'The Old Maid and the Thief,' 'The Medium,' begin Friday at 7:30 p.m.
If you’ve never been to an opera or never thought you’d like it, now is your chance to prove yourself wrong. Opera at USC will be performing two shows, “The Old Maid and the Thief” and “The Medium,” at Drayton Hall Theatre Nov. 4–6.
“If you take all the emotion from a movie and triple it, (that’s opera),” said Alex Cammarota, a second-year graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in music in opera theatre.
Cammarota has been with Opera at USC for two seasons and is the assistant director and stage manager for both productions.
“The Old Maid and the Thief” and “The Medium” each have “something for everybody” he said, with the first being somewhat of a slapstick romantic comedy and the latter a supernatural thriller.
What’s also special about the two shows is that they are products of composer Gian Carlo Menotti, an Italian-American who brought the Spoleto Festival to Charleston, S.C. The Spoleto Festival was modeled after the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, and is now one of the country’s premiere celebrations of the performing arts.
“Gian Carlo Menotti is really important to the state,” said Caitlyn Oenbrink, a fourth-year vocal performance student who has previously worked for Spoleto and also plays Monica in “The Medium.”
Oenbrink got her very first role in seventh grade with Spoleto.
“Gian Carlo and I have a history,” she said.
In addition to her connection with the composer, Oenbrink connects to her character Monica in “The Medium,” where she helps a woman named Madame Flora cheat her clients through faked séances.
“It is a very interesting opera; it’s dark” Oenbrink said.
“A lot of people think of operas as being long and tragic and not based on one story line, and ‘The Medium’ is very eerie, but the plot is never boring at any point. It’s also in English, which is great, so everyone can understand it.”
“The Old Maid and the Thief” is also in English but is a more light-hearted show.
The plot centers around a woman and her housemaid, who take in a wanderer suspected of being a thief. In an effort to make him stay, the two lonely women begin stealing from the town to get him whatever he wants, thus inciting more mayhem and rumors.
Jared Ice, a post-graduate pursuing an artist diploma in opera theatre at USC, plays “Bob,” the thief.
“‘The Old Maid and the Thief’ is a very real and even Southern type of comedy. I think it’s really a situation-type comedy that will speak to people in the area,” Ice said. “Both [shows] are great starter operas for people who haven’t seen operas before.”
The two one-act shows combine to create a relatively short evening, only 2 hours and 15 minutes with intermission. They will run Friday, Nov. 4, and Saturday, Nov. 5, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 6, at 3 p.m. at Drayton Hall Theatre.
Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors, USC faculty and military and $5 for students with identification.