CWU Opera Presents American One Act Operas

The CWU Opera Ensemble will present an evening of 21st century American One Act Operas on April 12th at 7:00 pm and April13th at 4:00 pm in the McIntyre Music Hertz Concert Hall. Tickets are available on the CWU Ticket website. The evening will begin with a short new work by Nicholas Benz and Robert Feng, Having Guests for Dinner. The scene is about a young professional couple attending dinner at a mutual friend’s home only to question whether their host, Christoph Aberfield, has sinister intentions. This scene was chosen for a performance during the CWU New Music Festival in the Fall of ’24, and we are excited for Dr. Jan Nelson, the director, to bring the scene to the stage. The second opera is a popular new work written in 2009 by Dan Shore entitled, The Beautiful Bridegroom by Dan Shore. The Beautiful Bridegroom is based on an 18th century play by Ludvig Holberg that tells the story of a widow who is looking for a young husband – not for her daughters, but for herself. The composer describes the work as a Mozart pastiche made up of lyrical vocal writing for six sopranos. The second act of the evening will feature Speed Dating Tonight! by Michael Ching. This innovative opera has seen nearly one hundred forty productions since its 2013 premiere, making it one of the most popular operas of the 21st century. Ching describes the opera as a “new numbers opera”: a traditional form of opera based on arias, duets, ensembles, and finales. The episodic and inclusive structure of this material is not gendered or limited to vocal type. Dr. Gayla Blaisdell, the Director, chose from almost one hundred options to craft a story that spotlights the unique talents and voices of the CWU Opera cast. The opera starts and ends by setting up an evening of speed dating at a local pub with the bartender, server, bus staff, and dating coordinator. Once the speed dating starts, the audience learns more about each dater and the various sub-plots as each character is revealed in their number. Please join us for an evening of fun, creative, and relatable operas performed in English by the talented CWU opera students and collaborative pianists.