Valentine Theatre
410 Adams St.
Toledo, OH 43604
Sunday, February 16, 2024 | 2:00 p.m.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day and the 75th anniversary of its premiere, Toledo Opera presents South Pacific. Winner of 10 Tony Awards in 1950 including Best Musical and Best Original Score, South Pacific debuts to Toledo Opera audiences in a new production brought to life by conductor J. Ernest Green and stage director James M. Norman. Based on the anecdotes of a real-life U.S. Navy commander who was stationed on a island, South Pacific follows two intercultural love stories: Nellie, a spunky nurse from Arkansas, falls in love with Emile, a French plantation owner on the island who has two children from his late Polynesian wife; at the same time, U.S. Lieutenant Cable falls for a beautiful island native named Liat. Both Americans find themselves struggling to reconcile their own cultural prejudices with their amorous feelings, all the while under the dark cloud of a war that is coming ever closer to their island paradise.
Music by RICHARD RODGERS Lyrics by OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II
Book by OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II and JOSHUA LOGAN
Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning novel "Tales of the South Pacific" by James A. Michener
Starring Claire Leyden as Nellie Forbush, Metropolitan Opera Baritone Keith Phares (The Merry Widow and Cinderella) as Emile de Becque, and Mike Schwitter as Lt. Joseph Cable.
Sung in English with English Supertitles
South Pacific is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. www.concordtheatricals.com
