Princess Young
Guest Writer
This past week, Idaho State University completed Opera Week. For anyone who attended the various events throughout the week, I hope they were as impressed as I was.
One highlight of the week was ISU hosting the full-length opera, “Le nozze di Figaro.” For all the English speakers out there, myself included, that translates to: “The Marriage of Figaro.”
This humorous opera, first composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was performed by Opera Idaho on Thursday, Nov. 14, in the Jensen Grand Concert Hall at the Stephens Performing Arts Center.
Opera Idaho traveled from Boise with over 30 cast and orchestra members to bring this performance to the Pocatello community.
This was my first opera. I already knew I was an opera novice when I arrived to see that I was the sole person in the rotunda outside of the performance hall wearing jeans. Even modern opera has a slightly more-elevated dress code (I have noted this for all future operas I attend).
Mark Junkert, general director of Opera Idaho, sat with audience members an hour prior to the show to discuss the opera plot and other aspects of the show.
This scandalous and humorous opera is about two servants, Figaro and Susanna, who are soon to be married while their employer, Il Conte di Almaviva, wants to sleep with Susanna before she weds.
“It’s that kind of opera,” Junkert commented.
It only took a few moments into the play to understand where our modern-day televised soap operas originated. This opera had more drama, humor, scandal and scheming than I could have anticipated.
Above the stage were English subtitles presented on a screen which helped the non-Italian speakers understand what was being said. Junkert said that there were over 882 PowerPoint slides prepared for this opera with the Italian-to-English translations.
One of the main characters, Susanna, has one of the longest roles in any opera ever created. “[This] opera is three hours long, and Susanna is on stage two-thirds of the time,” Junkert said.
Susanna was played by Susannah Biller of Opera Idaho.
Aside from the fact that the character’s name is ironically close to the performer’s real name, Susannah played a wonderful and humorous Susanna.
Overall, I was completely impressed by this opera and plan to attend more in the future.
Laura Martin, a senior studying computer science at ISU, said that she also thoroughly enjoyed the performance. Martin has been to multiple operas over the years.
“I love that everything about opera is over the top. The voices are big, and the plots are absurd. It is a feast for the senses and recharges my creativity,” Martin said.
Bringing an opera from one side of the state to the other is no small feat, and it is financially difficult as well.
“I appreciate the financial commitment that was necessary to host this production. I hope they continue that commitment and bring more operas [to ISU] in the future,” said Martin.
A second highlight of the week for me was the Metropolitan Opera National Council (MONC) District Auditions.
The MONC auditions were last hosted at ISU in 2011. This year, the number of competitors more than doubled to 34 when this competition took place on Saturday, Nov. 16.
I arrived to the MONC auditions mid-day, halfway through the competition. The auditions started at 10 a.m. and winners were announced by dinner time.
In my opinion, the three judges – Sara Jobin, Thomas Muraco and Sally Wolf – had a difficult decision in front of them with all the immense talent that took the stage of ISU’s Jensen Grand Concert Hall that day.
Jobin is a Grammy-nominated opera conductor; Muraco is from the Manhattan School of Music; and Wolf is an internationally-renowned soprano.
There are 40 districts and 13 regions in the country. Singers from Montana, Oregon, Idaho, other states and even Canada came to compete.
ISU had four students competing this year: Emma Doupé, Jerrica Matthews, John Punt and Lakota Terrace.
Each of the 34 contestants had to prepare five opera arias (or solo pieces) for the audition. Learning and memorizing a number of different languages to prepare these pieces could prove challenging, but most of the vocalists made the task look effortless.
As singers took the stage, they sang their aria of choice from the five prepared pieces. Then the judges picked a piece out of the four remaining options for each singer to perform.
I was amazed by the talent that our university has in our four singers. I was also impressed by the talent present in our region of the country.
Three singers from the 34 were selected to move on to the regional auditions that will be held in Seattle on Jan. 19, 2014.
The chosen singers were Arielle Nachtigal from Missoula, Montana; Steven Eddy from Laurel, Maryland; and Jubal Joslyn from Provo, Utah.
John Punt, a tenor and ISU music major who participated in the auditions, was happy to audition this year. The ability to listen to others perform throughout the day was enjoyable and educational for him.
“The best part of the day [for me] was listening to the other competitors. I was able to learn and grow in an immense way just by listening to professionals and other students,” he said. “I heard a number of things that others did well and things that they needed to work on, which I could see in myself.”
Punt was able to take this experience as he moves forward to pursue his musical goals.
He said, “I learned a lot about how others respond to the stress of the audition, as well as how I can open up more to the audience and to opera as an art.”
Overall I immensely enjoyed Opera Week and all of its events. It is one of the many opportunities ISU has to enhance the experiences students, staff, faculty and the community get to have in Pocatello.
