by Kate MacKenzie

This January, the Oberlin Opera Theater hit the road, staging eleven performances of Jack & the Beanstalk across seven venues. While such tours are uncommon, it was the audiences of elementary school students that made the show truly special.

A Winter Term education tour was the joint vision of professors Stephanie Havey and Kyung-Eun Na, who served as Stage and Music Directors. Both had extensive experience organizing similar outreach programs, and felt a call for Oberlin Conservatory to be more active in the wider community. Equipped with an enthusiastic student cast and crew, the show began rehearsal on January 9th, a mere ten days before its preview performance in Warner Concert Hall.

The thirty-minute children’s opera was adapted from the music of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas by Johan Davies, who rearranged the simple but catchy melodies and authored a playful libretto to match. [Read more…]