell she had an ear and loved it.”
Nowadays, people rarely have to turn around to hear Emily sing. The senior at Hellgate High School has become a regular fixture on stages around town, filling auditoriums with the bright vibrato of her arrestingly powerful voice. Trained as a coloratura soprano – a highly ornamented style of classical singing — she has set her sights on a career that few people from this region of the country even realize is viable in the modern world: Peragine aims to become an opera singer. [Read More...]
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This Saturday is, of course, Halloween; and there are about a billion things going on in town, most of them involving conspicuous costumery. Still, the best costumes won’t be found at the bars; instead, they’ll be on screen at the Roxy Theatre, where the Metropolitan Opera’s “Live in HD” series continues with Verdi’s “Aida,” the most spectacular of operatic spectaculars… [Read More...]
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Growing up in Missoula, Andy Morris never had much exposure to opera. Even as he earned his college degree as an orchestral French horn player, Morris says his knowledge of the music and drama of opera remained limited.
A few years spent in Italy changed all that.
“Living in Italy and being immersed in the classical music culture there was such an inspiration and made me take another look at opera, which is so much more a part of the culture there,” said Morris, who lived in Italy for the past five and a half years, the last few months of which were spent working on a Master’s degree in performing arts management.
As he contemplated the end of his studies there and an impending move back to Missoula, Morris decided to look into how he might begin building an opera audience in Missoula, a town which – until this past year – lacked its own professional opera company.
“I had to do a thesis project, and I thought of the Met broadcasts,” said Morris, referring to the four-year-old series of live simulcasts of opera performances from New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
“When I learned that only Bozeman and Helena were offering them in Montana, I decided to make that my summer project: to bring them to Missoula.” [Read More...]
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