Shepherd School Opera to present ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music’s Opera Department and Chamber Orchestra will present “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the operatic telling of William Shakespeare’s famous comedy, at 7:30 p.m. March 16 and 18 and at 2 p.m. March 20 at Rice’s Wortham Opera Theatre in Alice Pratt Brown Hall.

The production will be conducted by Richard Bado, director of Rice’s Opera Studies Program, and staged by noted Shakespeare specialist Edward Berkeley.

This work by Great Britain’s foremost operatic composer, Benjamin Britten, is set in an enchanted forest inhabited by magical fairies. The lives of four young lovers and a troupe of amateur actors are thrown into disarray by the fairies’ machinations.

“This is an ideal opera for our talented students,” Bado said. “The Shepherd School is well-equipped to present this raucous comedy, which has an unusually large cast of 27 and orchestra writing characterized by its virtuosic nature. We have turned our entire black-box theatre into the forest so that the audience will feel that they are part of the fairy kingdom.”

The opera will be presented in English with English surtitles. Tickets are $12 for the general public and $10 for students and senior citizens. For tickets, call the Shepherd School Concert Office at 713-348-8000.