Tag Archives: William Lumpkin

Apr 19

Britten’s Opera is a “Dream”

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Queen Tytania (Maya Kherani) and Bottom (Joseph Hubbard), Photo provided by BU School of Music

Queen Tytania (Maya Kherani) and Bottom (Joseph Hubbard), Photo provided by BU School of Music

Presented Boston University College of Fine Arts
Benjamin Britten, composer & Peter Pears, librettist
Based on the play by William Shakespeare
William Lumpkin, conductor
Tara Faircloth, stage director

April 14–17th, 2016
Boston University Theatre
264 Huntington Avenue, Boston
BU Arts on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Boston, MA) I enjoy myself most with adaptations of Shakespeare’s comedies when their sense of fun and lightness remain intact. The direction in Boston University Theatre’s production of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream didn’t fail me. This vision is every bit the dream of the title. Fairies wear blue wigs and polka dot suits, columns of giant, white flowers are moved across the stage, Puck (Elizabeth Valenti) brings Queen Tytania (Maya Kherani) her morning tea, and King Oberon (Wee-Kiat Chia) smugly points out his wife slept with an enchanted donkey-man (Joseph Hubbard) the night before. One scene flows into the next elegantly. For the most part, it’s a perfectly realized vision. Continue reading →

Oct 27

Bravo: “La Tragédie de Carmen”

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Presented by the Boston University Fringe Festival
Adapted from Georges Bizet’s opera by Marius Constant, Jean-Claude Carrière, and Peter Brook
Stage Directed by Jim Petosa
Conductor: William Lumpkin

October 8 – 26, 2014
BU Theatre, Lane-Comley Studio 210
264 Huntington Avenue
BU Fringe Festival on Facebook
CFA School of Theatre on Facebook

Review by Danielle Rosvally

(Boston, MA) Opera might be opera, but you’ve never seen opera like this before. The Fringe festival’s production of La Tragédie de Carmen is a fresh, energetic take on Brook’s gritty adaptation of Bizet’s piece with exciting voices full of promise.

One of the exhilarating things about seeing students perform opera is that they are singing machines. Conservatory, as a general rule, makes from semi-trained talent lean, mean, professional instruments with clarity and utterly perfect precision. As such, performances by these students are chock full of those qualities, as well as an exuberance and boundless energy that is simply thrilling to watch. These students are hungry to perform, and this brings the stakes of their performances through the roof. Continue reading →

Oct 08

Catfish, Opera Served Cold: SIREN SONG

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Presented as part of the Boston University College of Fine Arts Fringe Festival
Based on the novel by Gordon Honeycombe
Composed by Jonathan Dove
Libretto by Nick Dear
Stage direction Jim Petosa
Conducted by William Lumpkin

Oct. 4 – 6, 2013
BU Theatre, Lane-Comley Studio 210
Huntington Ave
Boston, MA
BU Fringe on Facebook (directions at bottom of page)

More Fringe Works
Dark Sisters playing Oct. 11 – 12, 2013
Back Bog Beast Bait playing Oct. 22-27, 2013

Review by Kitty Drexel

**Not suitable for kids. Sex is for grownups.**

(Boston) In Homer’s The Odyssey the sirens were mermaid-like creatures with a voice so intoxicating that sailor’s ships crashed into land. Outdated slang defines a women so gorgeous that she drives sanity from the minds of men. Jonathan Dove and Nick Dear’s opera combines the myth of olde with the modernized definition in their rarely performed work, Siren Song. Continue reading →