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An Evening of Musical Cabaret
The Truth About Love...And the Usual Lies
and G Train the Musical
Margaret Martin Performing Arts Center, 64 Homochitto St.
Ticket Prices:
$25 Adult; $5 Children
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The Truth About Love … And the Usual Lies is a cabaret style performance of
Broadway music about the ups and downs of love. Featuring: Jessica Medoff Bunchman and David Bunchman. The Natchez Festival of Music is fortunate this year to present G Train—the Musical and especially to have the composer, Christian McLeer, here to direct it. He has said that it is such an honor to be able to bring opera to youth, who are the future of music. Members of the cast are enthusiastic about bringing positive messages through music and using a mixture of rap and opera to speak to young people where they are and move them into the music of opera. G Train—the Musical tells the story of five extremely dissimilar people who are stuck in a stopped subway car. Moving from their isolation and distaste of one another to working together, they realize that each person is important and has a lot to offer to others. This positive message delivered through beautiful music is an inspiration for people of all ages. |
G Train the Musical Features:
Jim: Donald Groves Steve: Dan Pettit Patrica: Hilerie Klein Rensi Mary: Sable Rivera Mark: David Schnell
Alcorn State University Concert Choir
Spirituals & Gospel Extravaganza
Sunday May 4, 2008 - 7:00 PM
St. Mary Minor Basilica, 107 S. Union St.
Donations Accepted
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Featuring The Alcorn State Concert ChoirDr. David Blackburn, Conductor
Bluebeard's Castle by Bartok
The Telephone by Menotti
- Saturday, May 10, 2008 - 8:00 PM
Margaret Martin Performing Arts Center, 64 Homochitto St.
Ticket prices $25.00 (open seating)
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Tragedy and comedy—the very essence of the theater—are presented in two very different one-act magnificent operas. What an evening of fantastic music and emotional ups and downs! Bluebeard’s Castle by Bartók, based on the fairy tale, brings out the power and loneliness of Duke Bluebeard (Alan Dunbar) as he brings home his new wife, Judith (Jessica Bunchman). In her desire to bring light into both his home and his personal darkness, Judith insists on opening the seven locked doors in his home. Her increasingly terrible discoveries provide dramatic and exciting music as she tries to escape the fate of his former wives. The Bard is portrayed by David Schnell.
Moving to comic opera, The Telephone by Menotti addresses the problems encountered by Ben (John Dalton Frederick) as he tries to propose marriage to Lucy (Jennifer Greene) before he must leave on a trip. Thwarted by the constant interruptions and interminable conversations as Lucy receives calls and talks on the telephone, Ben must depart to catch his train. In desperation, he resorts to the telephone to deliver his proposal; and the opera ends in a beautiful duet as the couple finally find a way to communicate. What a lovely way to end the evening!
Featuring:
Bluebeard's Castle: Judith: Jessica Medoff Bunchman Bluebeard: Alan Dunbar The Bard: David Schnell
TheTelephone: Ben: Andrew Cumming Lucy: Jennifer Greene Aria and More: Elizabeth Kennedy
Oklahoma! by Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Friday & Saturday, May 16 & 17, 2008 - 8:00 PM
Margaret Martin Performing Arts Center, 64 Homochitto St.
Ticket prices $25.00, $40.00, & $55.00
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The American musical theater was changed forever in 1943, when Oklahoma! opened on Broadway as the first collaboration between c omposer Richard Rodgers and lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II, with the choreography of Agnes de Mille. For the first time, there was a fusion of story, song, and dance; and the cast consisted of singers who could act, rather than actors who could sing, resulting in some of the best loved songs in American theater. This story of pioneering men and women in the American Southwest in 1906 develops around the conflicts between the needs of cowboys and farmers and the romance between cowboy Curly (Nat Chandler) and Laurey (Christine Marie Heath), who manages the farm of her Aunt Eller (Diane Fox). Their romance is threatened by a menacing farmhand, Jud Fry (Will Earl Spanheimer). Ado Annie (Tynan Davis), Will Parker (Corey Trahan), and Ali Hakim (Victor Khodadad) add a comic triangle as Ado Annie tries to pick the man she really wants.
Oklahoma!, a celebration of the American spirit, will leave the audience thrilled with this star-studded musical production as they leave humming the beautiful, familiar songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Featuring:
Curly: Nat Chandler Ado-Annie: Tynan Davis Andrew Carnes: John Dalton Frederick Cord Elam: Pat Galloway Slim: Donald Groves Laurey: Christine Marie Heath Gertie Cummings: Elizabeth Kennedy Laurey: Christine Marie Heath Ali Hakim: Victor Khodadad Jud Fry: Will Earl Spanheimer Will Parker: Corey Trahane Skidmore: Stanley Wilson
The Pfister Sisters
- Friday, May 23 - 8:00 PM, 2008
Margaret Martin Performing Arts Center, 64 Homochitto St.
Ticket prices $20.00, $30.00, $40.00
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Featuring:
Since 1979, the Pfister Sister--Holly Bendtsen, Debbie Davis, Yvette Voelker, and pianist Amasa Miller--, inspired by the musical innovations of New Orleans’s own Boswell Sisters, have delighted audiences with their sweet hot jazz harmonies. The Boswell Sisters, along with the Mills Brothers, were the top trio in the world by 1936, influencing such singers as Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte, and Winona Judd. Following this tradition, the Pfister Sisters have created a swinging tribute to the big band era, and have been widely acclaimed as one of the top jazz groups, receiving awards from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Variety magazine, among many others. What a treat for Natchez to have the opportunity to hear the music of the twenties and thirties sung by this outstanding group!
Holly Bendtsen
Debbie Davis
Yvette Voelker Cuccia
Cosi fan tutte by Mozart
This production, set in Mobile, Alabama, in the 1860’s, begins as Don Alfonso (George Hogan), a cynical philosopher, entices two naïve young men,
Ferrando (Victor Khodadad) and Guglielmo (Will Earl Spanheimer) to accept a wager that their fiancées, Fiodiligi (Kimberly Bentley) and Dorabella
(Tynan Davis), will prove to be fickle, just as he believes all women are. Aided by their maid Despina (Sang Eun Lee),
who wants to prove to her mistresses that variability is one of the delights of being a woman, Don Alfonso develops a charade in which the men pretend to be
called off to battle, only to return disguised to woo each other’s betrothed. Comic twists and turns ensue as the women, at first strong, waver in the wooing.
Many of the arias in this comedy of manners rank among Mozart’s greatest and present an opportunity for these outstanding artists to
fully demonstrate their talents. In this fine production of Così Fan Tutte, the audience will enjoy one of Mozart’s rarest jewels!
Margaret Martin Performing Arts Center, 64 Homochitto St.
Ticket prices $25.00, $40.00 and $55.00.
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First presented in Vienna in 1790 at a command performance for the Emperor Joseph II of Austria, Così Fan Tutte,
celebrated for its grace, wit, and perfection of style, is one of the most outstanding of the comic operas composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Featuring:
Fiordiligi: Kimberly Bentley, Soprano Dorabella: Tynan Davis, Mezzo-Soprano Don Alfonso: George Hogan, Bass Ferrando: Victor Khodadad Despina: Sang Eun Lee, Coloratura Sopranos Guglielmo: Will Earl Spanheimer, Baritone
