Faculty, Alumni Collaborate on Opera at Walton Arts Center's Artosphere

A number of Department of Music faculty members and Department of Theatre alumni are featured in Opera Fayetteville's production of Second Nature this Saturday, May 7, at the Walton Arts Center.

Er-Gene Kahng, professor of music and violinist, and Nophachai Choltitchanta, associate professor of music and clarinetist, will appear in the opera's orchestra. The production is directed by alumna Laura Shatkus M.F.A.'15. Second Nature is part of the Walton Arts Center's Artosphere Festival and is appropriate for all ages.

The opera, first performed in 2015, is by acclaimed composer Matthew Aucoin and will be performed in Arkansas for the first time. Set in a future where environmental destruction has led humans to retreat to an artificial, authoritarian "habitat," it tells the story of two children who long to escape. Aucoin's opera Eurydice was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in 2021, and he is a 2018 MacArthur Fellow.

Several faculty and alumni are also contributing to the opera's design and production, including stage manager Linden Brady B.F.A.'17, lighting designer Kathleen Holmes M.F.A.'20 and set designer Brandon Roye M.F.A.'20. Micaela Baranello, assistant professor of music, is Opera Fayetteville's director of marketing and social media as well as president of the board.

Opera Fayetteville is a local company bringing contemporary English-language opera to Northwest Arkansas, working with both local and nationally known singers, instrumentalists and theater artists. Recent productions have included Dark Sisters by Nico Muhly and Glory Denied by Tom Cipullo. The company performs in the Starr Theater at the Walton Arts Center.