UNC Department of Music hosts new operas, Festival on the Hill

One uses a phone, and one uses a shoe.

UNC Opera is showing two operas, both centered on two sets of lovers struggling to connecting. Students will perform Gian-Carllo Menotti's “The Telephone," and Pauline Viardot's “Cinderella” in Gerrard Hall April 8 and 9.

There will also be a free children's matinee of “Cinderella” at Kenan Rehearsal Hall at 10 a.m. on April 9 as part of UNC Opera’s community outreach effort.

Gene Galvin, UNC opera director and teacher of Ensemble II at UNC chose the two performances. For the past four semesters, Galvin has worked with talented opera singers to create pieces to share with the campus community.

“Everybody should see an opera — just like everybody should see a basketball game” Galvin said.

All performers are students in Galvin's Ensemble II class — a class they auditioned to be a part of. Galvin chose the two pieces to be performed based on cast size and plot.

“They’re about people in love who are having a little trouble getting together,” he said. “In one, the phone keeps ringing. While in the other, the prince is in disguise. Luckily, by the end, everyone ends up together.”

Both operas are in English, after Galvin translated Cinderella from French into English.

Despite being written more than 70 years ago, Galvin said “The Telephone” poses relevant questions about the impact of technology on human relationships — specifically the image of a young person distracted by his or her smartphone,  which he said has an operatic precedent in Menotti’s piece.

"The Telephone" has two performers. “Cinderella” involves seven principle characters. There will be an ensemble of five musicians and, there will be appearances by local children.   

Madelyn Ward, a junior music major, was cast as one of the Cinderellas in the piece. 

“It’s an iconic role,” she said. “I get to be a princess for the first time.” 

The UNC Department of Music will also host — for the eighth time — Festival on the Hill, a biennial music festival held from April 1 to April 3.

The festival is a combination of academic symposiums and live musical performances. This year’s theme, “Music, Science and Nature,” was chosen by Professor Lee Weisert, an assistant professor in the UNC Music Department and a composer of instrumental and electronic music. 

The festival will bring performers and notable academic figures like Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, John Luther Adams, who will perform “Sila: The Breath of the World” on Sunday. Peter Pesic, the director of Science Institute at St. John’s College, Santa Fe, will deliver the keynote lecture on Friday.

This year, organizers will use multimedia and sound installations to show the relationship between science and art. On Sunday, students can see a sound installation, “Music on a Long Thin Wire,” in Person Recital Hall. The installation will explore the boundary between music and science by using a 40- to 50-foot piano wire extended across the room.

“There is a pair of electro-magnets attached to one end that cause the wire to self-oscillate” Weisert said. “The wire is constantly vibrating, so you can hear the wire. It is playing itself.”

@rebekah_cockram

arts@dailytarheel.com