Haunted Opera House Experience • The Medium

Description

Will the Dead Answer? Find out as you’re immersed into a haunted experience in this frighteningly reimagined production of Menotti's, The Medium. Madame Flora, with the help of her daughter Monica and Toby, a mute servant, cons grieving parents into believing that they are communicating with the spirits of their dead children. When she is touched herself by a hand during one of the seances, an occurrence she cannot explain, she is driven to insanity and murder.

Conductor Ismael Sandoval (Asst Conductor Boston Philharmonic) leads a full orchestra and cast featuring BroadwayWorld Best Actress Award-Winner Soprano Sara Lucille Law (Miami Music Festival and Hawaii Performing Arts Festival ) in the role of Monica, Peabody’s own Mezzo-Soprano Natalja Sticco (Latvian National Opera & Ballet) as Madame Flora, and Mezzo Sarah Klopfenstein-Weir (St. Petersburg & Cincinnati Opera) as Mrs Nolan, a mother desperate to reconnect with her deceased daughter during a seance conducted by Madame Flora. Special-effects makeup artist Leila Rogers from Bristol, United Kingdom, has been commissioned to craft original concepts which will enhance the already eerie atmosphere of the production. 

This frightening reimagined staging of Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera ‘The Medium’ also marks the grand return of a world-class professional opera to Wiggin Auditorium for the city, a space originally built as an Opera House 1883. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, the Auditorium regularly hosts city and community events. In 2018, a nearly quarter-million dollar restoration project was completed which saw the Auditorium’s decorative ceiling reclaim its former Opera House glory, as well as the installation of new sound and video projection systems.

For both nights, audiences will find themselves immersed in scares with guest entertainment leading up to the presentation of this classic 1940’s opera (with a running time of approximately one-hour ten-minutes). Guests include Salem’s faerie-themed entertainment company ‘Moonrise Fae;’ whose troupe of musicians, storytellers, artists, dancers, fire spinners, and flow artists have created a chilling pre-opera performance that warns of the dangers when lifting the veil of the spirit world.

Topping off the Oct 31 performance, a Halloween Party with the cast and crew sponsored by Rumson’s Rum of Salem will take place at Peabody’s Black Box Theater from 9pm-11:30pm.