MCTA Presents “An Irish Christmas” With John Doyle and Mick McAuleyFrostburg State University’s Mountain City Traditional Arts will host John Doyle and Mick McAuley in “An Irish Christmas” on Tuesday, Dec. 10, at 4 p.m. at 25 E. Main St. in Frostburg. The live entertainment is open to the public through general admission with a suggested donation of $15.Join Doyle and McAuley for an evening of traditional Irish music, songs and stories that will transport you to the villages of rural Ireland most familiar to these two world-class artists.Doyle and McAuley’s musical connection began in the groundbreaking Irish-American band, Solas. Now, both have flourishing high-profile solo careers and periodically come together to brush off some Solas standards and lots of their individual material. Both natives of Ireland and from musical families, Doyle and McAuley are powerhouses in traditional Irish music.Having started his professional career at the age of 16, Doyle went on to form the highly acclaimed supergroup, Solas, with Seamus Egan, John Williams, Karan Casey and Winifred Horan, which took the folk and Celtic music worlds by storm. Since then, Doyle’s flourishing solo career, highly regarded solo albums and in-demand studio prowess as producer have made him one of the busiest artists in traditional music. Doyle’s original rhythmic and percussive guitar style has been emulated by guitarists all over the world. Widely considered the finest Celtic guitarist performing today, Doyle is also a powerful singer and highly regarded songwriter.McAuley is an Irish musician, composer and songwriter who has recorded and toured internationally for many years. While his music is rooted firmly in the Irish tradition, he has been part of a movement that continues to push the musical boundaries of that tradition to bring Irish music to a wider and more diverse audience around the world. A multi-instrumentalist, McAuley plays accordion, melodeon, concertina, whistles and guitar and has been a guest on many recordings and performances. Most recently, he spent many months as accordionist for Sting in his Broadway production, “The Last Ship.” McAuley’s debut solo album, “An Ocean’s Breadth,” was awarded Best Celtic Album of the Year by The Washington Post.MCTA is a program of FSU and a founding member of Maryland’s Folklife Network. It receives support from the Maryland Traditions Program of the State Arts Council.For more information, call 301-687-8040.

FSU’s Department of Music Presents Opera Theatre, “Let’s Sing Opera”Frostburg State University’s Department of Music will present its Opera Theatre production, “Let’s Sing Opera,” on Tuesday, Dec. 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the Pealer Recital Hall of FSU’s Woodward D. Pealer Performing Arts Center. Directed by Dr. Chun-Ting Chao, the performers will be joined by collaborative pianist Dr. Joseph Yungen. The concert is free and open to the public. This event will also be livestreamed; click the “Join Stream” button on this page a few minutes before the recital is scheduled to begin, or any time during the recital, to view the live performance.The program will include “Vedrai carino” (“You'll See, Dear One”) from “Don Giovanni” (1787), an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legend about a libertine. It is a dramma giocoso blending comedy, melodrama and supernatural elements. Riley Hayes will play Zerlina and Jelynna Horsey, Masetto. In addition, Molly Thompson, as Zerlina, and Mackenzie Taylor, as Masetto, will perform “Batti, batti, o bel Masetto” (“Beat, O Beat Me, Handsome Masetto”).“L’elisir d’amore” (“The Elixir of Love”) is a melodramma giocoso (comic melodrama, opera buffa) in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. The opera premiered in 1832. “Prendi, per me sei libero” (“Take It, I Have Freed You”) will be performed by Horsey (Adina) and Erica Bennett (Nemorino).“Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti, K. 588,” which translates as “Women Are Like That” or “The School for Lovers,” is an opera buffa in two acts by Mozart that was first performed in 1790. Kathryn Schram (Despina), Bennett (Dorabella) and Horsey (Fiordiligi) will perform “Una donna” from this opera.Taylor, as Prince Orlofsky, will perform “Chacun à son goût” from “Die Fledermaus” (“The Bat,” sometimes called “The Revenge of the Bat”), an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II, which premiered in 1874.“Gianni Schicchi” is a comic opera in one act that Giacomo Puccini composed in 1917-18. The aria “O mio babbino caro” is one of Puccini’s best known, and one of the most popular arias in opera. For this piece, Bennett will play Lauretta and Horsey will play Gianni Schicchi, a 13th-century Italian knight, a Florentine historical figure mentioned by Dante in the “Inferno.”“Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492” (“The Marriage of Figaro”) is a commedia per musica (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Mozart. It tells how the servants Figaro and Susanna succeed in getting married, foiling the efforts of their philandering employer Count Almaviva to seduce Susanna and teaching him a lesson in fidelity. In the duet “Via resti servita, madama brillante” (“After You, Brilliant Madam”), Marcellina, played by Bennett, and Susanna, played by Hayes, exchange very politely delivered sarcastic insults. In the short duet “Sull’aria ... che soave zeffiretto” (On the Breeze ... What a Gentle Little Zephyr) Countess Almaviva (Thompson) dictates to Susanna (Horsey) the invitation to a tryst addressed to the countess’ husband in a plot to expose his infidelity.“Les contes d’Hoffmann” (“The Tales of Hoffmann”) is an opéra fantastique by Jacques Offenbach. It was Offenbach’s final work; he died in October 1880, four months before the premiere. Act 3 opens with the popular barcarolle “Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour” (“Beautiful Night, oh Night of Love”) sung by Taylor (Nicklausse) and Schram (Giulietta).“Die Zauberflöte, K. 620” (“The Magic Flute”) is an opera in two acts by Mozart that premiered in 1791. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form during the time it was written that included both singing and spoken dialogue. Horsey, Schram and Taylor (the three ladies) and Hayes (Tamino) will perform “Stirb, Ungeheuer, durch uns’re Macht!” (“Die, Monster, by Our Might!”).“Carmen” is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. It was first performed in1875, where its breaking of conventions shocked and scandalized its first audiences. “Mêlons! – Coupons!” will be sung by Bennett (Carmen), Thompson (Frasquita) and Hayes (Mercedes).For more information, contact FSU’s Department of Music at 301-687-4109.