Wayland’s Little Theater has been retired, but the Little Theater Concert Series continues on Friday, February 10, at 8:00 pm on the glistening new Main Stage at Wayland High School. Tenor Luigi Boccia and pianist Arthur McManus will present a survey of the history of Italian song. The program includes songs by Baroque composers (Scarlatti, Giordini), works of 19th-century song composers (Tosti, Tirindelli), opera arias (Ponchielli, Cilea), songs by 20th-century opera composers (Puccini, Mascagni, Respighi, Leoncavallo), and selections from the rich history of Neapolitan song. 

Luigi Boccia hails from Italy, where he studied Musicology at the University of Pavia before coming to the U.S. to begin his performing career with lead roles in Don Giovanni, Gianni Snicchi, The Merry Widow, The Barber of Seville, and others.  Among other awards, Boccia was winner in the 2008 and 2009 Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Competition and won First Prize in the 2008 Gerda Lissner Competition in New York.  In 2010, he debuted at Carnegie Hall as tenor soloist in Mozart’s Coronation Mass and in Catania (Sicily) as Alfredo in Verdi’s La Traviata.  He is currently a resident artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. 

Arthur McManus has collaborated with numerous singers in the New York metropolitan area for over 20 years, serving as pianist for master classes conducted by such illustrious singers as Licia Albanese, Robert Merrill, and Martina Arroyo.  He has been a collaborative pianist in the music department of Brandeis University, and currently is organist and music director at St. Joan of Arc Church in Orleans. 

All Little Theater concerts are free and open to all; this one is made possible in part by a grant from the Wayland Cultural Council. 

Many concert-goers will be visiting the new High School for the first time. The final configuration of parking and pedestrian access will not be in place until the end of this summer, when demolition and landscaping will have been completed. For the remainder of this season, concert-goers can park in the High School’s student lot, the first lot they will encounter after entering the High School property. They will walk toward the new buildings, keeping the construction fence on their right. The Main Stage is in the new North building, which will be on the right.   (Click on the HS image at the left for a larger view)

For more information, visit www.waylandconcerts.org or call 508-358-2667.