Notre Dame International’s Global Citizenship Series: March 2024

In this third installment of the 2024 Notre Dame International series on how all of us in the Notre Dame community can cultivate our global citizenship skills, we feature several performances, lectures, and activities that, during March, open up the world to us right here on the Notre Dame campus.

The key to becoming a better global citizen? It can be found in making a conscious effort to foster in ourselves and others a sense of openness and curiosity about the world’s diverse people—their languages, history, political realities, traditions, and cultures.

On March 1 and 2, Opera Notre Dame presents Fairytales: A Magical Evening of Opera and Musical Theater Scenes, featuring “a slew of Cinderellas,” with more opera at the Browning Cinema.

Attending a performance by talented students portraying a “slew of Cinderellas”? What a fun and imaginative way to experience early in March what it means to be a global citizen!

This year’s Opera Notre Dame production highlights opera and musical theatre scenes inspired by what may very well be the favorite literary genre of so many of us: fairytales. The multimedia program, scheduled for March 1 and 2, 6:30 pm, at the Labar Performance Hall, O'Neill Hall of Music, and aptly named Fairytales: A Magical Evening of Opera and Musical Theater Scenes, is rooted in popular folk tales in the Italian and French traditions.

Opera Notre Dame’s music director Dror Baitel, assistant professor of the practice, Department of Music, describes the evening as featuring “a variety of themes, including a slew of Cinderellas—ranging from Rossini’s buffa opera Cenerentola, through the romantic Massenent Cendrillon, Pauline Viardot’s chamber opera rendition of Cendrillon, and finally the Cinderella of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s beloved musical—as well as a scene from Verdi’s Falstaff, duets from Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Ravel’s L'enfant et les sortilèges.”

Baitel adds, “We will finish up with a medley of Sondheim’s epic tale Into the Woods, highlighting the beloved characters of Cinderella, the Baker’s wife, Jack, Rapunzel, the Witch, and more.”

The program is free and may be of interest to children, age 7 and older.

For opera enthusiasts, or for anyone who wants to experience opera for the first time, the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center’s Browning Cinema offers two performances on the screen this March in the series Met Opera: Live in HD.

La Forza del Destino (Verdi), Saturday, March 9 at 12 noon.

Roméo et Juliette (Gounod), Saturday, March 23 at 1:00 pm.

Throughout March, embrace Irish music and learn about the connection between St. Patrick’s Day, the history of the Irish Diaspora, and the tangled relationship between migration and identity.

At the top of the month, the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center features musicians Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy of Cape Breton, Canada, famous for their combination of magnificent fiddle talents often synthesized with more contemporary Celtic/folk sensibilities. Saturday, March 2, 7:30 pm.

The night before, March 1, beginning at 8:30 pm, Irish music fans should visit downtown South Bend’s Fiddler’s Hearth for a First Friday evening with the beloved local band Kennedy’s Kitchen. Fans can return on Saturday, March 9, at 8:30 pm for a performance by the Barley Saints, a five-piece Celtic rock band that specializes in a mix of Irish pub tunes, up-tempo Irish folk songs, and fast-paced traditional dance tunes, supported by rock beats.

On Wednesday, March 6, the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies offers a lecture by Cian T. McMahon, an associate professor in the Department of History and Honors College at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on “‘Those of the Irish nation or extraction’: Using Saint Patrick’s Day to Write a New History of the Irish Diaspora.”

McMahon will discuss how, over the past 300 years, Saint Patrick’s Day has evolved from a religious holiday on a windswept island in the North Atlantic Ocean to an annual festival celebrated by millions of people around the world. The anniversary’s global popularity has gone hand-in-hand with the growth of the Irish diaspora, which is now pegged at around 70 million people worldwide. On a day when many like to say that “everybody is Irish,” how did this come to pass? And, how can a better understanding of this worldwide holiday teach us something about the tangled relationship between migration and identity in modern human history? 3:30 pm, Room 1050 Jenkins Nanovic Halls

Language tables abound during the month of March

Notre Dame International’s frequent partner, the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures (CSLC), excels at putting into practice the belief that access to the world’s languages and cultures allows us all to seek out new perspectives, to value the diversity of the world’s cultures, and to embody global citizenship.

Throughout March, all are invited to join one of the many low-key language tables or language cafes the CSLC sponsors frequently throughout the year. Each of the tables or cafes welcomes learners at any level of proficiency.

Here are some opportunities:

Slavic Tea Party, Friday, March 1, 4:00-5:30 pm, German and Russian Departmental Study Lounge, 117 Decio Hall (and, again, on Thursday, March 21)

Portuguese Language Table, Monday, March 4, 6:00-7:30 pm, Bond Hall G09

CUPPA: India, Wednesday, March 6, 5:00-6:00 pm, 200 Main Building

English Conversation Table, Friday, March 8, 5:00-6:00 pm, Bond Hall 220E (and, again, on Friday, March 22)

Café Français, Monday, March 18, 4:30-5:30 pm, Decio Commons Space, 3rd Floor

Japanese Conversation Table, Wednesday, March 20, 4:30-5:30 pm, Decio Hall 151

Pipoca com Guaraná, Wednesday, March 20, 5:00-6:00 pm, Department of Romance Languages Common Area

Visit the Multi-Language Reading Club at the Hesburgh Library

Finally, on Monday, March 25, from 4:00 to 5:00 pm, the Hesburgh Library is collaborating with the CSLC on a Multi-Language Reading Club.

Join other language learners by spending an hour relaxing and reading for fun in the company of others. All are invited to bring a foreign-language book, magazine, or newspaper, or to choose one from the Hesburgh’s extensive collection.