A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, opera a cappella now available at Albany Records

Friday, April 20, 2012

Good luck Marciem!

Good luck to Marciem Bazell and the students at University of Missouri Kansas City tonight and tomorrow night. They are doing a scene from CORPS OF DISCOVERY from the second act where the Hidatsa women anticipate Sacagawea's return home. Marciem is an old friend, generous colleague and talented stage director.


Tuesday, April 17, 2012

200+ Children!

This Friday, the Ames Children's Choir will host a festival called "Celebrate Singing," where they will perform the premiere of a selection from SLAYING THE DRAGON, "Hear our Prayer." This selection is for two part children's choir. In the production there will probably be fewer than twenty children, on Friday there will be over two hundred. Should be fun!

Opera has surprisingly few great children's choruses. The one from CARMEN is probably the best, perhaps followed by HANSEL AND GRETEL. The children's choir in DRAGON is there to sing a song at a nonviolence rally, so it's a good excuse for a complete number with a beginning, end, and no adult interruption.

I've had some feedback from a publisher that the words to the piece are too strong for a marketable standalone piece, so we'll see what the kids think.