"The Very Last Green Thing," an opera aimed for young audiences and performed by children ranging from nine to 16, opens next week at the Touhill. It will be the third production of the work by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis since the organization commissioned it in 1992.
"The inspiration for the opera actually came from kids," said Allison Felter, director of education and community engagement at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. "We wanted to know back then what was important to them, and it was the environment."
The play is set 400 years in the future, where students in a classroom discover a plant, "the last green thing."
Technology has developed so much in the last eleven years, said director Doug Scholz-Carlson, that futuristic elements written into the opera are already taking place. For instance, the android teacher takes attendance by punching it into a machine.
But in other ways, the futuristic setting is still largely imaginary; a world where plants are so foreign that finding one initiates a paradigm shift for the students and teacher.
At that point in the performance, the music shifts as well, from sharp, minimalistic lines to lyrical notes, said conductor Vince Lee.
Related Events
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis Presents Cary John Franklin and Michael Patrick Albano's "The Very Last Green Thing"
Saturday, October 26, 2013
10:00 and 11:30 a.m.
UMSL's Touhill Performing Arts Center's Lee Theater
For more information, call 314-516-4949 or visit theTouhill Performing Arts Center website.
Cityscape is produced by Mary Edwards and Alex Heuer, hosted by Steve Potter and funded in part by the the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis, the Regional Arts Commission and the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.
