Spotlight on Opera summer season continues with “The Consul” July 20 and 21
SHREVEPORT, LA — The Spotlight on Opera program at Centenary College’s Hurley School of Music presents Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Consul, an opera inspired by the composer’s sympathy for World War II refugees that still resonates strongly today. Spotlight’s production is sung in English and will have two performances in Hurley’s Anderson Auditorium on Saturday, July 20, at 7:00 p.m., and Sunday, July 21, at 2:00 p.m.
The Consul premiered in 1950, presenting a tragic tale of a dissident family struggling to flee their tyrannical homeland and immigrate to safety, could be ripped from today’s headlines. Freedom fighter John Sorel, having narrowly escaped capture, is forced to flee across the border, leaving his wife, mother, and infant son behind. Watched and harassed by the secret police, Sorel’s wife Magda visits the Consulate every day in hopes of getting visas for her family. There she finds an assortment of other hopeful refugees, each as entangled in unfeeling bureaucracy as she is. As the situation grows increasingly more desperate, Magda at last reaches the breaking point, with devastating results.
The Consul won both the Pulitzer Prize for Music and the New York Drama Critic’s Circle Award for Best Musical.
Spotlight’s production is directed by Cindy Sadler with Kristin Roach as conductor and musical director and William Reber as collaborative pianist. Centenary students Sierra Worman and Carlos Romero, both attending Spotlight on Opera this summer as scholarship recipients, appear in the cast as, respectively, The Foreign Woman and Assan.
Sadler, former artist-in-residence at Centenary’s Hurley School of Music, founded Spotlight on Opera in 2007 as a one-week summer program. It has since grown into an independent non-profit organization, attracting students from all over the United States and several foreign countries. More information on the program is available at SpotlightOnOpera.com.
Tickets for The Consul are $20 for the general public and $10 for students, seniors, and military personnel with ID. The performance is free for Centenary faculty, staff, and students with ID. Tickets are available at SpotlightOnOpera.com.