Upon leaving Harbeson Hall on a freezing and windy night on Nov.9, one left ‘Opera Scenes’ feeling like he or she just got off one of the most wild, phenomenally sung and emotionally packed musical roller coasters of all time at PCC.
‘Opera Scenes,’ directed by Anne Marie K. de la Vega, took its audience to a musical experience like nothing before for $10. Sitting at most 50 feet away from the stage, the singers’ voices shocked the audience with wave after wave of goose bumps.
The foreign opera pieces from European composers Mozart, Gounod, Donizetti, Verdi, and Bizet, did not have to be sung in English for the audience to understand the emotions and situations.
De la Vega’s quick run through of the situation occurring before each opera scene gave the audience a briefing of what was to be sung. But what was most exhilarating was the singing that followed.
The first note of the evening, sung by Clare Bellefeuille- Rice, was heard so loud and clear it sent shivers throughout the room. Her part as Gianetta in the scene “Saria possibile†from Donizetti’s ‘L’elisir d’amore,’ kept the audience enthralled with her surprise as a once poor Italian man was declared the sole heir to a millionaire’s fortune. The audience began to laugh when the once poor and now drunk Italian Nemorino, played by Micah Howlett, was amazed at how well the elixir he bought was working to catch the attention of the town’s women.
Howlett, a returning opera singer, felt great to be back on stage.
“[I] felt confident [on stage]. It was very nostalgic for me, since I haven’t been singing opera for a while. But it feels good to get back into it,†he said with a smile.
The professionalism of the entire performance made the $10 ticket well worth its money.
Elizabeth Mercado, opera singer Victor Mercado’s younger sister, believed the performance was amazing.
“Coming from a music background … the sound is awesome. I totally like it,†she said.
In one of the most memorable scenes during the evening, Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’ scene “Un di, se ben rammentomi,†the audience was taken to a tavern in Italy, where the Duke of Mantua, played by Franz Stary, seduced Maddalena, played by Natalie Ringger.
Stary’s soothing, well-experienced voice seduced not only Maddalena, but also the audience.
But on the other side of the stage, a distressed Gilda, played by Japanese opera star Ai Miyagi, clung to her stern father Rigoletto, played by Arturo Dumindin. Miyagi and Dumindin’s distressing, sorrowful, emotion filled singing deeply contrasted the seduction occurring on the other side of the stage. The audience cried from the tension in the air and the distress of Gilda when she watched the Duke she loved take on another woman. And that was just one scene.
Other more familiar scenes such as a set from Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ made the audience feel more at home by the end of the show. The audience felt more lighthearted by the end of “Votre toaste, je peux vous le render,†a scene in which a famous toreador, played by Dumindin catches the attention of Carmen, played by a familiar opera community voice Cynthia Nitrini Stary.
Dumindin, whose voice is powerful on the stage, was soft and quiet when describing his pride about the overall performance.
“We weren’t perfect, but it was very, very good,†he said with a smile.
Overall, de la Vega’s direction of the ‘Opera Scenes’ was heart wrenching, laugh inducing, and fantastically executed. One should definitely get a chance to see these performers sing once again before they hit the big stage.
- Calendar Committee recommends calendar with winter - May 5, 2014
- Board votes to re-invite Dustin Lance Black - April 30, 2014
- Calendar committee recommends half a calendar - April 30, 2014
