California Lutheran University's Student Newspaper Since 1961

The Echo

California Lutheran University's Student Newspaper Since 1961

The Echo

California Lutheran University's Student Newspaper Since 1961

The Echo

CLU presents its first fully-staged opera

A flair for the dramatic: Performer Susannah Ruth rehearses a song.
Photo by Tora Thuland – Staff Photographer

There seems to be a negative undercurrent associated with opera. It distinctly takes the shape of Brunhilde standing center stage adorned in a chest plate and Viking helmet, mouth wide in mid-song, chest heaving, eyes bulging, as she serenades a sleepy audience of middle-aged, middle-class accountants and high school teachers in a language that nobody understands about a story that nobody feels any real connection to.

But there is a presence at California Lutheran University that begs to differ. What they offer is a resounding promise of love, loss, passion and pain, all centered around the convergence of power and status. The Preus Brandt Forum is being transformed into a scene out of โ€œTroyโ€ to house โ€œDido and Aeneas,โ€ the universityโ€™s first fully-staged opera, from Feb. 28 to March 3.

Ask anyone who is a part of this ambitious production and they will list everything from musical relatability to costume and set design as elements that make their production of Henry Purcellโ€™s poignant opera a truly unique experience for the cast, crew and audience alike.

Junior Ashton Williams, whose credits for the opera include stage management, prop and sound design.

โ€œOur director, Heidi Vass, has decided that this isnโ€™t going to be a โ€˜park and barkโ€™ opera,โ€ said Williams. โ€œSheโ€™s trying to combine more of a musical-theater feel with it so that people, especially Cal Lu students, arenโ€™t boredย  or intimidated by it.โ€

A three-act opera, โ€œDido and Aeneasโ€ is a relatively short production for its genre. Set in Troy, it follows Dido, the queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, a Trojan prince, as they struggle to marry their love for each another with each of their personal struggles for power and influence.

Russell Fletcher, a junior, plays the role of the hero Aeneas. He insists that where many elements of opera fall flat, โ€œDido and Aeneasโ€ excels.

โ€œThere isnโ€™t an element or a character in this opera that someone, on some level, canโ€™t relate to,โ€ said Fletcher.

The cast and crew, made up almost entirely of CLU students and faculty, have been preparing to stage Purcellโ€™s opera since late 2012, adding up to what Williams estimates is hundreds of hours of work.

It wasnโ€™t until the showโ€™s director, voice professor Heidi Valencia Vass, first heard the aria โ€œDidoโ€™s Lamentโ€ that her unique vision and passion for โ€œDido and Aeneasโ€ was born.

โ€œItโ€™s one of those pieces that stirs you,โ€ says Vass. โ€œYou never forget it.โ€

But if sweeping Baroque melodies arenโ€™t convincing enough to motivate the average student to see the opera for themselves, the crew is prepared to present โ€œDido and Aeneasโ€ in a way they believe patrons will never forget.

Vass says that her vision includes incorporating elements from various cultures to create a โ€œbeautiful, immersive eventโ€ that will help the overall theme resound with students. According to her, it is the premise of status and โ€œshifting paradigmsโ€ that she wants to convey to the audience.

Students make up a large part of the set design, some painted head-to-toe as pillars, as wind, or as sea, and some with costumes based around Greek architecture. The key characters are set up on levels, representing the rise and fall of their influence and giving the audience a visual representation of this idea.

For the theater and music departments to come together to work on โ€œDido and Aeneasโ€ as the first fully-staged opera is enough reason for students like Williams and Fletcher to be excited, as it signifies a sense of growthย  within the arts community on campus.

โ€œIt just means that our music department and our theater departments are growing. It means we have the talent to finally be able to do it. It means that our professors and design teams are all really excited for it,โ€ said Williams.

The cast and crew of โ€œDido and Aeneasโ€ promise a tragic love story that explores the ideas of power and hierarchy and morality, and theyโ€™re telling the story in a way that hasnโ€™t been done before. The minimalistic set design paired with the adventurous costuming and musical dexterity of the operaโ€™s performers come together to make a package Fletcher and his peers are sure wonโ€™t be lost on the audiences.

โ€œThere are multiple levels of physical and psychological and musical elements that we experience and can absorb in that world [of โ€œDido and Aeneasโ€],โ€ said Fletcher. โ€œWhy wouldnโ€™t you go?โ€

 

Christa Price
Staff Writer
Published Feb. 27, 2013

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All The Echo Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *