Students reach high notes in opera
Saturday, July 10, 2010 at 2:05PM By Debra Renee Seth
Mozart’s German opera comes to WU with English subtitles
Students and faculty can expect a special treat as the music department presents Mozart’s acclaimed opera “The Magic Flute.”
The opera is a knight-in-shining-armor tale of various characters and their quests to find love, truth and happiness.
The opera was originally written in German, so for the performances at Winthrop it will feature English subtitles and dialogue.
Heather Barley, junior voice major, said she is excited about her role.
She said she especially enjoys the physical transformation her character, Papagana, goes through. The character starts as an “old crone with a big butt” and is transformed into a beautiful woman. The alteration comes after she realizes her love interest, Papageno, is also in love with her.
“I think the most exciting part is just being on stage and having that adrenaline rush,” Barley said.
Barley said she thinks students will enjoy that the opera has a Winthrop twist.
“We will have Winthrop costumes and will be representing the school,” Barley said.
For some, just hearing the word “opera” is enough to cause apprehension. But Damien Genardi, who plays lead character Tamino, said people should remain open minded.
“I didn’t like opera before I ever started singing it,” said Genardi, music performance graduate student. “But I really started to realize that opera is like any other genre of music. There are some genres that are really great and some that are not so great. I think this is one of those really great ones.”
Genardi said that one way you can tell an opera is great is if it’s repeated often, just like a great song is often covered and performed by other artists.
He said this opera is performed alot.
“This has been one of the most challenging pieces I’ve ever worked on,” Genardi said. “One of the things I really love about singing opera is the challenge of it. To me a lot of it is like tight rope walking without a net, and I love that aspect of it.”
John Fowler, associate professor and voice department head, shares the cast’s excitement.
“We want to show everybody that opera is not very stuffy, especially an opera like ‘The Magic Flute,’” he said. “We have our funny characters and our more serious ones. Opera in 1791 is what pop music is today.”
Students and community members who have not previously been fans of opera will really enjoy this performance, Fowler said.
He said he is looking forward to seeing the culmination of all the hard work of the staff and crew and encourages everyone to attend.
Music performance graduate student Dion Hargrave said “The Magic Flute” is important because it is the last opera Mozart composed.
“The underlying message of this opera correlates with Mozart’s life,” Hargrave said. “He did everything he wanted to and accomplished a lot at a young age. This is the last opera he did before he died, and it’s about life. It’s happy; it’s sad; it’s just life and everyone can relate to that.”
“The Magic Flute” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 5, and Saturday, March 6, and at 3 p.m. on Sunday in Johnson Theater. Tickets are $5 for students and staff and $10 for the general public.
