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Opera Institute's Figaro marries comedy and profundity

By Eric McHenry

Flu season probably isn't the best time of year to be in an opera. But the casts of Le nozze di Figaro -- there are two of them --have emerged from the flat gray months with flying colors. The Opera Institute and the Chamber Orchestra at Boston University will present Mozart's masterpiece, in Italian with English supertitles, from February 8 to 11 at the Boston University Theatre.

"They've all had viruses and colds, as everyone does at this time of year," says Roye Wates, a CAS professor of music. "They've also had to deal with the tremendous fatigue and stress that are part of any opera. And in spite of all that, they never miss a rehearsal."

Cherubino, played by Vanessa Conlin (SFA'01), faces the future of a mud-filled military life free from amorous distractions. Surrounding Cherubino (from left) are E. Mark Murphy (SFA'01) as Don Basilio, Alice Tillotson (SFA'01) as Susanna, Carlton Chambers (SFA'01) as the Count di Almaviva, and Eliomar Nascimento (SFA'01) as Figaro. Photograph by Fred Sway

The production schedule occupies a corner of the calendar that's not only inhospitable, but small. Performers began independent work on their roles in late 2000, returned from winter break a week early, and were expected to have their parts completely memorized by January 9. Wates, who estimates she has attended between 20 and 30 hours of rehearsals, finds herself singing the praises of the performers incapable of doing it themselves.

"The singers are enormously talented and enormously dedicated," she says. "If they can't sing, if they can't utter a sound because they're sick, they walk through their scenes and someone else stands on the side of the stage and sings their part for them. Their commitment to the production is somewhere way beyond professional."

That, says stage director and SFA Associate Professor Sharon Daniels, is precisely what the Opera Institute is shooting for. An elite two-year program of study, primarily for postgraduates, the Institute has as its mission the training of "professional operatic artists." This production's tight time frame, Daniels says, is a necessary introduction to the world of opera.

"A standard professional rehearsal period is three staging weeks," she says. "Then again, that's usually one cast, and we have two. We really have to stay on the straight and narrow to get it done."

The two casts will give alternating performances during the opera's four-night run. In addition to safeguarding the show against illness-related problems, Daniels explains, doubling the cast doubles the opportunity for talented students. Along with the Opera Institute's aspiring professionals, each cast includes a complement of SFA master's degree candidates and undergraduates. Although the rehearsal period is short and the opera -- at over three hours -- is long, Daniels calls Figaro "a great training piece." It asks a lot of its performers, but stops short of asking too much.

"It's very safe for the singers to sing," she says. "You have to be careful not to push young voices too much. And even though these roles are long, they're written beautifully for the voice, and they're not apt to overtax the singers. It also lets them learn a lot of new things: we have stage combat, a little sword fight, a couple of slaps -- technical things that they'll need to know."

	The Count, played by David Giuliano (SFA'02), accuses the Countess, played by Amy Feather (SFA'01) of having her lover locked in the closet. The Marriage of Figaro is being performed by two alternating casts. Photograph by Fred Sway

The opera, which Mozart cowrote with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, also challenges its performers with brisk pacing, interwoven plotlines, and what Wates, who penned the production's program note, calls three-dimensional characters. Beneath the humor inherent in its situations, she says, Mozart is posing profound questions about the nature of fidelity and forgiveness. The famous final act, in which the Countess absolves her philandering husband, is a moment of genuine grace.

"I read a review of a production the other day that referred to 'the neurotic Countess,'" Wates says. "Well, she's not neurotic, and this opera is definitely not farce, and if you produce it as farce, you don't get it. You're producing Rossini and not Mozart.

"Mozart took as his model, I think, not opera buffa, which was the comic opera of the day, but spoken drama," she says. "He wanted these characters to pop out of 2-D and into 3-D. And his music accomplishes this."

To help the performers develop an appropriately nuanced understanding of an unusually subtle opera, Daniels oversees a rigorous rehearsal process. "Training them to be credible actors first, and then to be credible in a foreign language . . . my gosh, that's a challenge," she says. "And they're doing such good work."

Initially, she has the actors move through their blocking while speaking their parts in English. Then she has them do it again. Once they've demonstrated sufficient familiarity with their characters' meanings and motivations, she repeats the whole process, this time allowing them to speak the lines in Italian. Finally, she permits them to sing.

"And she has to do this with two different casts!" says Wates. "It's incredibly time-consuming, but the payoff is the level at which these people know their parts. And Sharon is constantly fine-tuning. She'll say, 'Why don't you do so-and-so at this point?' And it'll be some tiny little gesture that just makes the whole scene blossom. This production is going to be absolutely stunning."

Performances of Le nozze di Figaro, directed by Sharon Daniels and conducted by William Lumpkin, SFA assistant professor of music, will take place at 8 p.m. February 8 through 10, and at 5 p.m. February 11, in the Boston University Theatre, 294 Huntington Ave. Daniels and Sanford Sylvan will give an informal, preshow lecture at 7 p.m. February 8 through 10. Admission is $15 and $10, $5 for seniors, BU alumni, and special groups, and free for students, faculty, and staff with BU ID. For more information, call the BU Theatre box office at 266-0800 or the SFA Theatre Arts Division at 353-3390.

8 February 2001
Boston University
Office of University Relations