Providence Public Library and Don’t Stop The Music! presenting sponsor Rosalyn Sinclair announce “The Romany Maid – An Operetta” performed by Opera Providence. The event will take place on Friday, May 29 from 7-9 p.m. in Providence Public Library’s Auditorium, 150 Empire Street, Providence. The ticket cost for this event is $10. Reserve tickets available online. Tickets will be available at the door.) This event is part of the library’s three-month Don’t Stop the Music celebration of this history of music in Rhode Island.

Opera Providence offers a performance of musical excerpts from the operetta “The Romany Maid,” last performed over 100 years ago. In the musical style of the great composers of the golden era of American operetta, Sigmund Romberg and Victor Herbert, Providence composer, John B. Archer’s operetta is a delightful piece with melodic charm and an exotic quality with both a Spanish and French musical cultural setting.  Opera Providence will give new life to this work from 1914 with colorful costuming and setting in the library’s auditorium theater. A three-piece chamber ensemble accompany the production with the music adapted from the archival score.

Prior to the performance, Rhode Island Collection Librarian, Kate Wells, will introduce new audiences to the operetta as a musical genre using photographs from the Archer Collection. She will share the historical context for a greater understanding of how theater goers would have experienced the operetta in its heyday, including standard character tropes, cultural references and in-jokes common to the times.

Don’t Stop the Music, multi-faceted exhibition and program series, began April 2 with the opening of the in-library exhibit entitled “From Pop to Punk: Highlights of 20th Century Music in Providence.”   The exhibit will run through June 30. In addition, the library has mounted a website devoted to the music celebration at www.prov.pub/rimusic (http://tech.pplspc.org/music/index.html), which includes a digital RI Music History Timeline. ? ? Detailed program information, as well as continuing additions, can be found there throughout the three-month celebration.