Lone Star Lyric Theater Festival

Radio meets opera during the Radio Opera Hour

Comments (0) By Lee Williams Thursday, Jun 24 2010

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The days of radio story hours may be long gone, but don't tell that to Kelli Estes, artistic director of Lone Star Lyric Theater Festival. She's put together her own old-fashioned radio show, complete with sound effects. The production is really two shows in one. First, there's Estes's own frame story, called Radio Opera Hour. "It's a very loose story. The characters are all employees of the fictional...Houston Radio Broadcasting Company," she says, "and we are all coming to work on our regular nightly show, Radio Opera Hour." There are characters that make sound effects and sing commercial jingles, and then there's an hourlong opera within an opera. The four-night festival features two different stories running on alternate nights. Today, you'll see the world premiere of Michael Remson's operatic version of Sorry, Wrong Number, a radio drama written in the 1940s about a bedridden woman who overhears a murder plot, only to discover she's the intended victim. Surrounding this drama is lots of comedy, and each performance will have a featured guest announcer. Today it's Dr. John Lienhard of Engines of Our Ingenuity fame. 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Through June 27. Ovations, 2536 Times. For information, call 212-567-1098 or visit www.lonestarlyric.org. $25.
June 24-27, 2010