Performance to explore Faustian themes via Stravinsky

Author: Julie Hail Flory

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The University of Notre Dames Department of Music will present a theatrical work set to the music of Igor StravinskysLHistoire du Soldat (The Soldiers Tale),based on a Russian folk tale with a Faustian theme, at 8 p.m. Wednesday (Sept. 19) in the Leighton Concert Hall of the Universitys DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts.

Admission is $12 for the general public, $10 for faculty and staff, $8 for seniors and $5 for students. Ticket information is available at the performing arts center box office or by calling 574-631-2800 or visiting http://performingarts.nd.edu on the Web.

One of the great masterpieces of the 20th century,LHistoire du Soldatis Stravinskys musical tale of a simple soldier on his way home from battle who trades his fiddle to the Devil for a book that will help him seize his future and then must deal with the ramifications of his bargain.

The performance will be conducted by Maestro Toshiyuki Shimada, music director of the Yale Symphony Orchestra, and will feature among the cast Notre Dame faculty members Carolyn Plummer, associate professor of music; Siiri Scott, associate professional specialist in the Department of Film, Television and Theatre (FTT), who will play the role of the Devil; and Peter Holland, McMeel Family Professor in Shakespeare Studies and acting dean of the Graduate School, who will narrate the production, which will open with a lecture and demonstration to introduce the work.

This event is part of the yearlong celebrationFaust at Notre Dame,which will culminate in spring 2008 with an interdisciplinary scholarly conference, seminar and additional performances, to include a play, an opera and a film series. More information is available on the Web at http://www.nd.edu/~faust/ .

_ Contact : Jennifer Marley Lechtanski, Department of Music, 574-631-6211,_ " jmarley1@nd.edu ":mailto:jmarley1@nd.edu __

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