Immerse
yourself completely in the most romantic day of the year with some of the most
romantic music ever created at a concert by the University of South Symphony
Orchestra. “Amore,” taking place Feb. 14, will fill the Koger Center for the
Arts with songs of love from the operas “Carmen” and “La Boheme,” the musicals
“My Fair Lady” and “Phantom of the Opera” and a concert version of “Porgy and
Bess.” The concert will feature four guest soloists and the Benedict College Concert
Choir.
“This
concert will bring the best of songs from opera and Broadway together,” said
Donald Portnoy, music director of the orchestra. “This is a very special day
for everyone and this is a way to explore themes of love in music.”
The
concert opens with the beloved “Carmen Suite No. 1” by George Bizet. The opera
about the beautiful gypsy girl was roundly denounced when it premiered in 1875
and the composer died a few months later, never being able to experience the
huge success the opera would become.
Singers
Diana Amos and Daniel Cole join the orchestra for a medley from “My Fair Lady,”
including “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “On the Street Where You Live” and “Wouldn't
It Be Loverly?”
Amos,
who sang with the orchestra last fall in “The Telephone,” has long experience
on the European opera stage with major roles in “The Magic Flute,” “The Tales
of Hoffman” and “Ariadne auf Naxos.” A doctoral
candidate in vocal performance at USC, she has appeared in several Opera at USC
productions and is a faculty member at Columbia College.
Cole
has performed at theaters from Lisbon to Taiwan and at many regional companies
including Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Opera Boston. He provided the voice of
God on the 2010 recording of Dominick Argento’s “Jonah and the Whale” by the
Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Cole holds a doctorate of music degree in
choral conducting from Indiana University. While a student there he directed,
sang and recorded with the Concord Ensemble with which he reunited in 2007 to
perform with Sting in Los Angeles. Cole is the Director of Music at First
Presbyterian Church in Columbia.
Amos
will also sing “Musetta’s Waltz” from “La Boheme” by Giacomo Puccini, while
Cole will sing the serenade from “Faust” by Charles Gounod. The first half of
the concert closes with the orchestra performing music from the smash hit
“Phantom of the Opera.”
“Porgy
and Bess” broke down the walls between opera and musical theater when it
appeared 1935. George Gershwin collaborated with Charleston writer Dubose
Heyward to adapt Heyward’s novel “Porgy” which was set among the African
American community of Charleston. This concert version will include the opera’s
popular songs “My Man's Gone Now,"
“I Got Plenty of Nothing’,” “It Ain't Necessarily So,” and of course
“Summertime.”
“Porgy
and Bess” features soloists Lori Celeste Hicks and Tommy Watson along with the
Benedict College Concert Choir, directed by Linda Kershaw, chair of the
Benedict department of fine arts.
Hicks
performed the role of Bess at Opera Theater of Pittsburgh in 2010. She was recently
featured with the Brevard Philharmonic in North Carolina and has appeared in “Don
Giovanni,” “La Boheme,” “Così fan tutte” and “Die Fledermaus” and performed Verdi’s
“Requiem,” Saint-Saëns’ “Oratorio de Noël” and Bach’s “Magnificat.” She made her
Carnegie Hall debut in the fall. Hicks is a music faculty member at Claflin
University in Orangeburg.
Watson
made his operatic debut in Cortona, Italy and has appeared in Nigeria, Ghana, Spain,
and Canada and has performed a large portion of the standard requiem, oratorio and
cantata repertoire. A native of Leesville, S.C., he holds a doctorate in music
from USC and teaches at Anderson University.
The
7:30 p.m. concert is at the Koger Center for the Arts. Tickets are $25; $20 for
USC faculty and staff and seniors, $8 for students. Call (803) 251-2222 or go to capitoltickets.com
