The University of Arizona Voice and Opera Theater is doing a pair of one-act, hour-long operas four days in a row, Giacomo Puccini’s “Suor Angelica” and “Gianni Schicchi.”

“These two operas are not as long. Rather than spend the four to five hours, this will be a beginner’s experience to attend, which includes supertitles in English to translate the different languages that help with the storytelling,” said UA stage and opera director Cynthia Stokes.

Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 7, through Saturday, April 9, and at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 10, at Crowder Hall in the Fred Fox School of Music. There will be a pre-show discussion 45 minutes before every performance.

Arizona Symphony Orchestra conductor Thomas Cockrell will conduct the orchestra and more than 40 student and faculty performers will be featured.

The show will start off with the tragic opera “Suor Angelica,” about a young girl exiled in a convent after the illegitimate birth of her son who later learns that the boy has died.  

“Gianni Schicchi” is a comic opera about a man who takes a dying man’s identity in a plot to change the man’s will so that his inheritance doesn’t go to a monastery.

Both productions will contain fashions and set designs from post-World War II. 

Because the productions are only an hour-long, the organizers said they hope this production can be an introduction to opera for students and residents in Tucson who might never have ever been to a show before. 

“Wildcats should have rich experiences, that’s the point of being human,” Stokes said. “This will take place in an intimate setting and with stories and songs, which we, as humans, love.”

Tickets are $20 for general admission, but $10 for seniors, UA employees and military, through am.ticketmaster.com/uacfa/Opera.

*El Inde Arizona is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism. 

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