Students from Kellogg Community College’s Opera/Musical Theatre Workshop will celebrate the crescendo of their semester with a public performance of select scenes from a classic Italian opera and a Broadway musical in December.
The students’ “Viva Boheme!” concert will include selections from Giacomo Puccini’s “La Boheme” and Jonathan Larson’s “Rent.” The show, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6, in the auditorium of KCC’s newly renovated Davidson Visual and Performing Arts Center, on campus at 450 North Ave., Battle Creek.
Both productions featured in “Viva Boheme!” touch on themes of love, youth and tragic loss, with Larson’s “Rent” based extensively on Puccini’s opera and incorporating several of its musical themes and lyrics. All selections presented during KCC’s production will be sung in English.
Dr. Gerald Blanchard, director of vocal music and music area coordinator at KCC, said in addition to culminating in a concert that will be entertaining for audiences of all ages, the production has presented “a wonderful opportunity for our students who don’t typically sing in the classical idiom to stretch themselves and expose themselves to different vocal techniques.”
“The same applies to those who are classically trained and are not accustomed to singing repertoire from the musical theater idiom,” Blanchard said. “All have grown equally through the process.”
Carmen Bell, adjunct vocal music professor at KCC and director of the production, said it’s been an amazing experience to watch her student performers create “intense moments of spirit” during rehearsals throughout the semester.
Kellogg Community College’s Opera/Musical Theatre Workshop, designated as the music course MUSI 297 at the College, introduces all aspects of the opera/musical theatre art form to participants, including acting, vocal technique, language and stage movement. Other areas of focus include audition techniques, scene study, musical collaboration and much, much, more. Recent Opera Workshop presentations have included works such as “Trial by Jury” (Gilbert and Sullivan), “Dido and Aeneas” (Henry Purcell), “The Marriage of Figaro” (W.A. Mozart), “The Student Prince” (Sigmund Romberg), “Die Fledermaus” (Johann Strauss), “The Italian Girl in Algiers” (Rossini) and “Amahl and the Night Visitors” (Menotti).
For more information about upcoming music events or about opportunities to study music at KCC, visit www.kellogg.edu/music.
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