Marshall University’s Opera Workshop will present Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 28, at Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, 1135 5th Avenue, Huntington.
This fully staged production will be performed under the musical direction of Dr. David Castleberry and Dr. Alexander Lee, and Lee’s stage direction. It will feature harpsichordist Mike Campbell and a cast that includes Sean Price as Dido; Zachary Doss as Aeneas; Cayce Murphy as Belinda; Shelby Gerlach as the 2nd Woman; Cierra James as the Sorceress; part-time faculty member Hillary Herold as 1st Witch; Kristin Johnson as 2nd Witch; Brandon Cavendish as the Spirit; and Nicholas Dietrich as the Sailor. Erin Sears will serve as stage manager for the production.
The performance is free and open to the public, with sponsorship from the Marshall University School of Music.
Marshall’s Opera Workshop has offered several performances celebrating music and other arts. This fully staged production will feature the harpsichord, a baroque-era instrument, as well as operatic singing and acting, an art form that is performed rarely these days, said Lee, who is coordinator of voice studies at Marshall. “We keep presenting various operas to make this genre stay alive,” Lee said.
For more information, contact Lee at leeal@marshall.edu.