Bethel Pre­sented An­nual Op­er­atic Ir­reg­u­lars

MISHAWAKA– Bethel’s 2022 Op­er­atic Ir­reg­u­lars took place on Sept. 9 and 10 at 7:30 p.m. both evenings in the Ever­est-Rohrer Au­di­to­rium.  

The Op­er­atic Ir­reg­u­lars pre­sented an op­er­atic trio (three cham­ber op­eras). The shows in­cluded “Lit­tle Har­le­quinade” by Salieri, “The Tele­phone” by Menotti and “Bastien & Basti­enne” by Mozart.  

The to­tal per­for­mance was a col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween cur­rent stu­dents and alumni, with cur­rent stu­dents fill­ing the roles in “The Lit­tle Har­le­quinade” and “Bastien & Basti­enne,” while alumni filled the roles of “The Tele­phone.” 

The Op­er­atic Ir­reg­u­lars first be­gan in 2001, when Rhein or­ga­nized the first Op­er­atic Ir­reg­u­lars show at Bethel. Rhein has over­seen the an­nual event ever since, choos­ing the mu­sic and the singers.   

Rhein said he started all this be­cause he wanted to give stu­dents an ex­pe­ri­ence do­ing some­thing new. Rhein said some of the for­mer stu­dents who per­formed in Op­er­atic Ir­reg­u­lars be­came pro­fes­sional singers and have told him this was an im­por­tant part of their pro­fes­sional jour­ney.