Springing Forward

(Posted by Damien Elwood, March 2, 2010)

March is here and we're fully engaged in our spring semester. Our scenes program was presented the final Friday of January and was a wonderful success! A full house heard a diverse program with excerpts ranging from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas to Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore to Sondheim's A Little Night Music. The evenings finale was the Grand Pezzo Concertato from Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims, which sent us all home with the promise of a evening's partying in Gay ol' Paris! A handout with the scenes storylines expertly written by Ken Cazan is available on the web page. Congratulations to all our performers and collaborative keyboard artists. It was a great evening.

Before we turn our attention toward Richard Wagner and our spring production of Das Liebesverbot I want to touch on our fall production of Albert Herring. It marked the return of one of our favorite set designers, Peter Harrison, whose whimsical designs with bright, cartoonish colors really captured Ken's comical production concept. Peter's design for the Act II Vicar's Garden, with it's forced perspective, 12 foot high hedges and 3 foot diameter poppies drew spontaneous applause from our audiences. We liked it so much we chose it for our promotional material (see image above). By the end of the show Albert's night of debauchery and subsequent new found confidence free him not only from his mother's apron strings but the silly, slanted social pressures of small town, turn of the century Britain, which were imaginatively captured by Peter's designs.

Both casts performed wonderfully especially our double duty children Emmy - Hayden Eberhart, Cissy - Clarissa Shan, and Harry - Elaina Robbins shown above with one of our Miss Wordsworths - Katie Martin. Pictures from all the dress rehearsals and performances can be found on our Albert Herring web page.

In addition to our opera performances, this fall was the first time the Opera Program formally participated in the Thornton Outreach Program by welcoming 150 middle and high school students to the final dress rehearsal. Ken spoke to the group describing everything that goes into preparing, producing, and presenting an opera. Our guests genuinely enjoyed the show. Many were surprised to discover that not only could opera be in English, but it could be funny as well. Who'd of thunk it???

Many thanks to the Director of Thornton Outreach Susan Helfter for including us in her ever growing list of programs and events. Hopefully a visit with the Opera Program will become a regular part of the outreach program.

NOW, we move on to Herr Wagner and the West Coast Premier of Das Liebesverbot. Our presentation of the opera is part of Ring Festival LA, a citywide exploration of Wagner and his work centered on LA Opera's Ring Cycle. We are thrilled and honored to be part of this ambitious project.

As you can probably tell from the picture (Graciously provided by our very own Isabella - Alexandra Loutsion) Wagner himself, in his cast plastic, mini-bust incarnation, has been a constant presence with us since last August when we cast the opera. Our Mariana - Xiaobo Su, pictured also, shows her surprise when she discovered that Liebesverbot, being Wagner's second operatic attempt, is actually very Italianate musically. Or, as was overheard recently in the opera office, "It's like Bellini on steroids." We are deep into music preparation and have just started staging. I am happy to report that we still have a LONG WAY TO GO! But what is going has gone very well.

Our production team for Das Liebesverbot includes two of our regular award winning professional designers Jacqueline Saint Anne, Costumes and David Jacques, Lighting. This show marks the first time the opera program is working with Set Designer Cameron Anderson, a talented designer from New York with whom Ken has worked professionally. Cameron's designs are powerful and dramatic. As we get closer to the production we will post images of her designs and photos of the build process, which is being headed up by our Technical Director Bruce Cameron. We'll also have pictures from staging rehearsals and costume fittings as our constant, detailed preparation reaches a crescendo!

The USC Thornton Opera Program's first foray into Wagner's work is a great challenge, on all levels, for us. And I for one am enjoying the early whisperings of his revolutionary dramatic approach that emanate from Das Leibesverbot's music and libretto. And it doesn't hurt to have Richard himself in your ear!


(Damien Elwood is the Program Manager for the USC Thornton Opera Program)