University of North Texas

(Editor's note: Christine Goerke is ill and has cancelled her Nov. 8 concert. Latonia Moore, alumna and star of the Dallas Opera's staging of Verdi's Aida, will perform, accompanied by Elvia Puccinelli. Moore has sung with Opera Australia, the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Tickets for the Nov. 8 Goerke performance will be honored.)

World class vocal arias will be heard around campus Nov. 7-11 as alumna Latonia Moore, left,  filling in for Wagnerian soprano Christine Goerke, performs as part of the Fine Arts Series and the National Association of Teachers of Singing regional conference.

The UNT Symphony also will present Roméo et Juliette Nov. 11, 16 and 18. Above, students Shelby Hendryx and Stephen Carroll in Roméo et Juliette.

Moore will be accompanied by Elvia Puccinelli, right, vocal coach, associate professor of music and of collaborative piano, for the 8 p.m. performance in the Murchison Performing Arts Center. l.

The National Association of Teachers of Singing hosts regional conferences each year at various colleges and universities. UNT is hosting the 2012 Texoma regional conference, which includes voice teachers from Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.

UNT Vocal Studies Chair is Jeffrey Snider.

More vocal skills will be displayed in the operatic adaptation of Shakespeare’s timeless story of "star-cross’d lovers" in Charles Gounod’s French opera Roméo et Juliette,"a great masterpiece of the French opera repertoire,” said Stephen Dubberly, conductor and associate professor of performance. “It is very rare to find a university opera program capable of putting on a piece like this. It is truly a grand opera, and calls for incredibly challenging singing and acting, and a high level of artistry from our students.”

Dubberly’s In the Know lectures about the opera begin 45 minutes prior to each performance. Performances are at 3 p.m. Nov. 11, 8 p.m. Nov. 16 and 3 p.m. Nov. 18, all in the Murchison Performing Arts Center, Lyric Theater.  

• Buy tickets online to the Goerke - now Moore - concert and Roméo et Juliette or by calling the Murchison Box Office at 940-369-7802. Tickets are $20 for the public and are free for UNT students with ID. UNT student tickets must be picked up in person at the Murchison Box Office. Tickets to the opera are $15-$35.
• Enter to win a pair of tickets to Roméo et Juliette by sending an email to InHouse with “Roméo et Juliette” in the subject line by 5 p.m. Nov. 9. Winner will be chosen at random from all responses and may attend either the 8 p.m. Nov. 16 or the 3 p.m. Nov. 18 performance. Tickets will be at Will Call at the Murchison Performing Arts Center.

The UNT opera program began at UNT in 1944. It is one of the oldest programs of its kind in the western United States. The program earned first place in the National Opera Association competition last year for its production of Marc Blitzstein’s Regina. 

The spring 2013 performances are Leos Janácek’s Zápisník Zmizelého (The Diary of One Who Disappeared), Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Le Devin du Village (The Village Soothsayer).

(Photo by Gary Payne; Goerke photo by Christian Steiner)