Events This Month
Book Discussion: Plant Life by Pamela Duncan
11:30am conference room“Plant Life is an American classic. Like Our Town or Winesburg, Ohio, it presents a compelling and moving portrait of an entire community. In this case, it is the life of a cotton mill, and three generations of women who work there—whose whole lives have been determined by the mill. Stark, poetic, funny, gritty, and intense, their stories will move you to tears and make you laugh at the same time. Never have the lives of Southern working women been so well documented, their stories so truly told. Plant Life is a mature work of a great compassion and insight.”—Lee Smith, bestselling author
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Meet-the-Author Tea: Virginia Boyd - One Fell Swoop
3:30pm - 5:00pm Meeting RoomBy turns hilarious and poignant, this daring, debut novel begins with the violent end of a marriage. A local wife-and-mother has killed her husband after finding him in the midst of an affair. Each chapter, written from a different community member’s point of view, shows the ripple effect of that dramatic event and how it has affected the townspeople differently—some directly and others less so, but all meaningfully and irrevocably. As the novel progresses, the narrative spirals inward until the stories of those most intimately involved are ultimately revealed.
amazon.comVirginia Boyd teaches creative non-fiction workshops through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke University, and stages houses for a real estate agent in the Triangle. She lives in Durham with Alan, her husband of 18 years.
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Sunday Series - Lecture: Opera at the Library - Madame Butterfly
3:00pm - 4:30pmOpera About Town, a talented troupe of young singers from The Opera Company of North Carolina, returns to the Chapel Hill Public Library for an informal concert titled “A Prelude to Butterfly.” The concert takes place Sunday, May 18 at 3 p.m. in the Meeting Room on the Lower Level.
The singers will perform selections from The Opera Company’s upcoming production of Madama Butterfly, Giacomo Puccini’s tragic masterpiece, and exciting arias from other popular Italian operas.
Opera About Town features talented singers who perform throughout the Triangle at major arts events, schools, public libraries and senior living communities. The singers perform highlights from the season repertoire, other opera favorites, as well as familiar American standards and hits from Broadway. Some of the singers have appeared in lead and supporting operatic roles across the state, but most of the young singers are being carefully groomed for professional careers and hope to one day assume roles on the opera stage.
With Madama Butterfly, The Opera Company concludes its season journey through the most familiar and best-loved period of Italian opera. Perhaps the world’s most famous opera, Madama Butterfly is a tale of elation and despair that embodies the beauty and glory of the grand Italian style. Acclaimed Italian-American soprano Angela Maria Blasi, a singer who has already exhibited her polished style under the prestigious batons of Sir Colin Davis, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, and others, merges her dramatic and vocal talents into an emotionally shattering portrait of Puccini’s tragic title character.
Madama Butterfly plays Friday, May 30 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 1 at 3 p.m. in Memorial Auditorium, Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh. For additional information, or to purchase tickets, call (919) 792-3850, or visit www.operanc.com.
For more than ten years, The Opera Company of North Carolina has presented full-scale opera productions featuring the finest operatic talent. Located in offices along the changing landscape of Fayetteville Street, The Opera Company of North Carolina is energized by the rebirth of the capital city, and committed to being a major contributor to Raleigh’s cultural renaissance and to arts education across the region.
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Book Sale: Book Sale (FRIENDS ONLY)
4:00pm - 7:00pmFor Friends only – join at the door!
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Book Sale: Book Sale
9:00am - 4:00pm