Little Red a chance for students to experience opera at Renaissance Center Feb. 27

Release Date: 2/16/2006. Expired: 2/27/2006

Students across Middle Tennessee will have the opportunity to experience opera when the Nashville Opera presents Little Red’s Most Unusual Day in a special performance Feb. 27 at The Renaissance Center in Dickson.

Part of the Nashville Opera’s OperNET 2006 outreach program, the performance will be presented at 10 a.m. Monday, Feb. 27, in the center’s Performance Hall. The show is open to field trips from area schools at a cost of $3 per student.

Little Red’s Most Unusual Day is a hysterical work by John Davies that uses some of opera’s most memorable melodies - such as music by Rossini and Offenbach - to put a new twist on the familiar Little Red Riding Hood story.

The opera follows Little Red on a crazy adventure through the woods with an arrogant wolf (Mr. Bigbad), a bashful forest ranger (Dudley, Dudley, Strong and Studley), her Mother, her Granny and even a surprise guest appearance.

This one-day special performance is recommended for elementary-aged students and is a wonderful way to expose students to the joy of opera.

“I like writing children’s operas for all ages of people, including adults,” said Davies. “If fact, I think I got the idea for the character of Dudley, the forest ranger, by imagining how the female teachers in the audience would react to him. I always enjoy it very much when the adults that attend my shows enjoy the experience along with the younger people in the audience.

“The first opera I wrote was based on the Three Little Pigs. It seemed a natural choice to choose Little Red Riding Hood to be my next choice. It’s another Big Bad Wolf story and there are lots of opportunities to make it funny. I chose the music by trying to think of scenes from operas by well-known operatic composers that are similar to scenes I wanted to write. That was the most fun part of writing Little Red.”

For more information on the special one-day performance of Little Red’s Most Unusual Day by the Nashville Opera at The Renaissance Center or to book a field trip to see the show, contact Laura Jackson at (615)740-5533 or .

The Renaissance Center is a fine arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.