Aliza Warner“Secrets & Rumors” is the University of Mississippi Opera Theatre’s first performance this production season. Through the medium of music storytelling, the show promises to encapsulate all human emotions and experiences.
For those who have never experienced opera theater, this type of performance has characteristics that differ from other forms of entertainment. Lucy Elfert, a freshman majoring in vocal performance, feels that opera is a form of storytelling that we are already familiar with.
“It’s storytelling, just like theater, but it’s through mainly the field of song,” Elfert said.
Opera theater can be emotionally powerful, especially for the performers. Zoe Bofill, a first-year graduate student studying vocal performance, describes the performance of opera as an act of something beautifully extreme.
“It’s the most extreme emotions that a person can have that are on display when you’re singing opera,” Bofill said. “You can be so extreme, you can go so high and so low, and it’s full of melodrama and also really real touching moments.”
Antoin Marshall, a second-year graduate student studying vocal performance, explains that this upcoming performance celebrates the complexities of human emotions that audiences may sometimes overlook and view as mundane.
“When it comes down to opera theater, we are able to show people what it really means to be extremely angry, extremely sad and extremely in love,” Marshall said.
When preparing for these upcoming performances, everyone involved embraced the challenges of performing opera and enjoyed the ensemble environment that came with it. Kristina Tullgren, a first-year graduate student studying vocal performance, explains that the collaborative space and being able to learn from others are what make opera special.
“I’ve just felt really supported and taking someone else’s point of view and combining it with my own is, I think, that’s the best part of what opera is, is the ensemble feel,” Tullgren said.
Bunt shares her delight in seeing students of all levels bringing their dedication and creative perspectives to the rehearsal process
“I’m incredibly proud of the investment that they have given this show, in all levels,” Director of Opera Theater at UM Bonita Bunt said. “They have come in here prepared, ready to be creative, and we have truly built something special because of that collaborative nature.”
“Secrets & Rumors” includes a contemporary piece composed by second-year music graduate student Emily Clements. The piece Clements composed, “Letters to Lily,” recently won third place in the American Prize competition in the theater-composer category at the university level.
“It’s a trio with three women, two of which have realized recently that they have, like, fallen in love with each other and this takes place around 1969, when the Stonewall riots began,” Clements said. “It’s an LGBT opera and it shines a light on, you know, that diversity group and also just anybody who doesn’t feel like they fit in the norm, per se, of society.”
Michael Shannon, the guest musical director for the fall semester and this performance, explains that this piece Clements composed is important to have in the program because it reminds us as an audience that human experiences and emotions transcend time
“Even though the situations and the costumes and the language might change, the emotions are just as powerful and in a piece like Emily’s reminds us about that,” Shannon said.
Even though the opera theater program’s first show is later this week, they are already looking to the future.
“It’s been just very inspiring and makes me really, really excited for the next show and the next show, especially with these students. We have a one-act opera in November that is a comedy,” Bunt said. “In the spring, we’re going the opposite direction with a gothic ghost story based on the Henry James novel ‘The Turn of the Screw,’ and it’s pretty dark.”
Freshman vocal performance major Makenna Counts invites everyone to attend the show, regardless of their current interest in opera.
“You don’t have to have any experience with opera at all to know that when you’re sitting down in a room and listening to people who are incredibly talented, you know that what you’re hearing is talent,” Counts said.
If you have never experienced live opera before, the performers encourage you to take the opportunity to do so.
“Secrets & Rumors” will take place on Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 22 at 3:00 p.m. at Nutt Auditorium. Admission is free.
