This was included in this week’s issue of the Odyssey at IU. To reach more viewers and encourage attendance, I am also publishing it here! Enjoy! (Photo courtesy of IU Jacobs School of Music)
One of IU’s great strengths is the Jacobs School of Music. Many students work tirelessly day in and day out to present some of the finest collegiate shows in the country. One such show Xerxes by George Frideric Handel, will be performed February 1,2,8,9 at the Music Arts Center on Jordan Ave. All shows begin at 8 p.m.
Xerxes tells the tale of Xerxes, the King of Persia and is loosely based on the actual King Xerxes’s life. It features some of Handel’s most famous works, including the opening number, “Ombra mi fu”, which is a song sang to a tree. This opera is a standout among Handel’s because of its comedic nature and unusual musical numbers. (When was the last time you saw a song sung to a tree?)
Director Tom Diamond was unavailable Friday afternoon, but did talk about this production of Xerxes in the Jacobs School of Music press release. Diamond is a visiting artist.
“This is my first time directing ‘Xerxes,’ although I have directed a lot of Handel and other Baroque operas,” Diamond said in the release. “What excites me most about this opera, aside from the wonderful music by one of the great operatic geniuses, is the complexity, cleverness and psychological truths of the story. Even though the work is about a real historical figure and events, the opera deals more with humanity than history. At the end of the day, it is about people who love desperately and obsessively, and ache from their inability to find any satisfaction.”
Alain Barker, with the Jacobs School of Music, directed me to the press release for specific details about the performance, but did mention how amazing it is that students can see world-class performances here with a student discount and without traveling far at all.
“It’s important, even when looking for a job, to have cultural background,” Barker said. He stressed the high-quality of the performances that occur at IU and all of the hard work put into each and every performance by the students involved. He emphasized that for those students, their art is their life.
The student engagement/exit survey that the university asks all freshmen and seniors to take has results displayed on campus buses. One, displaying the rate at which students (freshmen and seniors) attend theater performances and concerts at either the Musical Arts Center or the IU Auditorium, had disappointing results. Few students, according to the survey, are taking advantage of the campus’s unique cultural opportunities in the forms of plays, ballets, operas, and concerts. If you’d like to help make that statistic change, Xerxes is a great opportunity!
Tickets can be purchased in the Musical Arts Center box office and can be charged to your bursar from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, by phone at 812-855-7433 or online at music.indiana.edu/opera. A discounted price is available for all students and there is an additional discount for members of the Greek community.