Voice majors prepare months in advance of performance

The music department hosted a night at the opera when students from the Fresno State Opera Theatre performed scenes from famed operas to showcase their talents on April 9.

The show was comprised of five pieces, each just a scene from a particular opera.

Director of the Opera Theatre, Anthony Radford, is a professor in the department and helps students prepare their roles. Although it is mostly a student-run operation, down to creating sets, he assists in piecing together the final project.

“This is, in a way, their final project for the course,” Radford said. “Every semester the students get to put on a show.”

Some students had to learn parts of a different language to perform their roles. Three of the scenes from “La Boheme,” “Beatrice et Benedict” and “Le nozze de Figaro” were sung in French and Italian, as most operas are. “West Side Story” and “Candide” were in English.

Shannon Mills, a graduate student in voice performance, felt learning the languages for the roles were at first intimidating.

“It is quite a feat,” Mills said. “You have to know what you are saying, you need to make it sound like French and try to be musical and artistic all at the same time. Once you get into it, it becomes a little easier.”

Mills was born in Canada and knowing some French has benefited her in learning some of the opera roles. She spent two years learning the song “La Boheme” and around six months to learn “Le nozze de Figaro.”

In order to be able to perform an Opera piece, especially if it is in a different language, students take classes where they learn the history of it and the meaning of what it is they are saying. When they are on stage, they are not just singing, they are performing by using their facial expressions and body language.

Freshman Katie Simmons, a voice major, finds working with older students rewarding and a great learning experience.

“The voice department is really connected,” Simmons said. “You can bond together.”

Preparations for the performance began around Christmas of 2010 when the information was handed out. In between that time and the performance, rehearsals occurred two times a week.

“It is really difficult because you have to know exactly what you are speaking,” Simmons said about performing in a different language. “I translated the part but found it a bit difficult to learn all the vowel sounds and being able to transform it all for the performance.”

This event is a great way for students to get experience performing in front of an audience and to learn what it is like to do so under pressure.

The scenes were only around 10 minutes long each, which helped keep the audience engaged in the performance and understand what was going on. Many full-length operas can last up to four hours.

“It’s great for those with a short attention span,” Radford said. “It’s kind of like an opera tasting.”