Trouble in Tahiti + The Seven Deadly Sins

×

Expand

Ross Zentner

A person gives another person a back rub.

Yazid Gray (left) and Rehanna Thelwell, "Trouble in Tahiti," Madison Opera, 2023.

This intriguing program from Madison Opera (with Kanopy Dance Company) joins a pair of shorter works by legendary 20th century composers. Trouble in Tahiti is a one-act opera with music and words by Leonard Bernstein, telling a dramatic story of a couple whose perfect suburban life is adrift. The Seven Deadly Sins is a sung ballet by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, recounting seven years in the life of a woman who left home to work and make enough money to build a family home. Both feature a lead performance by mezzo-soprano Rehanna Thelwell (who debuted with Madison Opera during the 2021 Opera in the Park concert). Shows at 8 p.m., Feb. 3; and 2:30 p.m., Feb. 5.

media release: Set in 1950s suburbia, Trouble in Tahiti is about a married couple struggling to find happiness in their discontent. Dinah and Sam go from home to office, gym, therapist, and the movies, all while yearning for connection, and all backed up by a vocal jazz trio.

The Seven Deadly Sins tells of a woman on a journey across the U.S. to earn enough money to buy a home, resisting sin in every city she visits. Weill’s 1933 “ballet chanté” divides heroine Anna into two halves of the same woman: a singer and a dancer. Kanopy Dance joins us for this enthralling work.

Don’t miss this double-bill of longing and connection by two extraordinary composers.

Friday, February 3 at 8 pm; Sunday, February 5 at 2:30 pm, Capitol Theater

Sung in English with projected text