MUKILTEO — Another free concert, this time featuring themes from opera, will be presented in a matinee March 6 by the Mukilteo Community Orchestra.
Conductor and artistic director Trevor Lutzenhiser has put together “Opera Senza Voce” — opera without voice — to illustrate the range of orchestral works composed between the early 1700s and late 1890s for opera.
Orchestra member Louise Stanton-Masten said the group has enjoyed learning “these beautiful operatic pieces. They are all so different, and it’s been really been fun to see it come together.”
The concert will feature seven of the most familiar and famous pieces from the world of opera.
The afternoon will begin with two pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, his Overture from the “Magic Flute” and “Ah, perdona,” an aria from the opera “La Clemenza di Tito.” The operas were written and first performed in 1791.
The program continues with the “Ombra Mai fu” aria from the opera “Serse” by George Frederic Handel, which he wrote in 1738; followed by the Intermezzo from “Cavalleria Rusticana,” written in 1890 by Pietro Mascagni; and Three Dances — Polka, Furiant and Dance of the Comedians from “The Bartered Bride,” written by Bedrich Smetana between 1863 and 1866.
After intermission, the composer Richard Wagner is featured.
The orchestra will perform the Overture to “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg” and “Siegfried-Idyll,” both written between 1862 and 1870.
“I programed this music very intentionally,” Lutzenhiser said, noting that the Wagner pieces have many themes in common. “I wanted the orchestra to take our audience on a journey in music. Through it, we travel a great distance with heroic music and beautiful lyrical themes.”
Pre-concert music will be performed by the orchestra’s harpist Natalie Skerlong and cellist Katy Kemple.
Next up from the orchestra is its annual Spring Pops Concert, also free, at 2 p.m. May 22, also at Rosehill.
The concert will feature light classics from Arthur Sullivan, such as Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance,” and the waltzes of Johann Strauss II, such as the “Blue Danube.”
The end-of-season concert also will include a few more opera pieces, including the “William Tell” overture by Gioachino Rossini and excerpts from “The Merry Widow” by Franz Lehar.
Additional information can be found at www.mukilteoorchestra.org.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
If you go
Mukilteo Community Orchestra’s free concert “Opera Senza Voce” begins at 2 p.m. March 6, Rosehill Community Center, 304 Lincoln Ave., Mukilteo.
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