ENMU to present 'radio opera'

PORTALES — The Eastern New Mexico Department of Music will present “Beauty and the Beast: A Radio Opera,” with its premiere set for Saturday morning.

The one-act opera will be broadcast on KENW Radio and streamed on kenw.com at 11 a.m.

The 35- to 40-minute opera was originally commissioned by the Columbia Workshop radio series and premiered on the Columbia Broadcast Radio Network on Nov. 24, 1938.

Travis Sherwood, an associate professor of music at ENMU, is the play’s director. He said the idea for a radio opera came as a way to have music and theater students perform under COVID-safe protocols, but a concern was latency issues with online conferencing platforms.

“We were able to find a program called SoundJack, which creates peer-to-peer connections between computers and solves the latency issue,” Sherwood said. “Now, each student and faculty member can collaborate in real time from the safety of their own studio.”

Sherwood said in a school release the performance has something for everyone.

“It is only 30 minutes in length and will leave you wanting more,” Sherwood said. “I encourage the audience to think about this as the operatic equivalent to the modern day audio book. Just sit back, relax and allow your imagination to paint the picture.”