MOORHEAD — The Concordia College opera performed two short one-act operas on Saturday, Jan. 27. The cast of singers had been working on music and staging since early fall semester.
First-year associate voice professor Robin Griffeath directed the operas, bringing his 12 years of opera directing experience to the productions. Concordia’s opera program started small 10 years ago but has grown into something larger, putting on full one acts rather than individual scenes. This year, they’ve added costumes and set pieces, both designed by student designer, junior Caroline Cronk.
The first opera, running about 11 minutes, was “A Hand of Bridge” composed by Samuel Barber. The piece is a drama about two couples in unhappy marriages playing a game of bridge. Each character gets a chance to sing to the audience their innermost thoughts and secrets to the audience while their friends and spouses are unaware.
“It’s a masterpiece, it’s one of the shortest operas that’s regularly performed and the music – the score is stunning,” Griffeath said.
The second opera, “An Embarrassing Position” by Dan Shore is newer and more comedic than the first. The one act takes place in 1890s New Orleans, set in a late night poker game, which continued a card theme for the afternoon of music. The main character hosts a political meeting at the game, and spends the night dodging the woman he is in love with and a nosy reporter.
The selections were chosen because both operas are well suited for undergraduate voices, according to Griffeath.
Unlike most schools, Concordia’s opera program allows undergraduate students to participate without the competition from postgraduate students. Kevin Sütterlin, the director of orchestral activites and opera, believes Concordia has a strong enough orchestra to be able to put the score together in two weeks and play live.
The opera was directed by Sütterlin and collaborative pianist and artist in residence Stephen Sulich. The pair collaborated heavily with Griffeath.
“The degree of collaboration that is necessary to make this be a successful thing, that’s pretty impressive,” Sütterlin said. “You really have to be able to work with people and sometimes leave our own ego behind, to serve the bigger purpose, the score at hand…we want to put something on together that’s going to make a statement or have some impact.”
Students expereince the opera world in an environment that’s safer and more supportive for learning rather than being thrown into their first professional opera with no prior experience.
The trio also worked with student assistant conductors throughout the process to give them hands-on experience studying conducting in an opera setting. Assistant conductors take notes on music and blocking, and take over conducting in the maestro’s absence.
This year, student conductors junior Ellie Chang and senior Carter Egesdal also played alongside their peers in the Orchestra. Cello performance major and sophomore Elizabeth Ames was the third student conductor on the project. All three shared the workload and had different roles for each opera.
“I’ll go to grad school and get an actual conducting degree, but after that I will most likely start as an assistant conductor for either a symphony orchestra, a college orchestra, or opera or wherever, and so I will be doing exactly this,” Ames said.
Ames considers this preparation to “step in at any moment” a good stepping stone for her future career, which is what she views Concordia’s opera to be all about: the training of a lifetime for a successful future.
Be First to Comment