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Show Y rf v -fv-' V.I. w '' f J w , . ;. -in ii - i i x " " i ,4yy ' : y" j y , ir. - - - - n r4Anic! fount; Senior citizens Violet Terry and Eleanor Bennett Carmen tickles a student s lancy . enjoy opera performance along with middle school students. Utah Opera Company wins converts at Treasure Mountain Middle School Ward. "We try to keep it fast paced and to incorporate a variety of styles including a taste of several foreign languages. Park City's senior citizens were invited ' to join the middle school . students for the performance. perfor-mance. After the performance, which included selections from Porgy and Bess, The Magic Flute, the Marriage i of FigUA) and Carmen, the - company performed at the elementary school. They enchanted the young students stu-dents with an original mini-opera mini-opera entitled "Sid the Serpent Who Wanted ,. Jo , "I used to hate opera but now I like it," said fifth grader Jimmy Kimball after enjoying a sampling from several operas performed by members of the Utah Opera Company at the Treasure "" Mountain Middle School last week. His was one of many unexpectedly enthusiastic comments about the performance. per-formance. "It's better than the ballet," bal-let," conceded Thad Finne-gan. Finne-gan. (This astute artistic analysis was made possible because Ballet West had visited the school the week before.) "It was great, especially when that girl came around," said Dax Shane. "That girl" was the classic clas-sic siren Carmen who prowled the middle school audience looking for a ne love interest. She found several laps to try out and received loud applause for her flirtations with Principal Brian Schiller. It was one of a series of lively numbers which demonstrated that opera is not all tragedy. The . audience laughed.while Don" Pasquale and his wife sang a lively argument and while Berta sang her old maid's lament from the Barber of Seville. "We want it to be a positive experience," explained ex-plained the Utah Opera Company Assistant Director Claudia Ward. "Even if they never see another opera until they are adults we want them to have good memories." mem-ories." Members of the Utah Opera Company visit approximately ap-proximately 115 schools a year. "The program is funded by a grant from the state legislature so the schools don't pay a dime," said |
