UW Opera Performs Adaptation of Classic South African Tale

Absalom is facing trouble of the first water: deep, serious, vast and ultimately fatal. A black South African, he is accused of murdering a white activist in 1949. Certainly Absalom will die for this crime.

No doubt you recognize the story from Alan Paton’s novel, Cry, the Beloved Country. Composer Kurt Weill and librettist Maxwell Anderson gave Paton’s book operatic life as “Lost in the Stars,” which will continue University Opera’s 1997-98 season Feb. 6-8 in Music Hall.

“Lost in the Stars” was one of Weill’s last works before his death in 1950. No stranger to political oppression, he fled Hitler’s Germany for America in 1935. Stateside, he composed a number of innovative productions for the musical theater, including “Knickerbocker Holiday” (which contained the standard “September Song”), “Lady in the Dark” and “One Touch of Venus.”

Weill’s music is almost always provocative and intensely power, says Jamie Schmidt, master of music candidate and musical director of “Stars.” That sound, Schmidt says, owes a dual debt to George Gershwin and classical traditions.

Schmidt adds he wishes he could make audiences more aware of these and other operatic contexts. Knowing some background enriches the experience, he says.

“Europeans study for a particular opera — it’s a tradition there,” says Schmidt. “They’ll acquaint themselves with the music before they attend the performance, maybe read the book on which it was based. Americans seem quite unwilling to do that, and I think that may be why opera has the elitist reputation it has here.”

Nathaniel Stampley Jr.

Curtain for the Feb. 6 and 7 performances will rise at 8 p.m. The Feb. 8 performance will begin at 3 p.m. Tickets for Feb. 6 and 8 are $11 for the general public and $9 for UW students.

Proceeds from the Feb. 7 performance will benefit the African-American Association for International Training and Culture, based in Milwaukee. Established in 1995, the organization seeks to reconnect African Americans to their heritage through travel, humanitarian support, entrepreneurial training and resource exchange.

“Having this benefit is a good way for the UW School of Music to reach out to the African-American community,” Schmidt says. “Nat Stampley, who was in the School of Music, will sing our lead, and his father heads the AAAITC. Nate went to Africa with the organization after his studies here, and he says the experience changed his life.” Schmidt says.

The cost of the Feb. 7 benefit performance is $15. Tickets for all performances are available through the Vilas Hall Box Office, (608) 262-1500.