{"id":72576,"date":"2023-04-13T09:42:11","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T14:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=72576"},"modified":"2023-04-13T09:42:13","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T14:42:13","slug":"dept-of-music-and-theatre-presents-amahl-and-the-night-visitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=72576","title":{"rendered":"Dept. of Music and Theatre Presents “Amahl and the Night Visitors”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Feature image courtesy FHSU Department of Music and Theatre – Hilary Shepard<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

STORY BY JESSALYN KIRCHHOFF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmahl and the Night Visitors\u201d will be appearing this weekend at Fort Hays State University thanks to Director Ivalah Allen, and the featured FHSU Music and Theatre students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlo Menotti\u2019s \u201cAmahl and the Night Visitors\u201d is a one-act American opera written in English. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA young boy, Amahl, lives with his widowed mother. Since his father\u2019s death, Amahl and his mother have become very poor, with little to sustain them,\u201d Allen, an associate professor of voice at FHSU and director of \u201cAmahl and the Night Visitors,\u201d said. \u201cThey are visited one night by three kings who are following a bright star to find the Christ Child. The kings ask Amahl\u2019s mother if they can stay for rest overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Allen, this opera is kid-friendly, so everyone will be able to enjoy it. Viewers can expect some interesting and funny surprises throughout. This one-hour opera will give adults and children alike moments of laughter, goosebumps, and probably some tears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe mother insists they have nothing for hospitality, but are welcome to take shelter in her small home,\u201d she said. \u201cEvents throughout the night lead to great revelations.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cast was selected in November 2022 and rehearsals started in January 2023 with two daytime rehearsals each week plus some evening rehearsals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadie Biedenbender, who will be playing Amahl in the Opera this year, says that oftentimes she forgets when they began practicing because of how far they have come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be completely honest, I cannot remember the exact time of when we started rehearsals because of how much we have done,\u201d Biedenbender said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though this is only a one-act, one-hour English opera, the music is quite difficult and has been challenging for the crew. Biedenbender expands on these struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the biggest obstacle for me was simply just learning the music,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is super tricky and I was struggling for a while before I actually had it all memorized and was able to sing with the accompaniment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Biedenbender has had to overcome a few obstacles, she has also thoroughly enjoyed her role in this year\u2019s opera. Her favorite aspect of playing Amahl is the fact that she is a 21-year-old woman having to play a 10-year-old boy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s always funny when I tell people to come watch the Opera to \u2018see me play a little boy,\u2019\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Allen does not share Biedenbender\u2019s love of \u2018playing a little boy\u2019, she still has appreciated the part that she has been able to play in the production. As the director, Allen\u2019s favorite part has been watching how all of the students have far exceeded their own expectations of what they can do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have learned difficult music and are singing better than they have ever sung before,\u201d Allen said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be more proud of each and every cast member.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allen goes on to rave about how singers, stagecraft students, and orchestra musicians have all come together to create a beautiful show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is always wonderful to watch students from all areas of the FHSU Department of Music and Theatre work together and have fun at the same time,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is also refreshing to see Music and Theatre faculty support each other and the students, whether they are part of the project or not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biedenbender said events like this benefit students who are included in the show by creating bonds with everyone in the cast and that productions like these can also benefit students who come to watch the performance by seeing just how much it takes to actually put everything all together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don’t think people realize how much time\/effort\/some tears it actually takes,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allen would like to thank Mr. Ben Cline, professor of Cello and chair of the Department of Music and Theatre, for organizing and directing the opera pit orchestra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHis leadership and musical knowledge is wonderful for the students to expand their experiences. He has done so much to encourage this show,\u201d Allen said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opera opens tonight starting at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students; however, there is special pricing available for groups of 10 or more. To order tickets \u2013 especially the 10 or more group tickets \u2013 call the Fort Hays State University Department of Music and Theatre at 785-6238-4533.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on the event, as well as more FHSU Department of Music and Theatre events, check out this link for a full schedule of activities, shows, and events. https:\/\/www.fhsu.edu\/music-and-theatre\/arts-calendar<\/a> .\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n
Images from rehearsal of the show<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Feature image courtesy FHSU Department of Music and Theatre – Hilary Shepard STORY BY JESSALYN KIRCHHOFF \u201cAmahl and the Night Visitors\u201d will be appearing this… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":72577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,3397,3398,3400,3401,11],"tags":[13344,15203,13925,1048],"class_list":["post-72576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-area-news","category-campus-news","category-fhsu-music-arts-entertainment","category-fhsu-theatre","category-news","tag-fhsu-music-and-theatre","tag-fhsu-opera","tag-jessalyn-kirchhoff","tag-opera"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/FHSU-opera-Preview-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1231&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72576"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72585,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72576\/revisions\/72585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}