The WNPB-TV video production of West Virginia University Composer-in-Residence John Beall’s 1997 opera, “Ethan Frome,” will be shown on the big screen in the Creative Arts Center’s Bloch Learning and Performance Hall (200A), Sunday, Jan. 26, at 7:30 pm.

Composed for the centennial of the WVU School of Music, the opera was given two staged performances by WVU Opera Theatre, directed by Robert Thieme, in November, 1997. In between those staged performances an audio and video recording was made through a generous gift from Edna A. Falbo, and former Dean of the College of Creative Arts, Philip Faini. The video was released in the fall of 1998 on statewide public television and produced by John Nakashima.

The opera “Ethan Frome” was composed by Dr. Beall to a libretto conceived by former Theatre professor Jack Held, and based on the novella by American author Edith Wharton.

The setting in western Massachusetts is much like that of Appalachia and West Virginia, and concerns a tragic love triangle among poor farmer Ethan Frome, his wife Zeena, and Zeena’s young cousin, Mattie Silver. The six-member cast was drawn from faculty, staff and graduate student singers in the WVU School of Music. Stage direction for the 1997 production was by the late Peter Franklin White.

For more information about the video presentation, contact the College of Creative Arts at (304) 293-4359.

*-WVU- *

cl/01/22/14

CONTACT: Charlene Lattea, College of Creative Arts
304-293-4359, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu

Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.