Contact: Ralph Derickson

Predrag Gosta

UK is extremely fortunate to have acquired the services of Predrag Gosta, artistic director of the New Trinity Baroque in Atlanta, Ga., for "The Coronation of Poppea." Maestro Gosta and his ensemble will be in residence at the UK Opera department and will be the featured orchestra in the production, playing on period instruments of Monteverdi’s time.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 5, 2004) -- The Opera Theatre program in the University of Kentucky’s School of Music in the College of Fine Arts will perform Claudio Monteverdi’s opera “The Coronation of Poppea” at 8 p.m. March 25, 27 and 29 in the Recital Hall of the Singletary Center for the Arts.

Tickets are $25 for general admission, $12 for students, $18 for senior citizens and UK faculty and staff members and are available through the ticket office of the Singletary Center for the Arts, (859) 257-4929. Tickets may also be reserved online.

UK music professor Everett McCorvey, director of the UK Opera Theatre, said the university is “extremely fortunate to have acquired the services of Predrag Gosta, artistic director of the New Trinity Baroque in Atlanta, Ga., for ‘The Coronation of Poppea.’” Maestro Gosta and his ensemble will be in residence at the UK Opera department and will be the featured orchestra in the production, playing on period instruments of Monteverdi’s time.

Gosta, a native of Yugoslavia, holds music degrees from the Trinity College of Music in London, England, and Georgia State University in Atlanta, and is an expert in historical performance practice. “Gosta’s expertise will provide an outstanding operatic experience for Central Kentucky opera lovers,” McCorvey added.

For the stage director for the production, UK Opera Theatre selected Sandra Bernhard, a renowned director of opera at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, who has staged “Poppea” throughout the country.

In “The Coronation of Poppea,” Roman Emperor Nero plots to raise his mistress Poppea to the rank of empress but first he must dispose of his own wife, a tale of love and intrigue in the Roman Empire that has been hailed as a masterpiece of operatic form by composer Claudio Monteverdi.