This weekend, audiences of the Opera Workshop performance will be dazzled by enchanted instruments, daring princes, and magical sorcerers.
This year’s performance will include an abridged version of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” as well as five famous scenes from other well-known operas. The performances, which are free to the public, will be held Friday, Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 9 at 3 p.m. in McNamara Rehearsal Hall of the Howard Music Building. Tickets can be reserved through the Sage Center box office.
Opera Workshop, lovingly dubbed “Op-shop” by participants, can be taken as a one-credit music course, or simply enjoyed as an intensive extracurricular activity. Although Opera Workshop typically extends into the spring semester, this year’s schedule was shortened to allow interested participants to be involved in the spring musical.
The groundwork for this year’s workshop began over the summer, while junior Faith Liu participated in a theater class in Oxford. As a part of this class, she created a variation of Mozart’s two-act opera, “The Magic Flute,” which she set during the Cold War.
“I had liked the ideas of deception prevalent during the Cold War, when people were trying to find something to believe in,” Liu said.
The opera features a prince lost in a distant land on a mission to rescue the queen’s daughter, held captive by a supposedly evil sorcerer. A bird-catcher named Papageno accompanies the prince on the perilous mission, who is also given a magical flute to guide him.
Near the beginning of the school year, Liu volunteered to direct a shortened version of her adaptation as a part of Opera Workshop. Melissa Osmond, the faculty advisor, liked the idea, and Faith set to work preparing the script for Opera Workshop. This entailed reducing the script to a reasonable size, as well as finessing the translations of small sections from German to English.
The five scenes performed alongside of “Magic Flute” are directed by senior Claire Ziegler. Over the summer, Ziegler perused various works, choosing which scenes she wanted to include in Opera Workshop.
“I chose the scenes specifically with the intent of finding some of the classic gems of opera repertoire,” Ziegler said. “I also looked for scenes which would provide a challenge for our singers.”
The five scenes Ziegler directs include the waltz duet from “The Merry Widow,” by Franz Lehár, a quartet from “Rigoletto,” by Giuseppe Verdi, a trio from “Der Rosenkavalier,” by Richard Strauss, the letter scene from “The Marriage of Figaro,” by W.A. Mozart, and the Finale Trio from “Faust,” by Charles Gounod.
The official production of Opera Workshop began this fall, when the music department began selecting singers to cast as characters. Osmond selected music students from her studio and from other voice instructors’ studios. Osmond was also tasked with organizing props, posters, and programs for the performances. Each director was responsible for the scheduling and management of rehearsals for their respective scenes.
Osmond is proud of the effort Liu and Ziegler have put into directing, especially in light of the shortened time frame.
“These young women have done an amazing job,” Osmond said. “It’s hard to get everything to put together so fast.”
The performances also involve piano accompaniment. Junior Katrina Bopp, accompanist for “The Magic Flute,” notes the important balance between the instrumental and vocal components of opera.
“Singers take their cues from accompaniment, so the piano part has to be heard,” Bopp said. “The singers also need to project over the piano so that the audience can hear their voices.”
Between group rehearsals and individual practice, the twenty singers participating in Opera Workshop put in many hours each week honing their vocal skills. In addition to the blocking, learning character, and memorizing lines, opera provides additional challenges for the singers involved. Several of Ziegler’s opera scenes are sung in foreign languages, requiring the performers to be especially creative in their performances.
Freshman Jonathan Henreckson, who plays the lead in “The Magic Flute” and the Duke in “Rigoletto,” notes the challenge foreign language poses for the singers. In addition to learning pronunciation, the singers must effectively perform the opera for an English-speaking audience.
“Only a few people in the audience will understand the French and Italian, so we really have to portray the words through the emotion in our voice and our body posture,” he said.
Months of hard work have prepared for the performances, with many of the actors rehearsing several times a week for their scenes. Overall, the work-intensive process has been rewarding for those involved.
“My casts have been fantastically hard workers,” Ziegler said. “I’ve been blown away by the the huge strides they’ve made from week to week. It’s been fun to see how they’ve taken my direction and run with it.”
