Cal State San Bernardino’s Opera Theatre will present the west coast premiere of the piano and percussion version of Kurt Weill’s “The Seven Deadly Sins (Die sieben Todsünden),” a sung ballet with text by Bertolt Brecht.
There will be two performances, one on campus and the other in the Rancho Bernardo community in San Diego.
The on-campus performance of “The Seven Deadly Sins” will be on Friday, Feb. 5, at 7:30 p.m., in the CSUSB Recital Hall.
Tickets, which may be purchased online, are $15 general admission; $12 for senior citizens, faculty, staff and alumni; and $8 for students. Parking is a daily rate of $6.
The off-campus encore performance will be presented alongside a new dance work featuring members of Mojalet Dance Collective at The Vine Theater at The Bernardo Winery in Rancho Bernardo on Saturday, Feb. 13, at 7:30 p.m. General admission is $21; senior citizens, students, and military with valid ID are $16. Tickets are available online on the Mojalet Dance Collective website.
The performance is a collaboration between Cal State San Bernardino, the San Diego-based dance company Mojalet Dance Collective, and the “lotusflower new music project,” a chamber music company dedicated to the performance of new works. This production is funded in part by the city of San Bernardino Fine Arts Commission and features some of the top performers of new music and dance in the country.
Following the Reichstag fire of Feb. 28, 1932, both Weill and Brecht decided they could not continue living in the city of Berlin. It was in that same year, while Weill was living in Paris, that he received the commission to compose “Seven Deadly Sins.” Upon Weill’s invitation, Brecht promptly joined him in Paris to begin collaboration on the work.
Stacey Fraser, a CSUSB professor of music and critically acclaimed Canadian soprano, will perform the role of “Anna I,” and Faith Jensen-Ismay, an internationally acclaimed dancer/choreographer, will perform the role of “Anna II.”
Anna I (who sings) and Anna II (who dances) are two facets of one personality. At the behest of her family, they travel to six different American cities to make enough money to build a little house on the banks of the Mississippi. In each city, she/they encounter a different deadly sin, and Anna I (the practical side) rebukes Anna II (the artistic side) for engaging in sinful behavior – that is, behavior that hinders the accumulation of wealth.
The opera will be directed by Carol Damgen, an award-winning playwright/director and CSUSB theatre arts professor. Andre Harrington, also a CSUSB theatre arts professor, will bring his innovation and vast experience to the costume design. In addition, Jason Mann, CSUSB theatre faculty member and renowned lighting and set designer, will light the entire production.
The piece will also feature Kevin Blickfeldt, of the male quartet VOX, who received great attention this past summer on NBC's hit TV show “America's Got Talent.” CSUSB opera theatre students Andres Valenzuela, Erick Valencia and Keinan Hernandez, who will play the family members of Anna I and II, will join him as the “family members” in this production of “The Seven Deadly Sins.”
ChoEun Lee, CSUSB collaborative keyboard artist faculty who recently made her debut at Carnegie Hall, will join Wen-ting Huang, distinguished pianist and CSUSB director of keyboard studies, at the two pianos in this new version of Weill’s provocative and exciting work. Two chamber music works will precede the 30-minute work “Lillith” by American composer William Bolcom for alto saxophone and piano. Saxophonist and CSUSB professor Michael Couper, who also made his Carnegie Hall debut this past October, will perform this programmatic piece based on the child-stealing witch of European folklore. Lee will play the demanding and virtuosic piano part, which depicts a significant part of the story-telling.
The second work is titled “Shir Ha Shirim,” or “Song of Songs,” for soprano and violin by 2015 Harvard Fromm award-winning compose Moshe Shulman. The “Shir Ha Shirim” has been interpreted as a depiction of courtship and consummation between, for example, God and the people of Israel; the soul and God; the Church and Christ; and, in Zoharic “Kabbalah,” as the mystical unification of female and male sephirot emanations.
Contemporary Russian-Israeli composer Moshe Shulman selected verses and composed this new cycle setting, and also the Hebrew letters that number the verses to the music. The work will be performed by critically acclaimed Canadian soprano Anne Harley and celebrated American violinist Rachel Huang.
For more information on the production, contact Diana Reyes at (909) 537-7516.
Set in the foothills of the beautiful San Bernardino Mountains, CSUSB is a preeminent center of intellectual and cultural activity in inland Southern California. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2015, CSUSB serves more than 20,000 students each year and graduates about 4,000 students annually.
For more information about Cal State San Bernardino, contact the university’s Office of Strategic Communication at (909) 537-5007 and visit news.csusb.edu.