HOUGHTON -- Community Artist Mary Wright is in the final stages of installing her piece, "Story Line," at Michigan Tech’s Rosza Center. This community art and history project, inspired by the Pine Mountain Music Festival opera Rockland, is taking shape around the Rosza building and the neighboring Walker Building on the Michigan Tech campus. Volunteers are needed today, Wednesday, July 13, to complete the hanging of the exhibit. The project must be completed by 7 p.m. TODAY!
The stringing is done, and now the pre-strung lines of the remaining panels need to be hung in the installation. Volunteers are needed to get up on ladders to hang the remaining panels. Can you help? Can your son/daughter/friend/neighbor/classmate/fraternity brother/sorority sister?
Volunteers should meet at the Rozsa lobby or look for the crew out among the flapping panels to the west of the Walker building.
Story Line panels have been made by thousands of Upper Peninsula residents and visitors and their family members. These panels tell the story of ancestors who have
faced adversity. The panels have been strung onto wire for installation as clothesline-like Story lines. To honor the efforts of the thousands of folks who have made a total of more than 7,000 panels, just one more day’s worth of work is needed to get them all on display.
If you are available Wednesday at any time before 7 p.m., for 15 minutes or more, please do come. Someone will be there to put you to work.
Community art is about the community. Grab two friends and come on over to the Storyline to be a part of it.
Tickets to Rockland are available for Friday’s 7:30 p.m. premier and Sunday’s 3 p.m. matinee. You may purchase tickets at the SDC box office at Michigan Tech or over the web (fee applies for online purchase) See pmmf.org/tickets/.
Click here to read more about the Story Line project.
Click here to read about the opera Rockland.
Showing posts with label "Rockland" opera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label "Rockland" opera. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Cultural events related to opera "Rockland" being held July 13, 14, 16
HANCOCK -- Several events related to the Pine Mountain Music Festival (PMMF) production of the opera Rockland are happening this week.
At 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 13, PMMF will present a free symposium on commissioning new music -- with a panel composed of John and Pauline Kiltinen, Jukka Linkola, Esa Ruuttunen and Peter Van Pelt. This event will be held at Portage Lake United Church in Houghton. The Kiltinens, of Marquette, have been ardent supporters of Rockland from the beginning. Linkola is the Finnish composer of Rockland and numerous other musical works. Ruuttunen is a well-known baritone who will sing in Rockland. He is artistic director of the Jokilaakso Music Foundation in Finland which produced the Old World Premiere of the opera. Van Pelt is executive director of Pine Mountain Music Festival.
At 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 14, at the Jutila Center in Hancock, Larry Lankton, professor of history at Michigan Technological University and author of several books and articles on the area, will speak on "History and Conditions of the Mining Industry in the Copper Country in the Early 1900s." Lankton is well-known as a popular lecturer on historical topics. The event is free and open to the public.
At 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 16, Arnold Alanen, the 2009-2010 Finlandia Foundation National Lecturer of the Year and professor emeritus of landscape architecture at University of Wisconsin-Madison, will speak on "Finnish Impact on the Cultural Landscape in North America." His talk will be illustrated with numerous slides and will give special attention to Rockland. This free event will also be at the Jutila Center in Hancock.
Besides these free events, the Ameriikan Poijat (Boys of America), a brass septet from Minnesota, will present a 7 p.m. concert on July 14 at the Calumet Theatre, followed by dancing in the ballroom. Tickets for this event are $15 (or $10 for students and children). Andy Hill, resident of Wakefield and grandson of Alfred Laakso on whose first-hand account the opera Rockland is based, will be narrator for this concert.
Pine Mountain Music Festival will present the New World Premiere of the opera Rockland at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 15, and at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 17, at the Rozsa Center in Houghton. Tickets are still available.
Click here to read details on the Rockland performance.
At 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 13, PMMF will present a free symposium on commissioning new music -- with a panel composed of John and Pauline Kiltinen, Jukka Linkola, Esa Ruuttunen and Peter Van Pelt. This event will be held at Portage Lake United Church in Houghton. The Kiltinens, of Marquette, have been ardent supporters of Rockland from the beginning. Linkola is the Finnish composer of Rockland and numerous other musical works. Ruuttunen is a well-known baritone who will sing in Rockland. He is artistic director of the Jokilaakso Music Foundation in Finland which produced the Old World Premiere of the opera. Van Pelt is executive director of Pine Mountain Music Festival.
At 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 14, at the Jutila Center in Hancock, Larry Lankton, professor of history at Michigan Technological University and author of several books and articles on the area, will speak on "History and Conditions of the Mining Industry in the Copper Country in the Early 1900s." Lankton is well-known as a popular lecturer on historical topics. The event is free and open to the public.
At 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 16, Arnold Alanen, the 2009-2010 Finlandia Foundation National Lecturer of the Year and professor emeritus of landscape architecture at University of Wisconsin-Madison, will speak on "Finnish Impact on the Cultural Landscape in North America." His talk will be illustrated with numerous slides and will give special attention to Rockland. This free event will also be at the Jutila Center in Hancock.
Besides these free events, the Ameriikan Poijat (Boys of America), a brass septet from Minnesota, will present a 7 p.m. concert on July 14 at the Calumet Theatre, followed by dancing in the ballroom. Tickets for this event are $15 (or $10 for students and children). Andy Hill, resident of Wakefield and grandson of Alfred Laakso on whose first-hand account the opera Rockland is based, will be narrator for this concert.
Pine Mountain Music Festival will present the New World Premiere of the opera Rockland at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 15, and at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 17, at the Rozsa Center in Houghton. Tickets are still available.
Click here to read details on the Rockland performance.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Opera "Rockland" is for everyone
Pictured here, from left, are Leslie Hill, Esa Ruuttunen and Fia Hill Murray, in Nivala, Finland, for the Old World Premiere of Rockland last month. The Hill sisters are granddaughters of Alfred Laakso, who wrote the first-hand account of the 1906 events on which the opera is based. Esa Ruuttunen sings the role of Alfred Laakso in the opera. (Photo courtesy Pine Mountain Music Festival)HOUGHTON -- The new opera Rockland, a Pine Mountain Music Festival (PMMF) production, with a cast of nearly 50 and an orchestra of over 40, will have its New World premiere at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 15, and at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 17, at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts in Houghton.
Last month, the "Old World Premiere" of Rockland took place in Nivala, Finland. The audiences there felt connected to the opera because many had ancestors who had emigrated to Michigan around a century ago. The idea of the opera came from a first-hand account of the 1906 events written by a Finn in Rockland named Alfred Laakso, and his descendants will be on hand for a reception after the July 17 performance.
The opera is based on actual events in the town of Rockland, Ontonagon County, in 1906, when about 100 Finnish miners went on strike and two of them were shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies.
"There is so much in this opera that is both real and symbolic," said Peter Van Pelt, PMMF executive director. "The heart of the story is literally true, but in a broader sense the opera speaks of the entire history of the U.P. and its mining heritage and different ethnic stories. It’s powerful."
Tickets for the opera are selling well, Van Pelt reported, but there are still seats available.
"This opera is for everyone," Van Pelt noted. "Opera is another way of telling a story, like a book or a movie or a stage play, but with opera you get the thrill of hearing great music and well-trained opera voices -- and that is something that everyone can appreciate."
After one recent rehearsal, a PMMF staff person said, "I knew the principal singers would be well prepared, but I was unexpectedly blown away by the quality of the chorus -- what glorious sound!"
The chorus is composed of local singers plus a number of undergraduates from Concordia College and the University of Michigan.
Tickets for Rockland are available from the Rozsa Center box office, 877-746-3999, or at the door if space permits. The box office is currently operating out of the Student Development Complex at the top of MacInnes Drive in Houghton.
Click here to purchase tickets on line.
Pine Mountain Music Festival presents a season of opera and classical music each June-July in the Dickinson County area, the Marquette area, the Keweenaw Peninsula, and other towns in the Upper Peninsula. Visit www.pmmf.org or call 888-309-7861 for more information.
Editor's Note: Click here to read about artist Mary Wright's "Story Line" project -- more than 7,000 cloth panels telling stories of ancestors -- now displayed in and around the Rozsa Center in conjunction with the opera Rockland.
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Update: Volunteers still needed for final stages of "Story Line" Installation
Community artist Mary Wright explains her Story Line project, now being displayed inside and around the Rozsa Center, to Michigan Tech students, from left, Faith Lambert, who is working with Michigan Tech's Summer Sports Program, and Summer Youth Program student leaders Karmen Vrooman and Danielle Poma, who stopped to read the story panels on campus last week. Volunteers are needed this week to complete the display. (Keweenaw Now file photo)HOUGHTON -- The final push is on: Community Artist Mary Wright is in the final stages of installing her Story Line project, in preparation for the Pine Mountain Music Festival opera Rockland, which will have its New World Premiere July 15 and 17 at the Rozsa Center in Houghton. The project, the single largest art installation in the history of the State of Michigan, is already taking shape in the Rosza lobby and around the Rosza building and the neighboring Walker Building on the Michigan Tech campus.
Volunteers are needed tomorrow, Wednesday, July 6, to thread panels onto wires (think clothes lines) as part of the Story Line Installation at the Rosza Center. Volunteers are needed for one hour or two hour threading sessions on Wednesday, July 6:
Session 1: 10 a.m. - noon
Session 2: 1 p.m. - 3 p.m.
Session 3: 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Editor's update: Mary says thanks to those who helped on Wednesday. More volunteers are needed for Thursday and Friday, July 7 and 8. Same schedule as above.
Come to the Rosza Lobby to be put to work. Please indicate how may people are coming by clicking on this link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Storyline
Houghton High School student Tyler Paakola (foreground), originally of Green Bay, Wis., and now living in Tapiola, Mich., and Michigan Tech student Zach Eckert of Battle Creek, Mich., string story panels on lines being hung on the windows of the Rozsa Center lobby for the Story Line project. Both volunteered for several hours last week. (Keweenaw Now file photo)If you are available other times or only for an hour tomorrow, please do come, there will be someone to put you to work. Community art is about the community. Grab two friends and come on over to the Story Line to be a part of it.
Contact Mary Wright for more information at 906-361-5548
Editor's Note: See our July 3 article, "Volunteers needed to help display 'Story Line' project" for more information and photos of the display.
Pine Mountain Music Festival String Octet to perform July 8 in Houghton
HANCOCK -- Pine Mountain Music Festival announces that the PMMF String Octet will give a concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 8, at Grace United Methodist Church in Houghton. Other performances will be in Kingsford on July 6, Ironwood on July 7, and Marquette on July 11. Tickets are $20, or $10 for students and children.
The Pine Mountain Music Festival String Octet musicians are pictured here, top row to bottom row: John Madison, Molly Hughes, Karen Jenks, Caroline Coade, Judith Teasdle, Daniel Thomas, Carrie Pierce, Paul Lundin. Click on photo for larger version. (Photo courtesy Pine Mountain Music Festival)
The octet members are also members of the orchestra for the new opera Rockland, which will premiere Friday, July 15, and Sunday, July 17, at the Rozsa Center in Houghton. The violinists include Karen Jenks of the Ann Arbor, Flint and Saginaw orchestras; Molly Hughes, who plays with Michigan Opera Theatre and the Flint Symphony; Paul Lundin, an Escanaba native who directs the "Strings on the Bay Series" there; and Judith Teasdle, a freelance chamber musician and teacher in Oakland University’s Preparatory Division. Violists are Caroline Coade, who is a member of Detroit Symphony Orchestra and teaches at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University, and John Madison, who is principal violist with Michigan Opera Theatre and substitutes with the Detroit Symphony. Cellists are Carrie Pierce, who is principal cellist with Lansing Symphony Orchestra, and Daniel Thomas, who plays with Detroit Symphony Orchestra and other southeast Michigan orchestras.
Their program includes works by Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn. Since the players usually appear as members of full orchestras, they are looking forward to playing as part of a smaller ensemble and performing these chamber works "on their own."
Joshua Major, the Festival’s artistic director, says, "This will be a very dynamic concert; the pieces are masterworks, and the players are superlative musicians."
The Pine Mountain Music Festival String Octet concerts are sponsored by Champion, Inc.
Still to come in the PMMF 2011 season are appearances in Ironwood (July 12) and Calumet (July 14) by Ameriikan Poijat, a Finnish-American brass septet from Minneapolis; and the New World Premiere of Rockland, an opera based on local history, at the Rozsa Center in Houghton on July 15 and 17.
Pine Mountain Music Festival presents a season of opera and classical music each June-July in the Dickinson County area, the Marquette area, the Keweenaw Peninsula, and other towns in the Upper Peninsula. Visit their Web site at www.pmmf.org or call 888-309-7861 for more information. Tickets are also available through the Rozsa Center Box Office (which is operating out of the Student Development Complex on MacInnes Drive), telephone 487-3200.
The Pine Mountain Music Festival String Octet musicians are pictured here, top row to bottom row: John Madison, Molly Hughes, Karen Jenks, Caroline Coade, Judith Teasdle, Daniel Thomas, Carrie Pierce, Paul Lundin. Click on photo for larger version. (Photo courtesy Pine Mountain Music Festival)The octet members are also members of the orchestra for the new opera Rockland, which will premiere Friday, July 15, and Sunday, July 17, at the Rozsa Center in Houghton. The violinists include Karen Jenks of the Ann Arbor, Flint and Saginaw orchestras; Molly Hughes, who plays with Michigan Opera Theatre and the Flint Symphony; Paul Lundin, an Escanaba native who directs the "Strings on the Bay Series" there; and Judith Teasdle, a freelance chamber musician and teacher in Oakland University’s Preparatory Division. Violists are Caroline Coade, who is a member of Detroit Symphony Orchestra and teaches at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University, and John Madison, who is principal violist with Michigan Opera Theatre and substitutes with the Detroit Symphony. Cellists are Carrie Pierce, who is principal cellist with Lansing Symphony Orchestra, and Daniel Thomas, who plays with Detroit Symphony Orchestra and other southeast Michigan orchestras.
Their program includes works by Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn. Since the players usually appear as members of full orchestras, they are looking forward to playing as part of a smaller ensemble and performing these chamber works "on their own."
Joshua Major, the Festival’s artistic director, says, "This will be a very dynamic concert; the pieces are masterworks, and the players are superlative musicians."
The Pine Mountain Music Festival String Octet concerts are sponsored by Champion, Inc.
Still to come in the PMMF 2011 season are appearances in Ironwood (July 12) and Calumet (July 14) by Ameriikan Poijat, a Finnish-American brass septet from Minneapolis; and the New World Premiere of Rockland, an opera based on local history, at the Rozsa Center in Houghton on July 15 and 17.
Pine Mountain Music Festival presents a season of opera and classical music each June-July in the Dickinson County area, the Marquette area, the Keweenaw Peninsula, and other towns in the Upper Peninsula. Visit their Web site at www.pmmf.org or call 888-309-7861 for more information. Tickets are also available through the Rozsa Center Box Office (which is operating out of the Student Development Complex on MacInnes Drive), telephone 487-3200.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
"Story Line" community art, history project exhibited in conjunction with "Rockland" opera
By Michele Bourdieu
Artist Mary Wright displays her "Story Line" project in local venues. Here she has hung some of the cloth panels with stories about ancestors on the terrace near the Fifth and Elm Coffee House in Houghton. She invites everyone to participate in the project by writing a story about an ancestor who faced adversity. The community art project is being exhibited in conjunction with the Pine Mountain Music Festival's opera Rockland. (Photos by Keweenaw Now)
HANCOCK -- If you've noticed -- hanging on clotheslines at various public locations around town -- white fabric panels, each imprinted with a story and photograph representing a family's history, then you've been introduced to "The Story Line" project, coordinated by artist Mary Wright.
This display of thousands of family stories will coincide with Pine Mountain Music Festival’s New World premiere of Rockland, an original opera by Finnish composer Jukka Linkola, on July 15 and 17, 2011, at the Rozsa Center in Houghton. Based on real events that occurred during a miners’ strike in 1906 at the Old Victoria Mine, the opera celebrates the universal human struggle to overcome adversity.
Mary Wright poses with a collection of "Story Line" panels at the June 11 Art and Music Festival in Houghton. This week the panels will be hung at the Rozsa Center in preparation for the opera Rockland, which will have its New World premiere on July 15 and 17 at the Rozsa.
"What makes 'The Story Line' project such a good promotional boost for the opera Rockland is the fact that it has so much value in itself, even apart from the opera," says Peter Van Pelt, Pine Mountain Music Festival executive director. "It is encouraging so many people to research their family history -- and it is encouraging respect for history, just as the opera is doing. U.P. history, at both the macro and micro levels, is such a rich lode, and it is good to see it being mined like this."
During a recent presentation of her "Story Line" project at the Portage Lake District Library in Houghton, Wright told visitors how, during the 1906 Copper Boom at Rockland, "miners were working excessive hours in unsafe conditions for wages too low."
The miners -- mostly Finnish -- decided to strike and two of them were killed. The story, found in a journal written by an eye witness and recovered in 1996, inspired Jukka Linkola to write this opera, which will also be performed in Finland this summer.
"You don't have to be Finnish to be involved in this project," Wright said. "You don't have to be involved in mining. You don't have to be from here. Anybody can be part of this."
Artist Mary Wright displays her "Story Line" project in local venues. Here she has hung some of the cloth panels with stories about ancestors on the terrace near the Fifth and Elm Coffee House in Houghton. She invites everyone to participate in the project by writing a story about an ancestor who faced adversity. The community art project is being exhibited in conjunction with the Pine Mountain Music Festival's opera Rockland. (Photos by Keweenaw Now)HANCOCK -- If you've noticed -- hanging on clotheslines at various public locations around town -- white fabric panels, each imprinted with a story and photograph representing a family's history, then you've been introduced to "The Story Line" project, coordinated by artist Mary Wright.
This display of thousands of family stories will coincide with Pine Mountain Music Festival’s New World premiere of Rockland, an original opera by Finnish composer Jukka Linkola, on July 15 and 17, 2011, at the Rozsa Center in Houghton. Based on real events that occurred during a miners’ strike in 1906 at the Old Victoria Mine, the opera celebrates the universal human struggle to overcome adversity.
Mary Wright poses with a collection of "Story Line" panels at the June 11 Art and Music Festival in Houghton. This week the panels will be hung at the Rozsa Center in preparation for the opera Rockland, which will have its New World premiere on July 15 and 17 at the Rozsa."What makes 'The Story Line' project such a good promotional boost for the opera Rockland is the fact that it has so much value in itself, even apart from the opera," says Peter Van Pelt, Pine Mountain Music Festival executive director. "It is encouraging so many people to research their family history -- and it is encouraging respect for history, just as the opera is doing. U.P. history, at both the macro and micro levels, is such a rich lode, and it is good to see it being mined like this."
During a recent presentation of her "Story Line" project at the Portage Lake District Library in Houghton, Wright told visitors how, during the 1906 Copper Boom at Rockland, "miners were working excessive hours in unsafe conditions for wages too low."
The miners -- mostly Finnish -- decided to strike and two of them were killed. The story, found in a journal written by an eye witness and recovered in 1996, inspired Jukka Linkola to write this opera, which will also be performed in Finland this summer.
"You don't have to be Finnish to be involved in this project," Wright said. "You don't have to be involved in mining. You don't have to be from here. Anybody can be part of this."
Mary Wright tells visitors to her Portage Library presentation about "The Story Line" project and how they can write a story about one of their ancestors for the project. (Video clip by Allan Baker for Keweenaw Now)
Wright said she has been working in 21 schools in seven different Upper Peninsula counties to collect stories for this project. She collected as many as 1500 stories at just one school, and she still wants more.
"We all have stories, and I want them all -- to be part of this great work of regional, cultural history and art," Wright noted. "Without those people behind us we would simply not be here."
Mary Wright tells the story of Croatian immigrant Anna Podnar, written by Podnar's granddaughter, Kendra Turpeinen of Chassell. Click here to read the story on "The Story Line" Web site. (Photo by Allan Baker for Keweenaw Now)
This is a perfect time to honor your ancestors and to give your family a voice in "The Story Line,” one of the largest creative and historical public exhibitions ever to take place in Michigan.
Just write a short (200-400 word) story in the first person -- from the point of view of an ancestor of yours who overcame adversity. Select a photo of your ancestor. If a photo is not available you can add a photo of an object related to his or her life -- even a recipe or a tombstone. Materials are free, provided in part by a grant from the Michigan Council for the Humanities. Your story and photo will be photo-transferred onto a piece of white cloth and displayed on the Michigan Tech campus on laundry lines representing the common threads that connect all people -- including diverse ethnic groups and generations.
The story panels will be displayed inside and outside the Rozsa Center beginning this week.
Please send your stories to thestorylineproject@gmail.com or contact Mary Wright, Event Coordinator, by phone at 906-361-554 to learn more about how you can participate.
See examples on the website, www.thestorylineproject.com.
Wright said she has been working in 21 schools in seven different Upper Peninsula counties to collect stories for this project. She collected as many as 1500 stories at just one school, and she still wants more.
"We all have stories, and I want them all -- to be part of this great work of regional, cultural history and art," Wright noted. "Without those people behind us we would simply not be here."
Mary Wright tells the story of Croatian immigrant Anna Podnar, written by Podnar's granddaughter, Kendra Turpeinen of Chassell. Click here to read the story on "The Story Line" Web site. (Photo by Allan Baker for Keweenaw Now)This is a perfect time to honor your ancestors and to give your family a voice in "The Story Line,” one of the largest creative and historical public exhibitions ever to take place in Michigan.
Just write a short (200-400 word) story in the first person -- from the point of view of an ancestor of yours who overcame adversity. Select a photo of your ancestor. If a photo is not available you can add a photo of an object related to his or her life -- even a recipe or a tombstone. Materials are free, provided in part by a grant from the Michigan Council for the Humanities. Your story and photo will be photo-transferred onto a piece of white cloth and displayed on the Michigan Tech campus on laundry lines representing the common threads that connect all people -- including diverse ethnic groups and generations.
The story panels will be displayed inside and outside the Rozsa Center beginning this week.
Please send your stories to thestorylineproject@gmail.com or contact Mary Wright, Event Coordinator, by phone at 906-361-554 to learn more about how you can participate.
See examples on the website, www.thestorylineproject.com.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Premium Seats available for "Rockland" Premiere
HANCOCK -- Pine Mountain Music Festival announces the availability of a limited number of premium seats for the July 15, 2011, premiere of the new opera Rockland at the Rozsa Center in Houghton.
This will be the New World Premiere of an important new work rooted in the history of the Upper Peninsula. It will be a fully-staged opera, sung partly in English and partly in Finnish, with English supertitles above the stage so the audience can follow the action. There is a cast of 42 singers on the stage and an orchestra of 43 musicians in the pit.
Premium seats are available for $125 each. Patrons will have some of the best seats in the house and will be invited to a pre-opera reception at 6 p.m. Friday, July 15, with the composer, Jukka Linkola. Light refreshments will be served with champagne, punch or coffee.
Peter Van Pelt, executive director of the Festival, says, "These premium seats are an opportunity for people to really be part of the action on the opening night of this great new opera. Besides the good seats, the reception and conversation with the composer, they have the satisfaction of supporting a landmark U.P. event."
Other tickets are available at $50, $35 and $20. The same pricing applies for the performance at 3 p.m. on Sunday, July 17; but there will be no premium tickets for that performance.
Tickets are available from the Rozsa Center box office, now operating out of Michigan Tech's Student Development Complex at the top of MacInnes Drive in Houghton, or by calling 906-487-3200 or toll-free 877-746-3999.
Among the featured singers in the opera is Paul Truckey of Marquette. Numerous community members will appear in the chorus and the orchestra. More information about the opera Rockland and the rest of the Pine Mountain Music Festival season can be obtained from the Festival office at 906-482-1542. Charter buses are coming to Houghton for the opera from Marquette, Iron Mountain and elsewhere. Visit www.pmmf.org for additional information.
This will be the New World Premiere of an important new work rooted in the history of the Upper Peninsula. It will be a fully-staged opera, sung partly in English and partly in Finnish, with English supertitles above the stage so the audience can follow the action. There is a cast of 42 singers on the stage and an orchestra of 43 musicians in the pit.
Premium seats are available for $125 each. Patrons will have some of the best seats in the house and will be invited to a pre-opera reception at 6 p.m. Friday, July 15, with the composer, Jukka Linkola. Light refreshments will be served with champagne, punch or coffee.
Peter Van Pelt, executive director of the Festival, says, "These premium seats are an opportunity for people to really be part of the action on the opening night of this great new opera. Besides the good seats, the reception and conversation with the composer, they have the satisfaction of supporting a landmark U.P. event."
Other tickets are available at $50, $35 and $20. The same pricing applies for the performance at 3 p.m. on Sunday, July 17; but there will be no premium tickets for that performance.
Tickets are available from the Rozsa Center box office, now operating out of Michigan Tech's Student Development Complex at the top of MacInnes Drive in Houghton, or by calling 906-487-3200 or toll-free 877-746-3999.
Among the featured singers in the opera is Paul Truckey of Marquette. Numerous community members will appear in the chorus and the orchestra. More information about the opera Rockland and the rest of the Pine Mountain Music Festival season can be obtained from the Festival office at 906-482-1542. Charter buses are coming to Houghton for the opera from Marquette, Iron Mountain and elsewhere. Visit www.pmmf.org for additional information.
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