Opera Memphis Does Gounod’s Faust

Little did I know as I scurried to my seat in the balcony of the Orpheum this past Saturday night, that I was in for an action-packed, thriller of an opera! Charles Gounod’s Faust is an entertaining mixture of drama, tragedy and Christian morals. Faust comes on the stage as an aging, impotent scientist, who feels he has wasted his life expanding his mind and neglecting his body. As such, he makes a deal with the devil and acquires youth, virility and the devil as his wing man, but he gives up any hope of being saved in the afterlife—because once he dies he is the devil, Mephistopheles’ slave. Faust was initially a little wary of this deal, but once Mephistopheles conjured up an image of the pious virgin Marguerite, Faust was determined to win the girl and enjoy his youth.
In the second act, Madness ensues, complete with murder, a overly-suggestive ballet and eternal damnation for Faust. Despite this, the ending does have an uplifting message. You’ll have to watch to find out!
I found the opera to be kind of ridiculous, but in an enjoyable way. It was done very well and I could tell everyone put a lot of time and energy into it. The singing, on the whole was fantastic. It was clearly not Faust’s best vocal night which showed in his high range, but he gave a valiant effort! I thought Marguerite and her suitor Seibel had the best voices of them women, and Valentin and Mephistopheles were best out of the men.
There is one more performance left, on Tuesday night. Call the Orpheum box office (901) 525-3000 for more information! Last I checked they still had $10 student tickets. It was a great show, and totally worth it even if you have to pay more than $10!
- Brigid Hannon

A Night at the Movies

On Thursday evening, April 23rd, 2009 I made my way over to Hardie Auditorium to see the Rhodes Orchestra’s closing performance of the semester. I was already excited because I knew from all of the fliers around campus that they were going to play soundtracks from some of my favorite cult classics! The set up was obviously planned very carefully as the orchestra director, Professor Montelione, had a limited space to work with. The orchestra filled the entire stage plus a good deal of floor space, and there were enough chairs for about two hundred people (and about that many people came to see this performance).
One of the coolest things about the concert were the two screens which displayed a montage of pictures or live action clips from each movie to go along with the music the orchestra played. The concert featured some music from “West Side Story”, Pirates of the Caribbean “The Curse of the Black Pearl”, “Civil War”, Star Wars and Indiana Jones. It’s clear that everyone in the orchestra has been working very hard this semester to present this concert and I have to say, their hard work definitely paid off! They sounded just as good as some cd recordings I have of these very soundtracks. That evening was a thoroughly enjoyable aural and visual experience for me, as well as everyone else in the audience (we were all transfixed by the mixture of beautiful music and exciting movie clips). It was the best-attended orchestra event I’ve ever been to!
Hopefully more orchestra concerts will be as innovative as this! Who knows, the orchestra could acquire an avid fan base that rivals the Woolsocks! There won’t be any more concerts this semester, but if you’re itching to hear more student music, come to the Rhodes chamber music concert on Monday April 27th at 7:30 pm in Tuthill Auditorium, Hassell Hall.


- Brigid Hannon