Opera Students Adapt Creatively to Online Learning
As students around the world grapple with the new reality of their studies, now virtual, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, student artists must drastically pivot their approach to their craft.
Students in the Boston University Opera Institute were in the midst of preparing for the second opera of the Spring 2020 season: La clemenza di Tito, to be performed at Emerson’s Cutler Majestic Theatre. They now must deal with the emotional loss of the production, along with end-of-year recitals, for many a culminating experience in their time at the Opera Institute.
William Lumpkin, Associate Professor of Music, Opera; Artistic Director of BU’s Opera Institute, and Director of Opera Programs, has had time to reflect on the toll of this global crisis, and quickly pivoted with his colleagues. As the University switched to remote learning, graduate and undergraduate opera faculty discussed what elements of the programs could be maintained, as well as creative substitutions for what became impossible with cancellations and shutdowns.
The result? According to Lumpkin: imaginative solutions that have ensured continued contact with the students in group and individual settings. The acting component of all levels has remained intact, and the students also have remote movement consultations with their instructor. Some students are also taking advantage of online musical work with coaches.
Despite continuities in studies, classes have all experienced changes, especially in regards to interactive engagement that is core to artists’ work. As graduate student Jacob O’Shea remarked, one of the greatest challenges that vocalists face with this transition: how to continue collaboration. Opera students are sorting through unique issues with video chat and recordings, such as lag and audio recording quality, including some vocalists experiencing issues with computer microphones not picking up their voices above a certain pitch.
On another level, as the student artists are grappling with how this will impact their future as working artists, the community has worked to find and maintain support through regular group meetings. Lumkpin has developed a series of online webinar forums which bring in special guests from the operatic profession, discussing everything from financial awareness to career development. The first, which occurred during the first week of remote learning, was with a free-lance stage director who presented a budget presentation on maintaining financial fluidity as free-lance artists (when paychecks often can be uneven). Week two continued with a guest artist who discussed acting techniques and specific challenges opera singers face.
Emily Ranii – a director and teaching artist who is the Academic Program Head for the Summer Theatre Institute in the School of Theatre and the Artistic Director of Wheelock Family Theatre at BU – is also approaching this modified teaching and learning experience in creative ways. Ranii began each of her sessions with Opera Theatre and Opera Institute by asking students to read a series of articles about the current struggles of performing arts organizations which are forced close down for the immediate future, and how this has negatively impacted performing artists who have had contracts canceled.
As she shared with WBUR, the myriad ways in which students are discovering new ways of emerging from the challenges they face is the most inspiring for Ranii.
“Clearly the loss of performance opportunities could have resulted in ‘throwing in the towel’ for the rest of the semester,” reflected Lumpkin. “But we didn’t, and I am so glad we didn’t! In short, we took the coronavirus challenge and met it with ‘what can we learn from this’ for our individual and collective future as artists. The level of commitment, curiosity, and creative solutions demonstrated by our students was awesome and inspiring, and they displayed a level of humanity and care for their fellow citizens that was sincere and touching.”
Jacob O’Shea reflected on the silver linings of the situation, including potential for self-improvement in other skills, continuing support for peers and students, and digital performances for audiences to enjoy at home. Perhaps most importantly, he says, “we have been pushed to further consider what our role as artists in this society is… We can take this moment to realize some of the inequities in our society, issues of internet accessibility, issues of poverty, and draw attention to them. We can plan concerts and recitals, ones that we could potentially do even in quarantine that raise awareness and funds for these issues.”
Amidst crisis: optimism, creativity, and true community. To borrow a phrase, the show must go on, just not in the way anyone expected.