Grand Valley's upcoming contemporary opera, Street Scene, weaves together a story of six immigrant families living in the tenements of New York during the Depression of the 1930s.
Written for the Broadway stage by the powerful creative team of the 20th century's most innovative composers, Kurt Weill's musical combines ragtime, jazz, spiritual, and classical styles into a fascinating lyrical portrait of American diversity. The opera is based on Elmer Rice's Pulitzer Prize winning play with lyrics by Langston Hughes, the African American Harlem Renaissance poet. Street Scene premiered in New York in 1947. With its rather unusual combination of musical styles and idioms, it breaks many conventions of the traditional musical theater.
"The heroine is a housewife who is treated inhumanly and murdered. The themes of the opera are expressed in her, and in all the tenants' loneliness, isolation, oppression and in the fabric of their relationships," said Dale Schriemer, who is serving as artistic director of the Grand Valley production. "After her death, life carries on just as before, but there are subtle resolutions that arise from this microcosm of humanity. Though a woman dies, a baby is born. And though a girl loses her parents, she finds clarity and optimism through her pain."
Isabel Milenski, stage director for "Street Scene," brings her own energetic and exciting vision to the production, said Schriemer. The cast is the strongest group of talented performers Grand Valley Opera Theatre has ever assembled for the stage.
Street Scene runs February 4 and 5 at 7:30 p.m. and February 6 at 2 p.m. in the Louis Armstrong Theatre. Tickets are $12 for the general public, $10 for Grand Valley faculty/staff, and $6 for all students. Call Star Tickets Plus at (616) 222-4000, buy online at www.starticketsplus.com, or purchase at the Louis Armstrong Theatre Box Office, (616) 331-2300. More ticket information is available at www.gvsu.edu/theatre.
