Arts & Culture

Enjoy 'Some Enchanted Evening' With UK Opera Theatre

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Jenna Day and André Campelo perform "Some Enchanted Evening" from "South Pacific" on WKYT. A transcript of this video can be found here

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 5, 2015) — The University of Kentucky Opera Theatre opens its 2015-16 season with a one-weekend run of the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II multi-Tony Award-winning musical, "South Pacific," Oct. 8-11, at the Lexington Opera House.

"South Pacific" is based on the James A. Michener Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel, "Tales of the South Pacific," which sends a strong progressive message about racism through the power of love. Considered among the 20th century's greatest musicals, the 1949 production won 10 Tony Awards and inspired a 1958 film adaptation and several successful revivals, including the 2008 production featuring Kelli O'Hara, Paulo Szot and Matthew Morrison.

Set in an island paradise during World War II, two parallel love stories are threatened by the dangers of prejudice and war. Nellie, a spunky nurse from Arkansas, falls in love with a mature French planter, Emile. Nellie learns that the mother of his children was an island native and, unable to turn her back on the prejudices with which she was raised, Nellie refuses Emile’s marriage proposal. Meanwhile, the strapping Lt. Joe Cable denies himself the fulfillment of a future with an innocent Tonkinese girl he’s fallen in love with out of the same fears that haunt Nellie. Tragedy must come to the couples before they realize life is too short to hold such prejudices.

UK's production of "South Pacific" will star Jenna Day, a 2015 political science graduate working on her second bachelor's degree in vocal performance, as Nellie Forbush and doctoral student André Campelo as Emile de Becque. Kentucky audiences will recognize Day as Miss Kentucky 2013.

"South Pacific" is being guided by two of Lexington's own Broadway veterans, Jeromy and Lyndy Smith. The couple serve as both directors and choreographers for the production, which features several talents from both the UK School of Music and the UK Department of Theatre and Dance, who are participating in the college's musical theatre certificate program. It will be staged with Michael Yeargan’s 2008 Broadway revival set.

The show will begin 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 8-10, and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 10-11, at the Lexington Opera House. "South Pacific" tickets can be purchased online at www.ticketmaster.com, by phone at 1-800-745-3000, or in person at the Lexington Center.

UK Opera Theatre is part of the UK School of Music at UK College of Fine Arts. The school has garnered a national reputation for high-caliber education in opera, choral and instrumental music performance, as well as music education, composition and music theory.

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu