OPERA at USC to conclude season with Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’ April 25 & 27

The University of South Carolina’s OPERA at USC will complete its 2007 – 08 season with Mozart’s classic opera, “The Magic Flute.”

The production will be held at Longstreet Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 25, and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 27. Tickets are $18 for the public; $15 for senior citizens (ages 55 and older), university faculty, staff and military; and $5 for students. Tickets can be purchased by calling 777-0058 or 777-5369.

“The Magic Flute,” which premiered in September 1791, is one of Mozart’s most popular and beloved works. The story follows Prince Tamino’s struggle to become worthy of his beloved Pamina by enduring a series of trials and tribulations. Prince Tamino is helped by the benevolent Sarastro and a secretive brotherhood modeled upon the Freemasons of Mozart’s Vienna, but he is opposed by the Queen of the Night, setting up a classic struggle between darkness and night, good and evil. OPERA at USC performers will sing the opera in its original German with dialogue in English.

The roles of Tamino and Pamina will be played by Evan McCormack and Whitney Vance, both graduate students at the university. Tamino’s adversary, the Queen of the Night, will be portrayed by Jennifer Bryant, a resident of Columbia and a graduate of Columbia College.

To stage the performance in Longstreet’s “theatre-in-the-round” atmosphere, director Ellen Schlaefer recruited designers Anita Tripathi Easterling and Heidi O’Hare from the University of North Carolina Charlotte, as well as University of South Carolina alum Aaron Pelzer, to help create a fantasy world for Mozart’s popular opera.

“I am excited by the challenges posed by Longstreet,” said Schlaefer. “It’s a good opportunity for our students to stretch and grow as performers. I think student performers will enjoy being very close to the audience and visa versa.”

For more information about OPERA at USC or “The Magic Flute,” contact Schlaefer at 803-777-0058.