SDSU Opera presents RE: EURIDICE/ORFEO

SDSU Opera presents RE: Euridice/Orfeo, a production presented in two acts and featuring operas by Jacopo Peri and Christoph Willibald Gluck. It's directed by Alan E. Hicks, SDSU Director of Opera Theatre, who serves a joint appointment with the San Diego Opera and SDSU. It features two different takes on the Orpheus myth.

The production runs from Friday, Jan. 1 through Sunday, Feb. 2 and will be performed at the SDSU Don Powell Theatre.

This will be the first SDSU opera production presented in the Don Powell Theatre since 1994. The stage will feature complex projections as part of the set design, making use of the Don's Powell's stage. Costumes are designed by MFA students Faith James and Waverly Strickland, and the lighting design by MFA student Ashley Bietz.

"I chose these pieces to give more students opportunities to be involved in opera," said Hicks. "Both works will be sung in Italian and require and understanding of various styles, and both are historically significant."

The opera focuses on themes of love and loss, and features a perilous journey to the underworld. The plot follows a mourning Orfeo, who, after his beloved Euridice dies, decides to travel to the underworld in the hope that he might sing to the rulers of Hades and ask for Euridice's return to life.

SDSU's production of this opera challenges typical casting decisions by reimagining Orfeo as a woman in the second act.

"Operas in these periods often used women to play the roles of young men or boys," explained Hicks. "In one very specific instance, we are using that convention, but playing what is typically a male-character as female, and thereby making Orfeo and Euridice a lesbian couple."

This casting adds to the transformational qualities of Orfeo's introspective journey, and challenges traditional portrayals of gender roles in opera, both vocally and culturally.

Performances of RE: Euridice/Orfeo will be Friday, Jan. 31 and Saturday, Feb. 1 at 7:00 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 2 at 2:00 p.m. in SDSU's Don Powell Theatre.

Tickets are $20 for general admission, $15 for seniors and military, and $10 for students.

For tickets, directions, and parking information, visit music.sdsu.edu. For more information about the many other Arts Alive SDSU Signature Event performances, concerts, and exhibitions, visit artsalive.sdsu.edu.

Photo credit: Ken Jacques