On Tuesday, Oct. 29, Southern Utah University’s Department of Music opened their fall operas. There were two performances in the event: “The Telephone” by Gian Carlo Menotti and “What Lurks Outside the Opera Closet?” The showings continued until Friday, Nov. 1.
The first of the two performances was “The Telephone,” directed by SUU senior Lehi Moran.
“Getting to do whatever I wanted to do with it was fun, full creative freedom,” said Moran.
The opera’s premise is that a man named Ben is trying to propose to a woman named Lucy. He visits Lucy to make his proposal, but she is too distracted with her phone to notice his attempts. It’s a comical opera that aims to make the audience laugh with exaggerated body language and ridiculous events.
After the first show, there was a 10-minute intermission, “What Lurks Outside the Opera Closet?” created and directed by music professor Carol Ann Modesitt. This performance had more variety, including many songs associated with the fall season. Instead of a normal opera setup with a piano backing, there was a drum set and two guitars accompanying.
Some songs included in the performance were numbers from “Phantom of the Opera” such as “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again,” and “All I Ask of You.” Other crowd favorites were “Flying Purple People Eater” and “Thriller.” It was a balance between slow operatic songs and faster rock songs, choreography differing for each one.
“I came up with this because we normally do this the second week of November, so I thought maybe I should do something more Halloween-oriented,” said Modesitt.
The range of pieces and styles allowed the music department to show their different strengths within both performances.
Author: Tallon Taylor
Photographer: Tallon Taylor
Editor: Tessa Cheshire
Copy Editor: Kayd Johanson
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