Scenic City Opera sinks its teeth into ‘Der Vampyr!’

Fans of “Vampire Diaries,” “Twilight” or “True Blood,” won’t want to miss Scenic City Opera’s newest performance opening this weekend in Barking Legs Theater, “Der Vampyr!”

This second production mounted by the 2- yearold opera company is an operatic treat composed by Heinrich Marschner, a contemporary of Wagner and Weber.

“I love producing lesser- known operas,” says Laura Sage, Scenic City Opera’s founder and producer of “Der Vampyr.” “People don’t come into a performance of a lesser- known work with the same sorts of preconceived notions that they do when attending a piece in the standard repertoire.”

Sage’s company focuses on operas that were popular in their day but forgotten, or perhaps never saw the light of day due to politics or other reasons.

“Der Vampyr!” follows a day in the life of a vampire, who must sacrifice three virgin brides in order to preserve his own life. As in every good opera, a love triangle ensues.

“We’re doing the music in German with supertitles, and all dialogue is in English,” Sage says. “Audience members don’t have to know German or be worried about not understanding what’s going on. It will all be explained in the supertitles.”

Christopher Holloway plays the title character, vampire Lord Ruthven. Kristin Moye, as Malwina Davenaut, is the lead soprano; Joel Tyler Burcham, cast as Edgar Aubry, is lead tenor.

Rounding out the cast is Kelly Stultz, Rachel Shannon, Sara Crigger, Marianna Allen, James Harr, Randy Bright, Trevor Miles, Ben Brooks, Matthew Glidden and Greg Glover as The Vampire Master.

Christina Marzano Haystead, who runs her own opera company in Denver ( Cabaret Otaku), will direct the show. Sage says Haysteadhas interpreted the 19th- century opera with modern costumes and set to make the production more accessible to a wider audience and to be able to easily incorporate pop- culture references from the likes of “True Blood,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Vampire Diaries” into the production.

Tim Hinck is directing the chamber orchestra accompanying the singers.

For more information: www.sceniccityopera.org.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Christopher Holloway as Lord Ruthvan, the vampire, rehearses with Rachel Rhea Shannon as Janthe, one of his victims.