From fairy tale to ballet to animated movie, the legend of Sleeping Beauty has constantly been updated for succeeding generations. Now, the new UALR Opera Theatre production takes a “fable in music” and enhances it using the latest computer-generated motion graphic techniques specifically designed for the UALR production.

Director Edward Crafts, an associate professor of voice and opera, directs the opera and wrote the new English translation. He said an Emmy award-winning design team is creating images specifically for the UALR production.

“It’s a very cinematic approach, and at Wildwood we have enough space to combine these images with the stage action,” he said. “Blending traditional lighting with motion graphics allows us to create scenic effects that would have been impossible just a few years ago.”

Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9, performances at Wildwood Park for the Arts are $15 general admission and $25 for preferred seating and a champagne reception. Tickets for children and non-UALR students are $5 UALR students are admitted free, but reservations in advance are required for free tickets. For ticket information, call 501.569.8993.

Crafts said author Ottorini Respighi’s original concept for the 1922 opera also was a blend of technologies – he wrote the opera for a famous Italian puppet theater, with singers and instruments in the orchestra pit. A few years later, he adapted the work for live performers onstage.

Although the story of Sleeping Beauty is familiar, Dr. Bevan Keating, music director of the UALR Opera Theatre, said the music is sophisticated.

“Respighi is famous for his lush symphonic scores, such as The Pines of Rome. His operas are less well known, but they also demonstrate his Italianate melodic gifts and his skill at orchestration,” Keating said. “This is an opera that will delight audience members of any age.”

The UALR production features 30 singers in solo roles, chorus, and orchestra. The ballet segments of the opera will be performed by dancers from the Arkansas Festival Ballet, under the direction of Artistic Director Rebecca Miller Stalcup.