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Opera Performance

Presented by Bethel College at Bethel College, Everest-Rohrer Chapel / Fine Arts Center

September 22-September 23, 2006

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This fall, the Bethel College Operatic Irregulars will present "Operatic Follies of Young and Old" in the Everest-Rohrer Chapel/Fine Arts Center. The double-bill of chamber operas will feature a rarely-heard comic work by the very non-operatic Johann Sebastian Bach, following it by an even rarer mid-twentieth century comedy by the American art song composer John Duke. Bach, the master of the Lutheran church cantata, wrote a handful of secular works for weddings and other occasions of merriment. One such piece is his "Coffee Cantata," a story about a young woman who has taken up the new-fangled (for 1735) and scandalous habit of coffee-drinking. Her father tries mightily to get her to return to the straight and narrow. Will he succeed? Duke's "Captain Lovelock" premiered in 1953, but was based on a comic play, "The Changed Bridegroom," by an exact contemporary of Bach: the Danish writer Ludvig Holberg. The story tells of an elderly, wealthy widow whose recent travels have inspired her to try to kindle a new romance, preferably with some dashing young military officer. Will she succeed? The follies of the young coffee fanatic and of the old lovesick matron should provide plenty of chuckles in a time span that will total about one hour of music. Both comedies will be sung in English, accompanied on the piano by the director of the Operatic Irregulars, Professor Rob Rhein.