Nicholas J. Horn Theatre 3200 East Cheyenne Avenue North Las Vegas, NV 89030
Spend some time with Opera Las Vegas and enjoy this double feature! About this event Celebrated composer Michael Torke was himself the inspiration to pair his and librettist A.R. Gurney’s tuneful one act opera Strawberry Fields in performance with Leonard Bernstein’s short opera, Trouble in Tahiti.* The Bernstein piece relates one day in the life of Sam and Dinah, trapped in an unfulfilling marriage, yet longing for love, and largely unable to communicate. By opera’s end, the two show a willing, if melancholy maturity to honor their commitment to preserve the family. The jazz-infused musical vocabulary hints at the composer’s Broadway scores, West Side Story and Wonderful Town. Strawberry Fields, in its West Coast premiere, refers to a locale in New York’s Central Park, named after a song by late composer, Beatle John Lennon. On a warm autumn afternoon, a respectable but confused Old Lady, has wandered into the park. She sits down on a bench with great purpose, imagining that it is her seat at the opera, and that the events unfolding in the park constitute the show. A student becomes intrigued and plays along with her fantasy. When the woman’s son and daughter arrive to unceremoniously spirit her away to assisted living, pretense and reality collide. The double bill stars Soprano Marcie Ley, Mezzo-soprano Erin Gonzalez, tenor Albert Rudolph Lee, and baritone Kenneth Stavert. Clinton Smith conducts. * By arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., Sole Agent for Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing Company LLC, publisher and copyright owner.
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