Indiana State University Newsroom

The Lyric Theater Workshop of ISU's School of Music will present two performances of their fun-filled Evening of Light Opera on Friday, April 12, and Saturday, April 13, at 7:30 p.m. in Boyce Recital Hall of the Landini Center for Performing and Fine Arts on the ISU campus.

The performance will feature undergraduate music and theater majors in scenes from the famous comic operettas of British satirists Gilbert and Sullivan, including musical numbers from The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Gondoliers, and The Yeomen of the Guard.

Three graduate-level vocalists will also be spotlighted. International soprano and bass-baritone duo Natalia Duarte and Rodrigo da Cruz Silveira from Brazil will perform the scene "Pronta io son" from bel canto composer Donizetti's comic opera Don Pasquale, while Indiana tenor Logan Williams will take the title role in the "Legend of Kleinzach" scene from French operetta composer Jacques Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann.

The ISU Lyric Theater Workshop is a select, auditioned ensemble, formed once every two years under the collaborative direction of School of Music faculty members Mark Carlisle, music director, and Colleen M. Davis, stage director.

"I've really pushed the students to expand the athleticism and physical comedy in their staging this time around with the rollicking music and over-the-top humor of Gilbert and Sullivan as a catalyst," Davis said. "The Donizetti and Offenbach scenes are also packed with gorgeous, memorable tunes and lively comic moments as well, though the middle of the Offenbach scene shifts into a more intense mood for a little while. I think audiences of all ages will really enjoy this show!"

Some of the showcased undergraduate singers may be recognized by Terre Haute audience members of ISU theater department and Crossroads Repertory Theater productions in recent seasons. Senior theater majors Jo Garcia-Reger and Kaitie Moore, senior music business major Zene Colson, and junior music education major Ross Hanson all held leading roles in recent productions of Hairspray and Urinetown. Garcia-Reger as Josephine will sing "The Hours Creep on Apace" from H.M.S. Pinafore, Moore will be the Duchess of Plaza-Toro in "On the Day when I was Wedded" from The Gondoliers, and Colson will portray the Pirate King in "Oh Better Far to Live and Die," and Hanson will sing the show-stopper, "I am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General," from The Pirates of Penzance.

ISU's Evening of Light Opera performances will be free and open to audience members of all ages. The ISU Lyric Theater Workshop is accompanied by collaborative pianist David Gibbs.