Menotti’s opera comedy “The Telephone” will be presented at the 2019 KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival on Friday, September 20 at 10 p.m. at MuCCC, 142 Atlantic Avenue, Rochester. “The Telephone” explores an unusual “love triangle” between Lucy, Ben and the pesky, interruptive smartphone. The opera was originally written in 1947 by Gian Carlo Menotti. This performance takes place in the present day and tackles today’s epidemic of impersonal interaction.
Lucy is your everyday thirty-something millennial, who spends every waking moment glued to her smartphone. Her partner, Ben, is a no-frills, guy, with one goal: propose to Lucy before departing on a business trip. However, he is struggling for Lucy’s attention as she keeps receiving texts, tweets and calls.
Throughout the performance, the audience will be able to interact with Lucy live while the story is unfolding on stage using the twitter handle @LUCYlovesBEN4ev. This interpretation is a “no-holds-barred” experience that your average opera audience has never seen. The goal of this debut performance is to make opera accessible to all ages. “The Telephone” stars soprano, Kerri Lynn Slominski as Lucy, baritone Marc Falco as Ben and pianist, Alex Kuczynski.
This performance comes from Slominski’s vision, and she is also serving as show producer. She states, “Menotti wrote ‘The Telephone’ as a cautionary romantic comedy hoping to illustrate the importance of face-to-face communication and the potential dangers the telephone could bring to a relationship. As a prolific composer, Menotti strived to bring opera to smaller venues, television and radio. I wanted to modernize his story by setting it in our present day utilizing the everyday real time technology we live with.” She wants the audience to tweet to the character, Lucy, live while the performance is occurring before their eyes. “It may be a challenge. I am pretty sure this endeavor has never been attempted before in opera. It will definitely be a social experiment, but one that I believe Menotti himself would approve of!”
Tickets for “The Telephone” are $15 at rochesterfringe.com, where more information is also available. Remaining tickets will be available at the door starting one hour before curtain.
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