TAHLEQUAH — The Northeastern State University College of Liberal Arts and the department of music presents “A Grand Night for Singing: The Best of Opera and Broadway” on Oct. 3 in the NSU Jazz Lab.
The performance will be preceded by a dinner with wine, served by NSU catering services. Tickets for the show are $50, which includes the meal. Dinner will be served at 6 p.m. Seating is limited, and reservations are required. Reservations must be made by Friday by calling Sarah Bruguiere at the Jazz Lab at 444-4603.
The show is an evening of music from Puccini to Andrew Lloyd Weber. Witty narrative and backstage anecdotes weave together grand opera with the best of Broadway, according to a media release.
Featured are the love, madness, and murder of Leoncavallo’s opera Pagliacci, Madame Butterfly with a twist, and the fight scene from “La Boheme” with one volunteer from the audience. The second half presents the best of classic Broadway, with songs from the “Phantom of the Opera,” “Man of LaMancha,” “My Fair Lady,” “The Sound of Music,” “Carousel” and more.
The artists are Hallie Neill, described by the New York Times as a “rapturous singing actress” and Theodore Lambrinos, “a thrilling baritone.” Neill has created leading roles for two operatic world premiers: Anton Coppola’s “Sacco” and “Vanzetti for Opera Tampa” and Philip Glass’ “La Belle et la Bete” for the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She has appeared in concert at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, on tour with Columbia Community Concerts, with the Taiwan Symphony, Sairo Symphony, Bermuda Symphony Orchestra and in Opera/Broadway concerts throughout the Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Bangkok, Sri Lanka, Korea, Egypt and Spain.
Lambrinos’ career encompasses 60 major baritone roles which he has performed at the Metropolitan Opera and opera companies throughout the United States and internationally. He created the role of Carlo Tresca in the world premier of Sacco and Vanzetti and performed many of the leading baritone roles for the New Your Grand Opera Verdi Festival in Central Park. He has sung nearly 200 performances of Rigoletto, Nabucco, Il Trovatore, Aida and Tosca with the European touring companies Opera 2001 and Teatro Lirico d’Europa.
Neill and Lambrinos met while Neill sang “Carmen” in Cairo, Egypt.
This is their first performance in Tahlequah, and they come with the help of their good friend opera singer Barbara McAlister of Muskogee.
Information: Dr. Mark Bighley, 444-2709.
