Throw together a mismatched marriage, a two-timing actress, an unfaithful husband, jealousy, lust and an isolated estate. It almost sounds more like a Joan Collins novel than a musical.
The UO Opera Ensemble and University Opera Orchestra are staging a full production of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” this month at the Soreng Theatre in the Hult Center.
The musical is based on the 1955 film “Smiles of a Summer Night,” in which Ingmar Bergman both directed and starred. It was first produced on Broadway in 1973.
School of Music Assistant Adjunct Professor and UO Opera Ensemble Director Mark Kaczmarczyk is directing “Night Music.”
“Sondheim is, in a way, the quintessential American musical composer,” Kaczmarczyk said. “Before him, it was all musicals that you or I might consider pretty cheesy. When he appeared in the 1960s he just revolutionized theater. He writes the music, the lyrics and he fills the play with all this sexy innuendo.”
Kaczmarczyk said the production, a bedroom comedy that takes place in the early 1990s, and its convoluted plot are part of its appeal.
“Sondheim catches the idea of mismatched couples,” he said. “There are love triangles flying around — it’s pretty crazy.”
The musical stars University students and will be backed by the University Symphony’s instrumental ensemble.
Professor Wayne Bennett, who will conduct the orchestra for the performances, said the production was one of Sondheim’s most ambitious works, adding that it has impressionistic flair. The score is rendered almost entirely in 3/4, or waltz meter, which Bennett called “quite sophisticated.”
According to Kaczmarczyk, “Night Music” is neither a musical or an opera.
“It’s a big question,” he said. “It’s actually somewhere in between. Because the songs are so dominant and the music threads through it all. It has been performed as an opera, but it ran on Broadway.”
“It straddles the fence between Broadway musical and an opera, but it was originally conceived as an opera,” Bennett said.
“A Little Night Music” will show Feb. 18 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 22 at 2 p.m. Tickets for the reserved seating are $10, $18, or $20 and are available at the Hult Center Box Office and the EMU Ticket Office.