Scenes from classic musical theater and opera will be presented during the School of Music’s “Opera Theater Scenes” on Friday.
Undergraduate and graduate students from the School of Music’s opera class will perform pieces at the performance from shows including Carmen, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel and Street Scene.
“It is an experience-based class,” said Daniel Drumm, a graduate student studying vocal performance. “It is the kind of thing where before you get out there in the real world and want to be a performer, it just helps to have experience under your belt.”
Philip Christiansen, director of the program and professor of opera theater and applied voice, said his class is designed to allow students interested in performing musical theater to come in and take part in the process, which includes putting the scene on a stage and combining acting and singing, just like opera.
He added that there is an additional challenge to performing some of the scenes because they are being sung in different languages.
“We’re performing in Spanish, in Italian, in French, in German, as well as English,” Christiansen said. “So, for a good chunk of these people … the slowest element of trying to get the music learned is not only are the trying to get the music learned in a language they don’t speak … It is not even just the pronunciation, but the translation.”
Even with the challenge of performing in unfamiliar languages, Greg Atkin, a junior studying theater performance and international language, said the chance to perform and witness the scenes makes him enjoy being involved with the ensemble.
“Music as we know it today is very limited,” he said. “There is so much beauty there because it is beautifully written.”
Christiansen said he hopes audience members will be able to acknowledge this beauty as well as his students perform their scenes.
“When all is said and done, I think the evening has variety,” he said. “It has a bunch of people doing something they are very good at, and they get to share their passion for music.”
ds834910@ohiou.edu
If You Go
WHAT: An Evening of Scene from Opera and Music Theater
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday
WHERE: The Ridges Auditorium, North Ridge Drive
ADMISSION: Free to OU students, $8 general admission
