Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Chuck's Choices for the weekend of August 1, 2019

This week, the showcase of the next generation of stars joins La Bohème on the list.

New This Week:

The Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation presents the Rising Stars Showcase on Sunday, August 4, at 2 pm. "Join us for an afternoon of amazing talent from the Finalists and Nominees of both the St. Louis Teen Talent Competition and the St. Louis High School Musical Theatre Awards. This event is FREE and open to the public." The show takes place at the Sheldon Concert Hall in Grand Center. For more information: https://www.foxpacf.org/event/rising-stars-showcase-2/

My take: The Teen Talent Competition provides a showcase for the best of our up-and-coming local performers, and that's very good indeed. Here's your chance to see the next generation of theatre stars in action.


Held Over:

La Bohème
Photo by Dan Donovan
Union Avenue Opera presents Puccini's La Bohème Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM, July 26 - August 2. Performances take place at the Union Avenue Christian Church, 733 Union at Enright in the Central West End. The opera is sung in Italian with projected English text. For more information, visit unionavenueopera.org or call 314-361-2881.

My take: By the time Puccini and his librettists got around to translating Henri Murger’s episodic 1849 novel Scènes De La Vie Bohème into the 1896 opera La Bohème, it had already enjoyed a considerable European vogue, so it’s not surprising that La Bohème has gone on to become a favorite of opera companies around the world. The classic tearjerker has been produced many times here in St. Louis (most recently by Opera Theatre in 2016), but a good production is always worth seeing, and given Union Avenue's track record, I expect this one to be solid.

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