Clocking in at just 10 minutes long, Samuel Barber’s operatic miniature “A Hand of Bridge” premiered in 1959 and remains one of the shortest operatic works commonly performed onstage. Concordia College students will perform the piece, as well as a second short opera, Dan Shore’s “An Embarrassing Position,” at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, in the Centrum, Knutson Campus Center.
Comic and dramatic by turns, “A Hand of Bridge” centers around two unhappy married couples playing cards together. By turns, each expresses their deep dissatisfaction and even deeper desires, frivolous, passionate, or tragic, sometimes all at once.
“An Embarrassing Position,” based on a short story by Kate Chopin, premiered in 2010. Its plot focuses on a bachelor running for political office in the 1890s, as he tries to prevent a scandal when a gossip columnist and a pretty girl turn up at his home at the same time.
Dr. Robin Griffeath, associate professor of voice, will direct, with Dr. Kevin Sütterlin, director of orchestral activities and opera, as music director, and Stephen Sulich, collaborative pianist/artist-in-residence, as music staff.
In “An Embarrassing Position,” the cast includes Matthew Mortenson as Willis Parkham, Gracie Fink as Eva Delvigné, Svea Hagen as June Jinkins, Haley Wash-Frisby as Ms. Dara, and Madi Goerig as Miss Paige. In “A Hand of Bridge,” singers are Jon Worner as David, Hagen as Geraldine, Mortenson as Bill, and Greta Johnson as Sally. Henry Sipples is serving as cover in both productions.
Including a brief intermission, the show will last about an hour.
