SOSU Opera Director Makes European Singing Debut
Press Release Date: 06-20-2006
Dr. Steven W. Emge, director of opera and associate professor of voice at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, will make his European operatic singing debut this summer in Mozart’s famous opera, Die Zauberflöte.
Dr. Emge will sing the principle role of Monostatos at the world-famous Opernfestspiele of St. Margarethen, Austria. This multi-million dollar opera festival has the largest outdoor stage in Europe and is located approximately 45 miles south of Vienna, Austria.
Dr. Emge will appear in over 20 performances throughout June and July. He has been asked to sing an additional role as the Erster Priester (First Priest) during those performances for which he is not responsible for singing his principle role. The international cast includes singers from Austria, Germany, Poland, Russia, and the United States.
Dr. Emge was hired to sing in the St. Margarethen festival three years ago by its Artistic Director, Edmund Emge, following an impromptu audition in Bad Schwalbach, Germany where Edmund was the stage director and Steven was asked to serve as the assistant stage director for Leoncavallos’s opera I Pagliacci. Steven and Edmund Emge became acquaintances through the Internet many years ago after Edmund had discovered that the two were very distant “cousins” from the same family heritage in Germany, and that their personal and professional lives were nearly identical.
The two “cousins” have developed and maintained a friendship that has provided many professional performance opportunities for both. Due to SOSU’s commitment to its faculty’s professional development, the Office of Faculty Development and Research has been instrumental in allowing Steven Emge to establish ties with professional opera singers, stage directors, and artistic directors throughout Austria and Germany.
This past spring Edmund Emge made his second-ever trip to America to serve as guest clinician for the Oklahoma Opera Festival. The festival was created by the late Pablo Pedrazza and hosted by SOSU every year. Next year’s festival will not only included Edmund Emge again as clinician, but also the famous Polish bass/baritone, Janusz Monarcha from the Vienna State Opera, who will present a recital and vocal master class. Spring 2008’s festival will feature another European Opera Stage Director, Peter Pacher from Germany.
