By Michelle Hines, University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-5371
Posted 3-3-09
Linda Lister and Chuck Schneider star in Libby Larsen's 'Picnic'.
GREENSBORO, NC -- Enjoy a spring “Picnic” … without the ants!
The School of Music commissioned nationally known composer Libby Larsen to adapt William Inge’s 1953 Pulitzer Prize-winning play into a modern opera with a heavy jazz influence.
Take in the world premiere of Libby Larsen’s “Picnic” April 2-5 in the freshly renovated Aycock Auditorium.
The opera is produced in collaboration with the Department of Theatre.
Show times are: Thursday and Friday, April 2 and 3, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, April 5, 2 p.m. Cost is $15 adults; $12 children under 12, non-UNCG students, senior citizens; $9 UNCG alumni. Contact University Box Office at (336) 334-4849 for tickets.
The public is welcome to bring a picnic meal to performances. Spread out a blanket on the lawn in Foust Park behind Aycock, enjoy your food and relax to live jazz music before the show.
David Holley, director of UNCG Opera Theatre, wrote the libretto, or text, and directs the opera. Students and alumni from the UNCG School of Music make up the cast.
David Holley, director of UNCG Opera Theatre, directs 'Picnic' and wrote the libretto.
School of Music alums Linda Lister and Chuck Schneider sing the lead roles of Madge and Hal. Theatre professors Deb Bell and Randy McMullen designed costumes and the set respectively.
The School of Music secured a $150,000 gift from the Charles H. Babcock Foundation in 2004 as part of the university’s Students First Campaign. Holley knew he wanted to commission a new American opera for the School of Music. And he knew he wanted Larsen, a big name in opera, to compose it.
The Minneapolis-based Larsen is known for making opera accessible to modern audiences. For her, “accessible” is all about connection – connection between text and music, connection between audience and narrative, and connection between composer and librettist.
“We started with the perfect play; the proportions were already taken care of for us,” Larsen said. “Then David is so completely experienced at moving bodies around onstage, and he’s a singer himself, that the way he worked with the play to create the libretto I think really even surprised him. It just works.”
In selecting the base text for their opera, Larsen and Holley weighed both “Picnic” and Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” Holley was unfamiliar with “Picnic,” which was made into a movie with William Holden and Kim Novak in 1955. “Picnic” revolves around a downtrodden former football star named Hal, who shakes things up in a small Midwestern town when he gets involved with the female lead, Madge.
Holley read the play, saw the film and watched a production of “Picnic” at Greensboro College. He was blown away by the possibilities for transforming it into an opera. “It was instant. We’ve got to do this. When I called Libby, she started to cry.”
Larsen is one of America’s most performed living composers. She has created a catalogue of more than 400 works spanning every genre from intimate vocal and chamber music to massive orchestral works and more than 12 operas. Grammy Award winning and widely recorded, she is sought after for commissions and premieres by major artists, ensembles and orchestras around the world. In 1973, Larsen co-founded the Minnesota Composers Forum, now the American Composer’s Forum, which has become an invaluable aid for composers in a transitional time for American arts.
Holley has appeared with opera companies in Dallas; Atlanta; Rochester; Phoenix; Banff, Alberta, Canada; Shreveport; Albuquerque and others, singing leading tenor roles such as Pinkerton in “Madama Butterfly,” Don José in “Carmen,” and Tamino in “The Magic Flute.” Since his arrival in 1992, UNCG’s operas have placed first in the National Opera Association Opera Production Competition five times and second two times. “Picnic” is his first libretto.
The $19 million renovation of Aycock was part of the N.C. Higher Education Bonds. Construction began in 2006 and was completed this summer.
Aycock, which opened in 1927, is located at the intersection of Spring Garden and Tate streets and anchors the entrance to UNCG.
