Eleanor Pearl, daughter of Kathy Majewska and Jack Stradley of Pine Bluff, has been invited to sing a major role in the three act Opera, “Orlando” by George Frideric Handel.
Singing the soprano part of Angelica, Queen of Cathay, Pearl was selected from an international competition held in New York City to sing at the Siena Music Festival. Rehearsals will begin the end of July in Siena, Italy with performances sometime in August. The opera will be performed in Italian and was first given at the King’s Theatre in London on Jan. 27, 1733.
The synopsis of the story is that Orlando, a great soldier in Charlemagne’s army, falls desperately in love with the Pagan princess Angelica, who is in turn in love with another man, Medoro. Orlando cannot accept this and he is driven to madness, prevented from causing absolute carnage only by the magician Zoroastro, who eventually restores his sanity.
Pearl is a junior at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City and studies with the renowned baritone and teacher Mark Oswald. She has sung with the Pine Bluff Symphony – her first time to sing with an orchestra and was coached by Faron Wilson, her first maestro.