SEMO students to present scenes from famous operas after workshop

A sampling of opera scenes will be performed Sunday, April 30, at the Southeast Missouri State University River Campus in Cape Girardeau.

Students from SEMO's spring semester Opera Workshop will perform 11 pieces from works including Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro", "Romeo and Juliet" by Charles Gounod and a scene from the opera "Chip and Dog" by Gian Carlo Menotti. The performance will take place at 3 p.m. in the Shuck Music Recital Hall.

Christopher Goeke, professor of music at SEMO, said the workshop is a chance to work closely with students and develop their individual solo opera skills.

"It's something that we don't always have a chance to do when we're doing our fully staged opera," Goeke said. "We don't have as much chance to do that kind of work. These scenes are a very interesting collection of opera scenes, arias and even a couple of monologues."

Goeke said the workshop and will have minimal costumes and staging, and the students will be accompanied on the piano by SEMO music instructor Matt Yount.

"This is a young group, and they're doing a great job," Goeke said. "There's a lot of freshmen in the class this time, which is great. We like to get them while they're young and get them trained and ready to go on to bigger things next year."

For more information or to purchase tickets, contact the River Campus box office at (573) 651-2265 or visit www.rivercampus.org.