Opera In The Rock, Little Rock’s professional opera company, will present Puccini’s beloved La Bohème at 7:30 PM Friday, May 13 and 3:00 PM Sunday, May 15. The fully staged and costumed production will be on the brand new stage of Pulaski Technical College’s Center for Humanities and Arts (CHARTS), located at 3000 W. Scenic Drive in North Little Rock.
The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra will be in the pit, with Maestro Philip Mann, Musical Director of the Arkansas Symphony, providing musical direction and conducting the Friday evening performance. The ASO’s Associate Conductor Geoffrey Robson will conduct on Sunday. Robson also serves as Assistant Musical Director and Chorus Master for La Bohème.
Stage direction will be in the hands of David Malis, Director of Opera at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Malis has sung leading roles all over the world, including at the Metropolitan Opera and served as Opera Director of the Crested Butte Music Festival and the Festival de Musique de St. Barthélémy before coming to the U of A.
Arlene Biebesheimer, Artistic Director of Opera In The Rock, has assembled a cast with Maria Fasciano DiCarlo as Mimi, Vernon DiCarlo as Rodolfo, Ekaterina Kotcherguina as Musetta and Benjamin Cox as Marcello in the principal roles. Supporting roles include Matthew Carey as Coline, Ronald W. Jensen-McDaniel as Schaunard, Ferris Allen as Alcindoro, Mathew Lyon as Benoit and Matthew Tatus as Parpignol. They will be joined by a chorus of 16 singers and a children’s chorus of 12.
“We are so excited that Pulaski Technical College has invited us to perform in their beautiful, new auditorium,” said Biebesheimer. “Having this space to present opera in the Little Rock area is a dream come true for us.”
The opera will be sung in the original Italian, with English supertitles projected above the stage.
A “Meet the Artists” reception will follow each performance.
Tickets are $50 and $25, with Standing Room tickets available for $10. A “Meet the Artists” reception will take place after both performances. Tickets for “Meet the Artists” are $25 (in addition to the event tickets). Tickets can be purchased online on the Opera In The Rock website (oitr.org) or by calling the Pulaski Tech box Office at 501-812-2338 between 9:00 and 5:00 Monday through Friday.
For more information, contact Arlene Biebesheimer at arleneb@oitr.org.
