Opera Edwardsville Aug 23 Blends with Musical Theater

EDWARDSVILLE – High notes and high drama will celebrate high summer, when Opera Edwardsville brings its annual outdoor spectacle to Edwardsville’s City Park on Aug. 23. This is the first time Opera Edwardsville will present its annual outdoor concert in late summer. The free concert will begin at 8 p.m.

Guest artists include sopranos Vanessa Becerra and Alexandra Lobianco, contralto Lauren Decker, countertenor Ley’mon Murrah, tenors Martin Luther Clark and Eric Ferring, baritone Evan Bravos and pianist Joseph Welch. Founder and artistic director Chase Hopkins will emcee the concert. Opera Edwardsville will feature a student spotlight performance from Lucy Schapman, a senior at Edwardsville High School and the star of OE’s most recent opera for kids, Little Red Riding Hood.

This all-English musical program features highlights of the mid-20th Century when innovative and creative composers in the U.S. began blending opera and musical theater. Blurring the lines between Broadway and the operatic stage, the musical program will include boundary-pushing composers including Leornard Bernstein, Kurt Weill, Carlisle Ford, Igor Stravinsky, George Gershwin and Samuel Barber.

The public is encouraged to bring picnic refreshments and lawn chairs,

This event will feature state-of-the-art amplification provide by Chicago’s Aphorism Studios, led by audio engineer Dan Nichols, named Person of the Year in Classical Music by the Chicago Tribune in 2021.

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