April 21, 2010

BCU Music Department Presents Opera Performance

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Students in Briar Cliff University’s Opera workshop will present “Mozart, Sondheim, and More!” on Sunday, May 2 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. in Meis Recital Hall on campus. Both performances are free and open to the public.

Briar Cliff students and alumni will perform arias from the Mozart operas, “Cosí fan tutte¸” “The Marriage of Figaro,” “Don Giovanni” and “The Magic Flute,” and Gilbert & Sullivan’s “H.M.S. Pinafore” and “Mikado.” Musical selections by Stephen Sondheim and an operatic parody of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” by Mark Schweiger also will be performed.

The production will feature Briar Cliff students Bert Bucher, Plankinton, S.D.; Madelyn Essig, Mitchell, S.D.; Dan Griesel, Woodbine, Iowa; Chris Hanson, Sioux City; Alex Hoefling, Moorhead, Iowa; Jon Konz, Adrian, Minn.; Lina Luangrath, Rockford, Ill.; Micaela Ten Hoven, Louisville, Ky.; and Molly Tullis, Mapleton, Iowa. Also performing will be BCU music alumni William Darwin, Christopher Kopel, Angela McDermott Iversen and Ellen Daniels Osborn, all of Sioux City. Accompanists for the production will be Sister M. Arnold Staudt, OSF, assistant professor of music, and BCU alumni Jamie Schmidt and Cheryl Smith Tatro. Staging by Angela McDermott Iversen and Sister Mary Day, OSF, DMA, associate professor of music and department chairperson at Briar Cliff. 

“Opera Workshop has been in existence for more than two decades at Briar Cliff University,” said Dr. Day. “It gives students the opportunity to perform roles from the both the opera and musical theatre which contributes to the cultural enhancement of the campus.”  

For more information about “Mozart, Sondheim and More!” or the Briar Cliff Opera Workshop, call Dr. Day, 279-5567.

Enrollment at Briar Cliff University is over 1,100 students from 28 states. Students are educated in the Franciscan tradition of excellence in the liberal arts and career preparation in an environment of care, compassion and openness to all. For more information, please visit www.briarcliff.edu.

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