A contemporary opera group and a silent auction will be featured tomorrow night at the annual fall fundraiser at Stuart's Opera House, located at 52 Public Square, in Nelsonville.
The Vagabond Opera, based in Portland, Ore., combines European cabaret, vintage Americana, Balkan belly dance, neo-classical opera and old world Yiddish theater in its performances. The group, which has performed with The Decemberists and the Oregon Symphony, just released its third album, The Zeitgeist Beckons, and is kicking off a new tour.
Philadelphia native Eric Stern, artistic director of the group, took a break from preparing to go on tour to speak with The Post's Jane Adams about the group's origins, the future of opera and his vagabond past.
The Post: How did the group begin?
Eric Stern: Quite a long time ago. When I was doing opera, I went to just a regular concert and I saw a lot of my peers there. I realized that it didn't seem like there was a context for opera where it could be just on a regular stage. We began the ensemble maybe five or six years ago, and I wanted to explore other things while maintaining the centrality of the voice (as it is in opera).
Post: How is the group's approach to opera different from classical opera?
Stern: I hope in some ways that we are actually just extending the operatic tradition and keeping it alive. We use different forms of music and we are not strictly opera. We have different forms of singing. I'll give you an example: Our bass player wrote a jazz song, so what I did was took the words of an aria and layered that over the jazz. It makes it more of a hybrid.
Post: Is there still a theatrical element to it?
Stern: Oh, absolutely. It is one of the primary elements to what we do. We are not an ensemble that just plays a series of songs, stops after each song and delivers a lecture or confers among ourselves and says, What should we play next? I was trained in (improvisational) theater and so we bring that element into it, and we have musical rehearsals and theatrical rehearsals as well.
Post: What instruments do you play?
Stern: Well, I sing - I am an operatic tenor - and play accordion and piano.
Post: How did you choose the name of the group?
Stern: I am 38 now, and when I was 30, I decided that I wasn't satisfied with my life, and so I went on this long road trip, sort of gave up everything - my house and my possessions - for about a year. I traveled across the U.S. playing accordion and singing opera on street corners. The name came from being a street corner vagabond for at least a year, singing opera.
3 Culture
Jane Adams
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