CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)–November 14, 2013. Roosevelt University presents its annual festival of opera, OperaFest VI, in historic spaces of the University’s landmark Auditorium Building from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 16 and 17 at 430 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago.
The free two-day festival of one-act operas provides the public with a unique opportunity to see and hear up close in costume post-graduate student candidates for the Chicago College of Performing Arts-Chicago Opera Theatre Professional Diploma in Opera.
Presented in the University’s historic 10th floor library and the seventh-floor Ganz Hall, Opera VI will be directed by Hinsdale native Andrew Eggert, who has directed at opera theatres across the country.
“OperaFest VI is an exciting project because we are able to choose repertoire and roles that best suit our students’ individual voices,” said Eggert, Roosevelt’s new head of opera and lecturer in opera. He will direct selections during OperaFest VI, which features a variety of performances ranging from Baroque to contemporary works and which also features a 6 p.m. grand finale both evenings in honor of the centennial and bi-centennial birthday celebrations for Richard Wagner, Benjamin Britten and Giuseppe Verdi.
Eggert, 35, is a 1995 graduate of Hinsdale Central High School where he took drama and received his first taste of stage directing. Directing for the stage at Chicago Opera Theater, the Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Omaha and Gotham Chamber Opera in New York, among others, Eggert will be directing Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée aux enfers, which premieres at Gotham Chamber Opera in New York City in January 2014. He is also the associate director of Death and the Powers by Tod Machover, which will be performed at the Dallas Opera in February 2014.
“My interest in opera revolves around the opportunities it creates for fusing classical music with fine stagecraft,” he said.
For more information and the complete program for OperaFest VI, visit www.roosevelt.edu/ccpa or call Roosevelt’s Music Conservatory concert line at 312-341-2352
Source: roosevelt.edu
