The Dragon of Wantley
Music: John Frederick Lampe
Libretto: Henry Carey
Five performances:
Friday, March 28 at 7:30PM
Saturday, March 29 at 4PM and 7:30PM
Sunday, March 30 at 4PM and 7:30PM
UAA Fine Arts Building, Harper Studio
Christabel Sosa, Margery
Amanda Boger, Mauxalinda
Greg Gallagher, Moore of Moore Hall
Justin Birchell, Gaffer Gubbins/The Dragon
Mari Hahn, Director
Jonathan Salzedo,nharpsichord
AFM Baroque Orchestra
Chorus of Terrified Villagers
4PM performances:
Adults $40 | Students/Youth $25
Admission includes non-alcoholic beverage and light snack.
7:30PM performances:
$60 all seats Admission includes choice of alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage beverage and catered nibbles.
A baroque burlesque opera.
A monstrous dragon is terrorizing the village of Wantley! The townspeople seek help from the galant Sir Moore who loves all things beer. Will the two sopranos dueling for his affections thwart his ability to defeat the terrible beast?
A parody of serious opera, The Dragon of Wantley (1737) was the most popular English opera (or “anti-opera”) of the eighteenth century. Honoring the burlesque tradition, this production with be staged as theatre “in the round,” with the audience fully immersed and sometimes contributing to the story and action, shattering theatre’s imaginary “fourth wall.” According to librettist Henry Carey, “It is a Burlesque Opera: And Burlesque cannot be too Iow. Lowness (figuratively speaking) is the Sublimity of Burlesque: If so, this Opera is, consequently, the tip-top Sublime of its Kind.”