History

The opera program at Southeastern has carried out its mission with performances of
opera since the 1940s. A double bill from 1947 offered Mascagni’s opera Cavalleria
Rusticana paired with a staged version of Bach’s Coffee Cantata. Other early productions
included Manon, Tales of Hoffman, Die Fledermaus, The Tender Land, Dialogues of the
Carmelites and La Traviata.

In 1981 the opera program changed its name to Opera/Music Theatre Workshop, expanded
its season from one to two productions each academic year, included Broadway musicals
in its offerings and began touring children’s opera to local schools.

 

Today

Opera/Music Theatre Workshop currently presents a production each semester in the
Columbia Theatre with full orchestra, a professional stage director, and with sets,
costumes and lights designed by faculty from the Theatre division of the Department
or by other professional designers. The orchestra is selected from among the finest
string, wind, piano and percussion students in the Department. Children’s operas and
musical theatre pieces are either toured to local schools or presented on campus for
young audiences.

Auditions are open to the entire student body and majors from other departments on
campus regularly appear in productions.