Marvelous: The Sequel to Oz, an Illustrated Musical Opera

The Sistersville (WV) Opera presents: Marvelous! an opera based on L. Frank Baum’s Marvelous Land of Oz. Merissa Beddows stars with a cast of students from the Carnegie-Mellon School of Music in Pittsburgh. Artwork by Vincent Myrand that will be projected in the opera will be showcased in the adjoining Gold Derrick Gallery immediately after the show.

According to the event’s website Marvelous is, “An opera that combines the approachability of musicals with the seriousness of opera. The orchestra—and singers—bookend projected center stage illustrations created for the opera by noted Oz illustrator and artist Vincent Myrand. The music, in addition to acoustic instruments, has a unique feature: synthesized sampled strings are used as an ever-present sonic backdrop, which constantly evokes the magic of the Land of Oz, and also absorbs the uppermost partials of the high instruments and voices, smoothing out the overall timbre of the sound in a way an acoustic orchestra simply cannot.