The program comprises two pieces, Delibes’ Coppélia Suite and Franck’s Symphony in D-Minor, played without intermission. Dancers from Theatre UCF will join for the first piece. They will perform a movement piece with kites in the Reflecting Pond.

A team of creative directors from the Theatre Department has been working with community professionals, graduate students, alumni, dancers, and designers to create what they call a “Site-Specific Theatrical Event: Chance Choreography with Performance Objects.”

The choreography includes 20 performers including professionals and students who will incorporate dance puppetry and objects in their performance. Vandy Wood and Julia Listengarten, theatre faculty and members of the creative team, are thrilled to collaborate across the disciplines on many production levels. “We are excited about the opportunity to integrate a visual performance in the live symphony concert. This creative process challenged us in many unexpected ways, but, most specifically, in how we develop a shared vocabulary across disciplinary boundaries and between different communities.”

Marosi, director of Instrumental Ensembles, said he is excited to be partnering with the Theatre Department. “I try to come up with different ideas for the event. And this year, I conducted Theatre’s production of The Music Man, and now they are participating in our event.”

The annual concert occurs outside for two reasons. The first, Marosi said, is lack of an on-campus performance hall big enough to accommodate the symphony and patrons. The second is that “this symphony exists for the community. We provide a break at the end of the semester for all UCF students. The students in the orchestra get to play beautiful music for all of their classmates and friends, and everyone walking by can see, and hear, that UCF has a symphony orchestra.”

“It’s a very challenging program,” says Marosi, “and not all the performers are music majors. There is a wide range of majors represented in the orchestra.”

Guests are invited to bring chairs, blankets, and picnic baskets. In the event of inclement weather, the concert will be held in the Pegasus Ballroom in the Student Union. Parking on the UCF campus will be free for patrons from 7-10 p.m. (Visitors parking in 24-hour reserved spots will be ticketed.)

This event is sponsored by the Campus Activities Board. For more information, contact cabarts@ucf.edu or call 407-823-3294.

With a cast of about 75 students, free performances of The Merry Wives of Windsor are part of UCF Opera’s mission to make opera accessible and relevant to all audiences.

Two performances will be presented March 16 at 7 p.m. and March 18 at 3 p.m. in the Pegasus Ballroom of the Student Union, which will be turned into an Elizabethan-era village.

“This presents a great opportunity to reach out to non-opera goers in our community,” said Thomas Potter, associate professor of music and executive director of UCF Opera. “Since the opera is to be sung in English and is a light comedy, our key word for the production is ‘fun,’”

UCF Opera performs most of its opera productions in English to help eliminate one of the perceived barriers that people may have – that they won’t understand what’s going on if it is presented in a foreign language, Potter said.

The Otto Nicolai opera, which was originally performed in German in 1849, is based on the 1602 play of the same name by William Shakespeare.

But the production still contains lessons that can be learned today, as lead character Falstaff tries – but fails – to finagle his way into money.

In the seven years since Potter joined UCF to develop its opera program, UCF Opera has presented small concerts and some outreach programs to public schools, including one full production at a high school.

The Merry Wives of Windsor is the second collaboration with the UCF Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Laszlo Marosi. The singers are students in the Opera Workshop class and will also include some members of UCF’s Chamber Singers.

The Florida Opera Theatre in Orlando is helping out with some of the sets.

Presenting the opera in the Pegasus Ballroom will create some logistical demands, said stage director Allen McCoy of the UCF Theatre faculty.

“It’s always a challenge getting something on its feet, and converting the Pegasus Ballroom into a theatrical space – as far as the sight and sound and look – presents some more challenges,” McCoy said.

One of those challenges is movement on the big stage.

“It may be clear how a performer uses his voice, but they also communicate with their bodies by the way they walk and move,” he said. “People look at those things separately, but for a performer it is all one thing.”

Potter said this performance is the most significant step he has taken in developing the university’s opera program.

“It’s a big undertaking for us, and a great experience for all those students to be a part of a big production,” he said.