Music Faculty to Perform New Dance-Opera Based on James Joyce

Faculty in the UNC Charlotte Department of Music will perform the world premiere of a new “dance-opera” on Saturday, August 19, at 7:00 pm in the Johnson Studio Theater at Winthrop University.

Wake—Lucia: a Joycean operatic rite explores the complicated relationship between James Joyce and his brilliant daughter, Lucia. Inspired by multiple works of James Joyce, as well as more recent scholarly works on Lucia and her artistic life, this half-hour performance is a fantastical dreamscape—a place where sound, body, and text are entangled and unwoven again to create an intimate portrait of a fraught parent-child relationship and the essential desire of the human spirit to be free.

With a libretto compiled by director Kelvin Chan, a score by composer and Winthrop University professor Leonard Mark Lewis, and choreography by Kathy Lawson, Wake—Lucia creates a world in which Lucia forges her own self identity, separate from her other identities as guiding light, devoted daughter, muse, and trouble-maker. Wake—Lucia is scored for tenor soloist, violin, cello, oboe, clarinet, and piano. Associate Professor of Voice Brian Arreola, tenor, portrays James Joyce; Lawson, a dancer based in Poland, portrays Lucia. Music faculty Jessica Lindsey (clarinet), Elizabeth Sullivan (oboe), and Mira Frisch (cello) will join violinist Kari Giles and Lewis (on piano) in the instrumental ensemble.

Wake—Lucia: a Joycean operatic rite has been produced by Harvest Hill Productions with support from UNC Charlotte. The performance on August 19 is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Click here to reserve tickets. Please click here for directions to the Johnson Studio Theater.