Mozart’s fantastical “Magic Flute” will be reimagined when the Khmer Arts Ensemble performs “Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic Flute” on Oct. 5 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The performance, at 8 p.m. in Memorial Hall’s Beasley-Curtis Auditorium, will feature 32 dancers, singers and musicians.
The original “Magic Flute” will be replaced by traditional Cambodian music, but the same themes, of enlightened change and transformation, will be explored. The performers also will retain the age-old story of a young prince and princess and the obstacles that stand in the way of their union.
While the Phnom Penh-based ensemble is on campus, its artistic director, Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, will give a free public talk about the state of women’s empowerment in Cambodia today. Shapiro, who choreographed “Pamina Devi,” will speak at 7 p.m. Oct. 3 in UNC’s FedEx Global Education Center, located at the corner of McCauley and Pittsboro streets.
Shapiro is known for work that is exuberant and rich in vision, emotion and cross-cultural subtext, said Rosemary Holland, director of artistic affairs for Carolina Performing Arts. She saw the world premiere of “Pamina Devi” last December in Peter Sellars’ New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna.
“The dancers are gorgeous, the costumes are spectacular and the live music is thrilling,” Holland said.
The Carolina performance, part of Khmer Arts’ five-city U.S. fall tour, will open Carolina Performing Arts’ 2007-2008 World Stage series, which also will include performances by the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble of India on March 2 and the Spirit of Uganda dance troupe on April 23.
Tickets for “Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic Flute” are available online at www.carolinaperformingarts.org, by calling (919) 843-3333 or at the Memorial Hall Box Office on Cameron Avenue, open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Costs range from $40 to $20. Tickets for Carolina students are $10. Tickets for all other performances in the 2007-08 Carolina Performing Arts season also are on sale now.
Photos and information: http://www.carolinaperformingarts.org/media
Carolina Performing Arts contact: Harry Kaplowitz, (919) 843-0516, hkaplowitz@unc.edu
News Services contact: LJ Toler, (919) 962-8589