William Paterson University’s Music Department will present three operas in their triple-bill production, directed by Christopher Dylan Herbert and conducted by Hannah Comia from April 11-13.
The program features three musical works of varying themes and lengths.
The first selection is “Dover Beach” by Samuel Barber, a chamber music setting featuring Owen Gavigan, a senior voice performance major, as the narrator with a string quartet. Based upon the poetry of Matthew Arnold, the scene is set in nineteenth-century England, where the narrator discusses his internal struggles with the ever-changing beliefs and conflicts that occur daily.
Do you find yourself constantly “doom scrolling” on Instagram when you have to get that big paper done? Then you might resonate with the second selection of the program. “Lost in the Scroll” is a one-act comic opera by Luca Sutto that portrays a young woman named Penny, played by Grace Cascio, a freshman music and entertainment industries major, who has just that problem. Penny works for a big corporation and needs to finish her “regional quarterly cost risk balance assessment” by the end of the day, yet she finds herself distracted by her smartphone and all its contents. While scrolling, the physical representation of her notifications is portrayed by two singers, Koushani Gupta, a freshman jazz studies major, and Austin Sidito, a senior music education major. Will Penny be able to finish her report, or be trapped watching cat videos all day?
Finally, the third selection, which is the bulk of the triple-bill production, is “H & G: A Great and Terrible Story” by Allen Shawn. American Composers Alliance says that “H & G” is “a dark, funny, feminist, fractured, at times savage music theater piece inspired by Anna Maria Hong’s book ‘Fablesque’ and her powerfully poetic novella, ‘H & G’”.
The plot follows the same events as the classic fable of “Hansel and Gretel,” and reveals the dark side of these beloved characters. The characters “H” (Hansel) and “G” (Gretel) are played by Damian Castañeda-Chamberlain, a freshman sound engineering arts major, and Virginia Lackey, senior popular music studies major. They explore their feelings of abandonment by their parents, and the trauma induced by The Witch, played by Ollie Johnson, a junior music education major. In “H&G,” The Witch is a painfully insecure character, and their own personal issues are her motivation for trying to eat H and G, as well as other children.
Other featured roles in the musical include The Father, played by Gavigan, and The Singer, played by Spencer Serritella, a junior communications major. Alongside them is an ensemble of “feral children,” all portrayed by William Paterson students.
Director Herbert hopes that audiences will follow a through-line between the three different shows. “On the surface, they are unrelated, but when you probe deeper, you can see the relationship between them,” he said. “Our students are doing excellent work to bring these works to life, and I look forward to welcoming audiences to the show.”
Tickets for the show, at the Black Box Theater in Hunziker Hall on April 11 and 12 at 7:30 p.m. and April 13 at 3 p.m., can be purchased online.
