Departments
Arts
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Week of 29 October 1999 |
Vol. III, No. 12 |
Arts
Bluebeard's Castle conquering
Fringe Festival's one-acters expand students' operatic opportunities
By Judith Sandler
The SFA Opera Institute's Fringe Festival has roots that stretch across the Atlantic: it was modeled after the "fringe" events that Sharon Daniels attended just outside the gates of Scotland's Edinburgh Festival.
"The productions were simple," recalls Daniels, the institute's director, "yet the creativity and professionalism were very high. The ideas were fresh and exciting and bursting with artistic energy."
Although opera students spend many hours in classes, lessons, practicing, coaching, and rehearsals, she says, their most important preparation for a life on the stage is performing on that stage as often as possible. Students training for an operatic career in most music schools and conservatories have the opportunity to perform in two large productions each year, supplemented by several evenings of opera scenes.
Three years ago, however, Daniels initiated the Fringe Festival as a third element of SFA's opera program. She says that the event -- presented this year in Studio 210 at the Boston University Theatre -- complements the school's mainstage productions and opera scenes with a series of one-act operas.
The festival opened with Béla Bartók's mysterious masterpiece Bluebeard's Castle October 22 through 24, and continues October 30 and 31 with Cendrillon -- the Cinderella tale, performed in French, with music and text written in 1903 by Pauline Viardot, one of the most famous singers of the 19th century. The Fringe Festival concludes November 5 through 7 with the first staged performance of Boston University composer Marjorie Merryman's 1986 opera Antigone.
"The Fringe Festival was designed to give more performance opportunities to our best students," says Daniels. "With the one-act operas, the singers have the chance to create a role, which is a much more positive and complete experience than performing opera scenes. We also give the singers the opportunity to work with different styles by employing the services of professional directors."
The costume and design elements for Fringe Festival operas are very simple. The production relies for mood on lighting, rather than an extensive physical production. The smaller venue has an immediacy and intimacy impossible in a large theater.
The festival also gives audiences the chance to see a rarely performed genre. The financial demands on today's opera companies preclude mounting hour-long productions, so one-act operas are increasingly rare.
For Bluebeard's Castle director Ned Canty, "it's a very satisfying form to work in. Because there is no intermission, you can tell a whole story from beginning to end, like a short story. We pare everything down to what we absolutely need to get the story across."
Canty, like all the festival stage directors, is a guest artist, and he enjoys working with young singers because he's discovering new territory with them. "They haven't sung the same role 500 times," he explains, "so they don't have the same preconceptions as a singer who is specializing in a role."
Returning to direct his third Fringe Festival opera, Drew Minter has taken this opportunity to explore in Cendrillon a virtually unknown, and possibly unperformed, opera. "The music is really high quality French opéra comique," he explains. "Since we don't have all of the dialogue, music director Allison Voth and I added some text to complete it." Minter has also given the opera a prologue, which includes some of the composer's songs.
Christie Allen (SFA'00), who shares the role of Cendrillon with Alison Trainer (SFA'00), is working with Minter for the first time. "Drew is such a great director," says Allen. "He gives us all personal attention, but he never makes us feel insecure. He's not so specific in his direction that we can't explore our own options. And he makes it safe for us to go out and be vulnerable."
For the singers, there's an enormous difference between large mainstage productions and intimate one-act performances. Bass Steven Humes (SFA'00) shared the role of Bluebeard with Morris Robinson (SFA'01). He feels that the shorter operas give the singers more responsibility. "Because there is no orchestra or conductor, the dynamics between the singers are totally different," he says. "You have to be more attentive and more on the ball musically; you have a lot more personal investment in each musical choice. It's more intense and more enjoyable."
"Performing in the one-act operas feels almost like a warm-up for the mainstage," says Mary Hughes (SFA'00), who plays Cendrillon's stepsister Armelinde. "It eases your nerves, so you can get your first performance jitters out of the way. And since the shorter operas mean we don't have as much music to learn, we have more time to develop our characters and discover their physical characteristics."
From preparation to rehearsals to performance, the young singers are treated like professionals. "I run rehearsals exactly like a professional gig," says Canty. "We rehearse the same number of hours."
Bluebeard's Castle soprano Colleen Firstenberger (SFA'00) alternated the role of Judith with Heejae Im (SFA'01). She says that the singers worked on the music for three weeks. "Then when the director arrived, we rehearsed for two weeks, working for eight hours every day," she says. "It felt very intense -- very much like a professional situation."
The Opera Institute Fringe Festival will present Pauline Viardot's Cendrillon, performed in French, with stage direction by Drew Minter and musical direction by Allison Voth, on Saturday, October 30, and Sunday, October 31, at 3 and 6:45 p.m. Marjorie Merryman's Antigone will be performed on Friday, November 5, and Saturday, November 6, at 6:45 p.m. and on Sunday, November 7, at 3 p.m., with stage direction by Francis Cullinan and musical direction by William Lumpkin. All productions are in Studio 210 at the Boston University Theatre, 265 Huntington Ave. Admission is $5; free for students. For more information and reservations, call 353-5201.