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GSA Opera Scenes The Governor's School for the Arts Vocal Music Department presented an evening of opera scenes at Old Dominion University Theatre directed by Shelly Milam-Ratliff with the ever versatile Suzanne Daniels at the piano. The appropriately varied choreography was designed by Morgan White. The complex staging was managed by Erin Hollis. There were 19 scenes from 13 operas sung in French, German, English and Italian with all singers in period costume. With one intermission, it was a smooth, continuous series of performances, beautifully presented. The human voice grows and matures at its own speed. As Shelly Milam says in the program notes: "Teaching young people to understand, appreciate, and perform opera has become my passion..." In all departments at GSA, the students are provided the tools to grow and become confident: "I am capable of doing things I never dreamed I could do." The gala performance that followed was stunning evidence of this confidence. With Ms. Daniels seated at the piano in the back, center stage and angled toward stage left, the smooth presentation unfolded. With most of the 46 Vocal Music students participating, we saw the street scene outside the cigar factory from Bizet's Carmen (Loryn Rodgers) with chorus flirts declaring "love is free and obeys no rules." As she finished the Habanera she tosses a rose at Don José. The stage clears, leaving behind Senior Avery Filippone as Frasquita with Mercedes (Sineea Dennis) to pass their time reading fortune-telling cards. It's a game for them but Carmen (now, Corina Havemeyer) sees death with each throw. She sang with great passion. The lovely duet, Evening Prayer, from Humperdink's Hansel and Gretel was followed by The Watch Duet from Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, Jr. and featured Senior Olivia Lawrence who acted and sang the role of Rosalinda, holding her own in disguise with her would-be philandering husband, Eisenstein, sung by budding talent Kenneth Stealing. Four scenes from The Magic Flute followed, all with a backdrop of golden light. In the third scene Papageno is sung by Senior Devin White. My best guess is that he will have a career as a singer, perhaps on Broadway or at the Met. Xavier Thomas was Papageno in two other scenes and we look forward to hearing him again next year. All the other singers in The Magic Flute were excellent in their roles. In the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, Princess Ida, the title role was sung by Senior Ella Robinson, a "Mighty maiden with a mission." Her inaugural address is a tirade against men, backed by a female Treble Chorus. It was followed by Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury. The Plaintiff, Jessica Facenda as Angelina, is escorted by a chorus of Bridesmaids that include three Seniors: Abigail Bodvake, Nina Chen and Avery Eure, plus three others: Avery Filippone, Sage Kalweit, and Lorym Rodgers, an impressive, powerful chorus of talented, young women. There was great fun in A real slow drag from Scott Joplin's Treemonisha, choreographed by Morgan White as a stately but infectious dance. Senior Dasianae Cross in the title role has learned to read and is elected leader as she speaks out against superstition. After intermission Senior Nina Chen as Cleopatra is crowned Queen of Egypt and she and Senior Avery Eure as Cesare sing happily, welcoming peace. Without pause this ends and from Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, two sisters daydream about their lovers while strolling on the boardwalk. Then more Mozart, this time three scenes from The Marriage of Figaro, giving different, younger students experience in the same character roles, setting up the Finale (Act 4) blockbuster ending. The arrogant Count is fooled by his wife, who is disguised as her house maid whom he plans to seduce in the garden that night. All is revealed and the Count apologizes and is forgiven. The cast of 10 under-classmen were vocally impressive as they celebrate the day's happy ending. In the scene that follows from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore (The Elixir of Love), Gianetta (Emma Lewis) announces to the girls of the village that Nemorino is now a rich man since his uncle died leaving him a fortune. Now the Treble Chorus sings of him as their prospective husband. The scene changes and we have a grand duet from Puccini's La Bohème with Abigail Bodvake as Mimi and Devin White as Marcello. He asks where she and Rodolfo now live. Mimi tells him of Rodolfo's destructive jealousy and that it is best they part. Caught up in the drama of this duet we suddenly realized that the stage had emptied and that both of the theater's aisles were lined with students and the pianist is now alone on stage. They start singing while they're just feet away from us and we are bathed in Va Pensiero (Fly thoughts) from Verdi's Nabucco as they file down the aisles and onto the stage. It was all quite wonderful.
It was an evening filled with rich, musical experiences that included Graduating Governor's School for the Arts soprano Abigail Bodvake as well as a new composition by Senior Sascha Burhop and opera excerpts with sopranos Dasianae Cross and Sage Kalweit. Anchoring the evening, GSA Artistic Director Dr. Stephen Coxe was at the piano. The opening set for this vibrant, young soprano was arias by Giuseppe Verdi from Falstaff and Simon Boccanegra. Texts and translations were included in the program with its richly-colored cover and gold tassel. Abigail's opening aria, Comé in questóra bruna from Verdi's Simon Boccanegra was sung with great confidence. The piano offers waves of sound as the voice sings of stars shining over the water. As dawn breaks and her lover does not come but the tears do, the high notes were spectacular. The third selection was from Jules Massenet's Manon. Adieu notre petite table offers emotional challenges as a sad goodbye to a little table, a symbol of their love that is being taken from her. The power and vocal control was demanding in all three pieces and Abigail met every challenge. Her high notes in Verdi's Sul fil dún soffio estesio (On the breath of a warm breeze) ended with her sweet smile. Next, fellow senior and GSA Orchestra concert master Sascha Burhop had written a musical setting of a lengthy poem by T.S. Elliot, Rhapsody on a Windy Night for Abigail and accompanied her on violin, with Coxe at the piano. Mysterious music opens our adventure into a contemporary pallet of challenging listening and singing. The vocal monotone suddenly soars into high voice. There are plucked violin strings and a hard, dry piano tone for a couple of minutes which leads into a voice singing of change. Choppy delivered vocal lines smooth out, then in natural speech patter that leads to percussive accompaniment. The piece begins at twelve midnight and now we are at two-thirty. A cat enters the narrative, then a child (very high voice) finds a toy on the beach and the encounter with an old crab that grips a stick held by the poet. Now, at half-past three, the moon rises and so does the pitch of the voice describing smells of things remembered in life on busy streets. At four A.M. the singer strikes the hour on the tubular bells standing beside the piano. The narrative singing carries us to a key that opens the bedroom door. Shoes off, toothbrush, sleep to "prepare for life, the last twist of the knife." The singer turns and strikes a pattern on the bells and night is over. After all of the drama of the first four pieces, much of it challenging, we are rewarded and soothed by the quiet happiness of Richard Strauss's lovely Morgen, with the lyric "and tomorrow the sun will shine again" in a high voice that enthralled this listener's heart. From Menotti's opera The Medium she sang Monica's Waltz. Abigail was emotionally convincing in this dramatic music. Next she was joined by Dasianae Cross, a fellow GSA senior, in the dialogue from Mozart's Le Nozze de Figaro. Dasianae sang the Countess to Abigail's Susanna in a lovely duet, Canzonetta Sulliaria, where the two women sassily conspire to teach the Count a lesson. Earlier this year Dasianae was outstanding in the role of the Stepmother to Abigail's perfect Cinderella in Alma Deutcher's opera Cinderella. Another aspect of Abigail's talent was heard in Son Pochi Fiori from Mascagni's L'Amico Frtiz where she sings a flower's voice. The lengthy piano coda brought to my attention what a fine piano accompanist Dr. Coxe is. Another Verdi aria, Addio del Passato from La Traviata opens with a spoken narrative with the pathos of a woman who gives up her lover and is now dying and bidding farewell to what their life might have been. The passion evoked tears. This already surprising high school vocal recital had one more major treat for the audience—a dialogue from Daniel Catán's opera Florencia en el Amazonas, performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City last year. This was the Met's first ever contemporary Spanish language opera. Florencia Grimaldi is a famous diva on a boat going up the Amazon river to sing at the legendary Manaus Opera House. The dialogue is a conversation with Sage Kalweit as Rosalba who is a great fan of Florencia. Their sung conversation leads the two women to the truth of the heartbreak they have each experienced in their love life and how to get beyond this to realize their full potential as artists, Rosalba as a writer and Florencia as a singer. What an inspiration for talented student's to realize their potential. We look forward to watching these youthful talents grow! |