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IU performance of Puccini opera to be broadcast live on Internet
Nov. 8, 1999
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University Opera Theater production on Friday (Nov. 12) of Puccini's one-act operas Sister Angelica and Gianni Schicchi will be broadcast live on the Internet at 8 p.m. EST (1:00 Greenwich Mean Time).
Thomas Baldner will conduct and Vincent Liotta will stage Puccini's juxtaposition of tragedy and comedy for the program in the Musical Arts Center. The opera also will be performed, but not broadcast on the Internet, on Nov. 13, 19 and 20.
Baldner, IU professor of music, is the former principal conductor of the Rheinisches Kammerorchester of Cologne, Germany, and has worked with renowned orchestras worldwide. Liotta, stage director of the IU Opera Theater, is a former resident director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and highly sought after nationwide for musical theater and opera. The set is designed by Max Rothlisberger with costumes by Mary K. Grusak.
Since its founding in 1948, the IU Opera Theater has given more than 1,000 performances of nearly 300 operas, including 11 world premieres in one 20-year period. It is the only collegiate opera company that has performed on the stage of New York City's Metropolitan Opera.
The Internet broadcast, one of four involving IU School of Music events in November, represents a pioneering use of computer technology. An IU Jazz Ensemble program was presented on Nov. 1 and a University Orchestra program on Nov. 3. Upcoming is a performance by the IU Philharmonic Orchestra directed by former Boston Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Joseph Silverstein on Nov. 14.
Approximately 5,000 viewers and listeners in 23 countries accessed the first IU Internet music broadcast on Sept. 14, a concert by renowned cellists Janos Starker of the IU faculty and Mstislav Rostropovich.
The Web broadcast of the opera will be archived for one month. Computer viewers will need RealNetworks' RealPlayer G2, which is included with Netscape 4.6 and above or can be downloaded free of charge at http://www.real.com/products/player/ It will take phone modem users 20 to 30 minutes to download and install the software from the RealNetworks site.
For more information on the opera program and other upcoming Web musical events at IU, go to http://broadcast.iu.edu/ For opera ticket information, phone the IU School of Music at 812-855-9846 or visit the School of Music's Web site at http://www.music.indiana.edu
(Arizeder Urreiztieta, 812-855-9846, aurreizt@indiana.edu or Richard Doty, 812-855-0084, rgdoty@indiana.edu)