Mark your calendars and make weekend plans to see Western Carolina’s first opera performance on Friday, Jan. 23. WCU takes inspiration from Ron Rash’s poetry works of Appalachian history and transforms them into this new medium, filled with drama, human themes—and most importantly song.
The weather moved the premier night for “Shelton Laurel: An Appalachian Opera” from the original date of Jan. 24 but the rest remains the same. The performance starts at 7:30 p.m. Audience can also meet with Ron Rash who will be signing books at the at Bardo Arts Center, presented in collaboration with City Lights Bookstore, starting at 6:30 to 7:15 pm, prior to the performance.
The Western Carolina University School of Stage and Screen takes on this challenge of operatic expression and uses it to show how works like Rash’s shaped the storytelling of Appalachia. The opera’s composer and professor in the School of Music, Dr. Damon Sink, rises to the challenge, creating an engaging piece on loyalty, survival and brutality of conflict. He is assisted by university-led creative team from the WCU School of Music and professionals from all over the country.
“Shelton Laurel: An Appalachian Opera” takes on that thoughtful operatic note and explores the unique and tragic conflicts faced by settlers of the area during the Civil War. The performance focuses on families that struggled with fear, mistrust, and violence of that time period. Appalachian history is woven into the tapestry of what makes Western North Carolina what it is today. To make that history into music, it raises that narrative to a new level.
Sink encourages everyone to come out and see the show, stressing the importance of the takeaways from the story into today’s world.
“Audiences will get a strong sense of what it means to be loyal to your family, of what it means to be a good neighbor, and how we can lift each other up in the midst of conflict and tragedy and still come out the other side of difficult times with our heads held high, and I think that message is what the world needs,” Sink says.
The opera is directed by Isaiah Feken, assistant professor and former Opera Fellow, and conducted by Margaret Underwood, Director of Bands and Assistant Professor in the School of Music, with the inclusion of the overflowing talent of WCU’s student and faculty musicians and vocalists, along with the amazing talents of guest artists.
Ticket prices are $25 for adults, $20 for senior citizens, and $15 for children. For WCU faculty, staff, and students the tickets are $20. Doors open 30 minutes before the show is set to begin.
The box office at the Bardo Center is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
