Nashville Ballet & Nashville Opera Present Joint Performance of THREE LITTLE PIGS and THE SINGING TORTOISE

Nashville Ballet and the Nashville Opera offer a Saturday morning alternative to cartoons with charming, back-to-back performances of The Three Little Pigs and The Singing Tortoise, Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. at their studios in Sylvan Park.

Doors will open at the Opera at 9:30 a.m. and admission is $5, with general admission seating. Children will watch the opera, The Three Little Pigs, in the Noah Liff Opera Center, at 3622 Redmon Street, and then stroll through the Ballet's warehouse to see some of the production sets and costumes. A performance of The Singing Tortoise will follow in Studio A at the Martin Center for Dance, located at 3630 Redmon Street. Tickets are limited and available by calling Nashville Opera at 615-832-5242 or Nashville Ballet at 615-297-2966, extension 10. Both organizations accept Visa and MasterCard, with the Nashville Opera also accepting American Express and Discover.

Nashville Opera On Tour will present an adaptation of the Three Little Pigs based on the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This delightful opera was created especially for elementary school students by noted children's composer John Davies and follows the exploits of three piglets, Despina, Cherubino, and Giovanni, who are designing their own homes. When they get stumped, the three little pigs travel to the local library and consult various books on the subject. The villainous wolf, Wolfgang Bigbad, spies on the three during their trek and hatches his own plot to make them his next meal. When Wolfgang's efforts to blow down Despina's house of bricks backfires, she uses her intellect to trap the wolf. A reformed Wolfgang admits that even big bullies can be shrunKen Down to size and joins the three little pigs in the moral of the story: "When you fear a thing that's scary, take your questions to the Library."

The cast of The Three Little Pigs are all members of the Mary Ragland Young Artist Program (MRYAP) which is administered by Nashville Opera. The apprenticeship offers developing professional singers valuable performance experience and prepares them for successful careers in the operatic theatre. This year's tour features the vocal and acting talents of mezzo-soprano Stephanie Foley-Davis ("Despina"), tenor Michael Foreman ("Cherubino"), baritone Joshua Zink ("Don Giovanni"), bass-baritone Aaron Grant ("Wolfgang Bigbad"), and Tour Music Director/Pianist Emily Senturia.

Nashville Ballet proudly presents a professional ballet production, geared for the younger audience, The Singing Tortoise. In this West African folk tale, a hunter named Ama meets a magical singing tortoise. Once Ama befriends the tortoise, she tries to teach him that man is simply a visitor on earth who needs to respect all things. This cautionary tale about the connection of all living beings on our planet features elaborate masks that represent animals and chieftains. The choreography by Paul Vasterling is set to an infectious percussion score composed by Belmont University professor Todd London. The Singing Tortoise will be narrated by Education Director Cathy Ratliff and features the dancers of Nashville Ballet 2, the pre-professional training company of Nashville Ballet. After the ballet, children are invited to participate in interactive activities with the dancers. This production, with four different casts, is touring throughout Middle Tennessee, presenting over 200 performances and reaching over 42,000 people in the next 12 months. Nashville Ballet recognizes the educational sponsors who provide funding for community engagement initiatives: Caterpillar Financial, Community Foundation, Cracker Barrel, Gaylord, HCA Foundation, Jack Massey Foundation, Memorial Foundation, MNAC, and the Tennessee Arts Commission.

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About Nashville Opera
Nashville Opera, Tennessee's largest professional opera company, is dedicated to creating legendary productions and programs. Among the most successful regional companies in the United States of America, Nashville Opera has presented three different world premiere operas since its inception in 1981. Main stage performances are presented at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, and play to over 17,000 people annually. Nashville Opera's extensive education and outreach touring program reaches over 30,000 students throughout Middle Tennessee. These projects are supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Tennessee Arts Commission, and the Metro Nashville Arts Commission.

Nashville Ballet, a 501(c)(3) non profit, is the largest professional ballet company in Tennessee. As the second largest producing arts organization in the Middle Tennessee area, Nashville Ballet presents a varied repertoire of classical ballet and contemporary works by noted choreographers, along with original works by Artistic Director Paul Vasterling. Nashville Ballet and the second company NB2 (a pre-professional training company) serve over 62,000 adults and children annually through professional performances, and the education and outreach initiative programming. Our curriculum-based outreach initiative brings dance education to community centers, colleges, public libraries, eight resident schools, and public elementary and middle schools throughout Middle Tennessee. The School of Nashville Ballet provides world-class instruction in Ballet for the dancers of tomorrow.

 

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