Treemonisha - Scott Joplin Opera at York College in Queens

Scott Joplin's Treemonisha comes to Jamaica this February with three performances of the rag-time great's opera. Not a rag-time opera, but with the music of several styles, Treemonisha was first performed in 1972, many years after Joplin's death. The score was rediscovered in 1970 and the opera helped earn Joplin the Pulitzer Prize, awarded posthumously in 1976.

Treemonisha is a story set in the post-Civil War times where the heroine is an African-American teacher who struggles against superstition, directly in the guises of Zodzetrick, Luddud, and Simon, three old conjurers. Joplin's score includes folk songs, spirituals, call-and-response, and the popular romantic tunes of his time.

As a big of fan of his rag-time music, I'm very curious to hear and see what he came up with in the creative endeavor that was his last major work. Joplin died in 1917 and is buried here in Queens at St. Michael's Cemetery in Astoria.

The Queens production of Treemonisha is a joint venture of the Theatre of the Living Word and the Performing Arts Center at York College. Theatre of the Living Word is a performing arts group founded at the Presbyterian Church of Saint Albans in 1986.

• Treemonisha at York College
• February 9 and 10, 2007 - 8 p.m., February 11 - 3 p.m.
• $20/adults, $15/students/seniors
• York College Performing Arts Center, 94-45 Guy R. Brewer Blvd, Jamaica
• PCSA - 718-528-2495, York College 718-262-3750

• Scott Joplin [About Music Ed]
• Treemonisha [Wikipedia]