This Week: Marble City Opera Moves Outdoors for Puccini’s ‘Suor Angelica’

By Alan Sherrod   It really was inevitable. Having performed operas of all sizes and shapes in a variety of non-theatre Knoxville venues including coffeeshops, hotel bars, converted freight depots, church naves, and historic mansions over its six years of…

Review: A Seductive and Luscious ‘Carmen’ From UT Opera Theatre

By Alan Sherrod   Performances in this review— Saturday evening, April 12, and Sunday afternoon, April 13 Georges Bizet never knew of the worldwide success that his Carmen would eventually attain, dying a young man of 36 but three months…

Review: Marble City Opera Examines Our Personal Baggage in ‘Postcard From Morocco’

This weekend found Marble City Opera’s final staged production of the year, Dominick Argento’s one-act work from 1971, ‘Postcard From Morocco’, in the event end of Jackson Terminal. The placement of a piece like Argento’s opera (libretto by John Donahue) in a space like the Terminal felt strangely natural—seven people find themselves waiting in a train station, all the while examining their existences in terms of their personal “baggage” in a surrealist dramatic environment. Dare I say it? It’s a bit like “Waiting For Godot in a Train Station.” And I mean that in the nicest—and most enticing—possible way.

Preview: ‘Postcard From Morocco’ On Its Way From Marble City Opera

Guessing in which intriguing, non-theatrical location Marble City Opera will stage their next chamber opera production has become something of a game in the Knoxville music scene. Following last season’s finale of La Traviata staged at Historic Westwood, this season…

Review: UT Opera Theatre Makes Gender Equality a Compelling Subject in ‘Middlemarch in Spring’

It was probably just coincidence that the University of Tennessee Opera Theatre chose the 2015 chamber opera Middlemarch in Spring for its April opera production precisely at a time when the issues surrounding gender equality in society have finally come…

UT Opera Offers ‘Middlemarch in Spring’ April 13-15 at the Bijou

The University of Tennessee Opera Theatre is taking a break this spring from the staples of the 18th and 19th Century repertoire and is instead exploring the joys and adventure of a contemporary chamber opera based on well known 19th Century literature. Their choice is an interesting one: ‘Middlemarch in Spring’, a recent work based on the George Eliot novel ‘Middlemarch’, with music by Allen Shearer and a libretto by Claudia Stevens.

Review: ‘Amahl and the Night Visitors’ Oozes Charm and a Very Timely Message

Amahl and the Night Visitors, a production of Marble City Opera and Cathedral Arts, has one final performance on Sunday afternoon, December 10, at 3:00 PM at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral, 413 Cumberland Avenue, Downtown Knoxville. ————- In the first…

Preview: Marble City Opera Returns With Menotti’s ‘Amahl and the Night Visitors’

The story of how Gian-Carlo Menotti’s opera ‘Amahl and the Night Visitors’ came into being begins not on a theatrical stage, but on a television stage in the early days of TV broadcasting.

Review: UT Opera Finds Nuptial Chemistry in Mozart’s ‘The Marriage of Figaro’

Last weekend in the Bijou, the University of Tennessee Opera Theatre explored the beauty of Mozart’s ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ (‘The Marriage of Figaro’), experimented with some fine vocal combinations, added some hot, dazzling visuals, and ended up with a vibrant, energetic production.

Preview: UT Opera Theatre Brings ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ to the Bijou This Weekend

University of Tennessee Opera Theatre: Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) Stage director: James Marvel Conductor: Kevin Class Friday, Saturday, Sunday—November 10, 11, 12 Bijou Theater, 803 S. Gay Street Tickets Oh, to have been a fly…

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