(posted by Damien Elwood)The semester is finally underway. We have chosen our fall opera, Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, and cast it. The spring opera, Don Giovanni, has been cast as well. And the scenes are almost done!
This is always a fun time for me; new students, new music, new designers and crew. Brent and Ken pick a season and I get to wade into it along with everyone else wondering what it will have in store for us. It’s like inviting relatives over to stay for 8 months or so. They move into your home and you have some idea what it’s going to be like but you really don’t know for sure. There are always surprises good and bad.
Lucretia is relatively new to me. I did see it at Central City this summer. The production was very good. The music is truly incredible and the story is devastating. I can genuinely say I am a Britten fan but confess some trepidation about living with the opera for three months. Some of it is due to the challenging nature of Britten’s music, some of it to the fate of Lucretia herself. But like the ambiguity one would have about relatives coming to stay, I am not certain, when all is said and done, how I am going to feel about this fall’s house guest. Will I miss her when she leaves?
Of course, it’s not all joy and light for me when we do an opera I am familiar with. Living with our production of The Rake’s Progress was a kind of slow death for me. Many years ago I performed the role of Tom Rakewell for a local community college. I was asked to prepare it in less than a month with minimal coaching support. Needless to say the result was less than stellar. And the time I had to prepare was just enough to truly understand the crime I was committing against the audience, Stravinsky, and God. As I lived through the USC preparation of the opera, it got easier to hear the music. But it took most of the semester.
I will write more about our season as the school year progresses. Mozart, in addition to being the favored composer of opera training programs the world over, is as stern a task master as one can find. And our scenes program is always challenging both in its breadth and focus. I am looking forward to my part in both.
Finally, I want to make one more comment. One of the things I love about this job is that through my friends and colleagues, both Thornton based and otherwise, I get to attend and/or participate in amazing performances and events all over this incredible city. The diversity of art forms, venues, communities, and ethnic tradition is staggering. And whether it be Mahler’s 8th at the Hollywood Bowl (thanks Shirley), blues at Harvelle’s in Santa Monica, or singing E lucevan le stelle in the L.A. River under the 6th St. bridge, I get front row seats to the spectacle of living in one of the world’s great centers of art. Awesome.
I will write more about our season as the school year progresses. Mozart, in addition to being the favored composer of opera training programs the world over, is as stern a task master as one can find. And our scenes program is always challenging both in its breadth and focus. I am looking forward to my part in both.
Finally, I want to make one more comment. One of the things I love about this job is that through my friends and colleagues, both Thornton based and otherwise, I get to attend and/or participate in amazing performances and events all over this incredible city. The diversity of art forms, venues, communities, and ethnic tradition is staggering. And whether it be Mahler’s 8th at the Hollywood Bowl (thanks Shirley), blues at Harvelle’s in Santa Monica, or singing E lucevan le stelle in the L.A. River under the 6th St. bridge, I get front row seats to the spectacle of living in one of the world’s great centers of art. Awesome.Damien Elwood has been managing the USC Thornton Opera since 2004.
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