Tonight is opening night for the Opera Division for Kurt Weill’s Street Scene!
With lyrics by Langston Hughes and based on the Pulizer Prize-winning play by Elmer Rice, Kurt Weill’s Street Scene is a groundbreaking synthesis of European traditional opera and American musical theatre. The Opera Division has performed Weill in the past. The above photo is from Fred Perruzza’s set design. Fred started working at the Faculty in MacMillan Theatre in September 1978 and has been integral to set design for opera at the Faculty ever since, even after his retirement in June 2015.
Here’s a look backstage with Fred discussing all things production in 2010:
The opera students, chorus, and orchestra have been hard at work with Professors Michael Patrick Albano (director) and Sandra Horst (conductor):
Michael Albano and Sandra Horst in rehearsal 24 Jan 2017
The Opera School, now known as the Opera Division, has had many opening nights, spanning from 1946. For more information on its beginnings, read up on a history of Opera and the University of Toronto 1946-1971 by Kenneth W. Peglar [pdf; 10 mb].
