W.O.O.S.H., short opera for young and young at heart, at UC Merced
A performance of an original opera for children opens Saturday, May 21, at UC Merced.
W.O.O.S.H., Web of Opera Super Heroes, is an original story of adventure and interactive fun, performed for schoolchildren and the public at UC Merced as part of an effort to expose Merced County youths to opera and theater, organizers said in a news release.
About 3,500 area schoolchildren have attended twice-daily school performances this week. The performances at Lakireddy Auditorium at UC Merced were offered for free to schools.
A public performance is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at the auditorium. A suggested donation for the public performance is $5 for adults and $3 for children.
This is the seventh year in which a children’s opera has been offered at UC Merced.
In this year’s romp, Evil Dr. Cadenza is destroying the Music of the Galaxy by feeding it into his Death Ray Synthesizer. Who can foil this diabolical plot and save the Earth’s music? Only one group: W.O.O.S.H!
The project is sponsored by the Merced County Office of Education, Arts UC Merced Presents, the Betty Scalice Foundation and private donations. The opera is written by Nancy Steele Brokaw, and uses music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Strauss Jr., Giacomo Puccini and Arthur Sullivan.
W.O.O.S.H.! features Chrysanthe Pappas as Princess Eyebrato, Christian Cobral as Monsieur Le Swoon Bottom, Uriah Brown as Dr. Cadenza and UC Merced student Kayla Jann Blasco as No-See-Mimimi.
If you go
W.O.O.S.H. is being performed Saturday, May 21, at 10 a.m. in the Lakireddy Auditorium at UC Merced.
This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 9:49 PM with the headline "W.O.O.S.H., short opera for young and young at heart, at UC Merced."