Skip to Main Navigation

UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

The Schools of Nursing and Pharmacy operate on both the Oxford and Jackson campuses. The Schools of Dentistry, Health Related Professionals and Medicine, and the Health Sciences Graduate School, are based in Jackson only. (Additional healthcare programs are available through the School of Applied Sciences on the Oxford campus.) Other than these exceptions, the schools above are on the Oxford campus.

Calendar

LMR Live features composer Adam Guettel

Invitation: The Tony Award-winning composer of 'The Light in the Piazza' joins a lively conversation about the show and its place in Broadway history.

Wed
3
Nov
7:30 PM - 8:30 PM Nov. 3, 2021
Music Building Room 123 Nutt Auditorium, Oxford Campus
Open to the public

In celebration of UM Opera Theatre's upcoming production of The Light in the Piazza—and of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mississippi writer Elizabeth Spencer, who penned the novel upon which the musical is based—UM Music presents the show's composer, Adam Guettel, in a residency this week.

The evening of Wednesday, November 3rd, Guettel swings by LMR Live! at 7:30 in Nutt Auditorium for an exciting interview with the show's director, Blake McIver Ewing, music director Amanda Johnston, star Mary Donnelly Haskell, and LMR Live host Nancy Maria Balach. They'll discuss the musical and its place in Broadway history; as the grandson of legendary composer Richard Rodgers of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Guettel is well-steeped in the history of musical theatre and its stories.

If you can't make it to the free studio audience experience in Nutt Auditorium, stream the show live via livingmusicresource.com. Produced by Living Music Resource.

Other residency activities include:

  • a SouthTalks conversation about Elizabeth Spencer, her work, and Guettel's process of translating it into Tony Award-winning musical theatre: Wednesday, November 3rd at 12:00 noon in Paris-Yates Chapel. Presented by UM Music and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture.
  • a master class featuring Guettel working with voice students, Friday, November 5th from 1:00-1:50 in Nutt Auditorium. The master class process provides a fascinating look into the life of a professional performer, and an unfolding of the hidden techniques, skills, and strategies that go into a top-notch performance. Interesting for performers and a general audience alike.

MUS100 credit will be available. All residency activities are free and open to the public.

We're grateful to the following for their support of the Adam Guettel Residency at UM Music:

  • the Center for the Study of Southern Culture
  • the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies
  • the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College
  • the UM Lecture Series
  • the Mississippi Humanities Council

About the show:
The Light in the Piazza's rich emotional score makes it notable among recent Broadway musicals. Unapologetically lyrical and romantic, it transports the audience to the 1950s world of Margaret Johnson and her daughter Clara, Americans abroad in Florence. When a fateful gust of wind introduces Clara to handsome young Italian Fabrizio Nacarelli, it’s love at first sight.

But Clara isn’t quite what she appears, and this story of how Clara, Margaret, Fabrizio, and Signor Nacarelli negotiate emotion, love, hope, and clashing cultures – and the acclaimed musical score that underpins their journey – won the show six Tony awards, including Best Original Score.

The Broadway production, based on Mississippi author Elizabeth Spencer's novella, also won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music. The Ole Miss production of the show also observes what would have been the author's 100th birthday this past summer.

For assistance related to a disability, contact Lynn Wilkins: lwilkins@olemiss.edu | 6629152036

Event posted by: lwilkins@olemiss.edu

Sponsored by: UM Department of Music, Living Music Resource, Sarah Isom Center, CSSC and more