Elysia Arntzen, a third-year Doctor of Musical Arts student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Glenn Korff School of Music, will have her first-ever opera premiere – The Cask of Amontillado, on Saturday, March 31 at 7 p.m. in Kimball Recital Hall. The performance is free and open to the public.
The Cask of Amontillado is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. It’s about a man who gets revenge on another man, who has insulted him. The original story is only about five pages long, and it is unclear exactly what the two men were fighting about or who they are.
“In my adaptation, I have clarified some of these things: the two men are wine connoisseurs, the younger one (Fortunato) is constantly belittling the older one (Montresor), Montresor finally snaps and decides he must rid himself of Fortunato,” Arntzen said. “I also have added a few characters, who are mentioned in Poe's story but are not really part of the action: Fortunato's wife, and Montresor's servants. The servants have their own secondary story-line in which they go off and enjoy Carnival.”
Arntzen, who will also be directing the production, had previously set some of Poe's texts, namely her baritone song cycle, "To Whom." She also adapted another short story during the Fall of 2015, Poe's The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether, into a short chamber opera titled, Dinner at the Maison de Santé.
“I have always been a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, and enjoy setting his text to music. I have also always had the urge to write a full-length opera. I used to write silly plays with songs as a kid and force my siblings to act in them. It seemed like a good idea to choose another Poe story for this project. The Cask of Amontillado is suspenseful and leaves a lot to the imagination of the reader. I began the libretto during my first semester at UNL and completed it in December 2015. The piano score was completed in June 2016, and the full score was finished a year later, in June 2017.”
Arntzen is studying composition with Dr. Tyler White.
“I have been working with Dr. White, and as an opera composer himself, he has been a great advisor for this project!” she said.
Previously, she studied at Ball State University, where she finished her MM and BM in composition. She is a founding member of the LNK New Music Collective. Much of Arntzen’s music is for voice, and recently her interest has been setting works by Edgar Allan Poe. She has written song cycles for soprano, tenor, and baritone. In addition to being a composer, Arntzen is a soprano and an actress. She performs opera, musical theatre, and plays.
“One question I keep getting asked is whether it is in English,” Arntzen said. “It is! This is an American opera based on a story by an American author. Many people have read the story in high school and will be familiar with it. I have expanded upon the story everyone knows, while keeping the most famous lines intact.
The Cask of Amontillado will be conducted by David Galant. The cast includes Glenn Korff School of Music students, Tremayne Perryman, David Ricart, Mary Dowd, Caitlyn Royal, Crystal Dunning, Isaiah Kluver and Connor Husa.
There is a pre-show talk at 6:30 p.m., when she will be talking about the composition of the opera.