The UNL opera program will stage “A Wedding” at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27 and 3 p.m. March 1. Both performances are in Kimball Hall.
“A Wedding” is a comic opera based on Robert Altman’s 1978 film of the same name. William Bolcom, the first Ariel Bybee Endowed Visiting Professor of Opera at UNL’s Glenn Korff School of Music, composed the production.
The opera opens with wedding coordinator Rita Billingsley preparing for nuptials joining two wealthy families. Throughout the production, Billingsley’s obsessive-compulsive dedication to perfection is derailed.
Both families — the Sloans, and elite Chicago North Shore clan representing the classic example of “old money; and the Brenners, a stereotypical “nouveau rich” family from Louisville, Kentucky — bring their own problems to the wedding.
As family issues percolate, the pot boils over when Bea Sloan, the communist aunt of the groom, shows up with a wedding portrait no one will ever forget, and Buffy, the bride’s sister, turns out to be pregnant by the groom.
Nothing is resolved through the madcap day — which ends with hope that the bride and groom may make it after all.
Tickets for the production are $20 for adults and $10 for students and senior citizens. Tickets are available at the Lied Center for Performing Arts box office or by calling 402-472-4747.
