Vienna-based mezzo-soprano Margaret Newcomb sings the lead tonight in Opera Fayetteville’s production of “Dark Sisters,” the company’s first in the Walton Arts Center’s Starr Theater.
Nico Muhly’s opera, which premiered in 2011 at John Jay College’s Gerald W. Lynch Theater, overlays folksong with hymns to tell the story of Eliza, the wife of a leader of a religious sect based on the church of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints.
“Even though her background is very different from most people who will see the show, there’s something deeply relatable about Eliza’s struggle,” General Director Tamara Ryan said. “She’s stuck between how she’s been taught to live and a sense that there’s something more for her out there. She’s struggling with how a loving God could allow such painful things to happen to her. Those are experiences that resonate with most of us, I think.”
Opera Fayetteville, Musical Director Cris Frisco said, loves the classics, but is “committed to creating a home and an audience for challenging contemporary opera in Arkansas.”
Performances are Friday, March 29 and Saturday, March 30 at the Walton Arts Center, $30-$40. Get tickets here.