Upcoming events

February 21-22

Let us create some musical magic for you at our annual Exploring Opera symposium and Caterina Jarboro Memorial Concert! We’re delighted to announce that our featured concert soloist is rising star and Metropolitan Opera soprano Leah Hawkins! Leah recently sang the role of Strawberry Woman in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Porgy and Bess. Learn more about Leah here.

Ms. Hawkins will perform a varied program at the concert, which takes place Friday, Feb. 21 at 7:30 p.m. in UNCW’s Beckwith Recital Hall. Also featured on the program is the Snipes Academy Chorus under the direction of Christa Faison.

You may purchase tickets by calling UNCW’s Kenan Box Office (open Monday-Thursday from noon to 4 p.m.) at 910 962-3500 or online. There is a fee for online purchases.

February 22

Exploring Opera Symposium: Gender, Race, and Power in Mozart’s Magic Flute

Coffee & Conversation (9:00 a.m.–9:30 a.m., Grand Lobby, Cultural Arts Building)

Nancy King (UNCW), “Introduction to the Music of Mozart’s Magic Flute” (9:30–10:15 a.m., Beckwith Recital Hall)

Break (10:15–10:30 a.m., Grand Lobby, Cultural Arts Building)

Helena Kopchick Spencer (UNCW), “Landscape and Power in The Magic Flute” (10:30–11:00 a.m.)

Magic Flute Production Preview and Student Research Posters (11:00–11:30 a.m., Grand Lobby, Cultural Arts Building)

Keynote Address: Kristi Brown-Montesano (Colburn School), “Controlling the Narrative: Challenges in Staging Mozart’s Magic Flute” (11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., Beckwith Recital Hall)

Kristi Brown-Montesano
photo credit: Elisa Ferrari Photography

Artists and scholars have long wrestled with how to interpret and stage The Magic Flute, which from the beginning seemed a jumble of fairytale tropes and Masonic tradition. Aside from numerous inconsistencies in characterization and moral, the libretto of The Magic Flute is full of explicitly racist and misogynistic content that complicate the work’s long-time standing as a “gateway” opera for families and children. This presentation will look closely at the many different narratives that come together in the libretto and music of The Magic Flute and will highlight the challenges of staging this work for twenty-first century audiences.

Chair of the music history faculty at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, Kristi Brown-Montesano received her Ph.D. in musicology from UC Berkeley, combining her strong interest in both musical performance and scholarly research. Her book Understanding the Women of Mozart’s Operas (University of California Press, 2007) offers a detailed study of the female characters in the Da Ponte operas and The Magic Flute. Dr. Brown-Montesano has presented and published essays on music in contemporary film, opera, trends in marketing classical music, and musical culture in late nineteenth-century England. In 2014–15, she was honored to participate in the UCLA Musicology Department’s Distinguished Lecture Series. An active “public musicologist,” she has been engaged by numerous organizations in Los Angeles, including the LA Opera (“Opera for Educators”), the Opera League of Los Angeles, the Mason House Concerts, and the Colburn Orchestra. She is especially thrilled to join the LA Phil’s “Upbeat Live” faculty this concert season.

March 28

Tap your toes and enjoy the memories at Opera Wilmington’s March 28 concert performance of favorites from the Great American Songbook! This program of classic American standards will pay tribute to the best composers and lyricists of the past.

And there’s more!

We also have a special themed event up our collective sleeve, to be hosted in the spring of 2020. Stay tuned, as we say!

Want to be among the first to know about what fun we have in store? Join our mailing list! Send your name and email address to info@operawilmington.org.