Opera Company presents “Suor Angelica”

This Nov., the Rowan University Opera Company will join the Rowan orchestra to present “A Night of Opera.”

The first half of the evening will feature the overture from “La Forza del Destino” and scenes from several famous operas: Verdi’s “Nabucco” and “La Traviata,” Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” Puccini’s “La Boheme,” and Menotti’s “The Consul.” The second half will be a full opera, Puccini’s “Suor Angelica.” The entire show will be approximately two hours long and stars senior vocal performance majors John Baccaro, Kasey King, Kyle Robinson, Michelle Cook, Debra Lyn August and Kathleen Deffley.

Marian Stieber, director of the Rowan Opera Company since 1998, is aided by Jon Garrison in this semester’s performance. She described “Suor Angelica” as a sad, but eventually uplifting tale of an Italian girl from a wealthy family banished to a convent due to a disgraceful pregnancy.

“After seven years, her aunt comes to her to get her to sign away her inheritance,” Stieber said. “She finds out her child died two years before that of fever.”

The young woman grieves and mixes a poison from the convent gardens to be reunited with her child, only to realize that suicide is a condemning sin to the Catholic church.

“You leave thinking that she will see her child again,” Stieber said.

But even if you’ve never heard of any of these operas, never fear. According to Stephanie Krizek, a junior vocal performance major, there is something in this show for everyone.

“Even if you don’t know opera very well, you’ll recognize certain songs in the performance,” Krizek said. “You’ll be like, ‘Oh, that’s on a commercial!’”

Those of us in touch with our inner child may even recognize melodies such as the “Figaro aria” from Looney Tunes cartoons.

“It’s a fun program,” Krizek said. “It will take you on an emotional roller coaster. There’s love, humor, drama; the whole spectrum.”

Elyssa Greenberg, a sophomore biology and music major, has been working hard with about 30 other students in Rowan’s orchestra to prepare for the performance. She said that they and their director, Professor Salvatore Scarpa, meet three times a week. When asked the most difficult piece to perform, she said that “La Forza del Destino” was a “very technically difficult piece.”

Stieber agreed, saying that “every detail in the music is well thought out and perfectly done.”

But the show is challenging for the 40 members of the opera company as well.

“It’s difficult to learn the language,” Krizek said. “It’s all in Italian.”

However, she assured opera-goers that there will be subtitles in English projected on the stage for those in the audience who are not fluent in Italian.

“This performance is sure to be extremely entertaining,” Stieber said. “You get exposed to many different operas and styles, from the greatest writers in Italian opera. I would love to see the theater full of people who appreciate the students’ hard work.”

“A Night Of Opera” takes place Nov. 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. in Pfleeger Concert Hall. Tickets are free for Rowan students with a valid ID, $10 for general admission, and $5 for seniors, staff, alumni, and non-Rowan students.