Students, alumni attend 24-Hour Opera Project

Opera is an art form as old as the 16th century, but a group of University students and alumni spent the weekend creating a new operatic piece in 24 hours.

Vocal performance master's student Ariana Wehr, 2011 musical arts and vocal performance doctoral graduate Kori Jennings and 2010 vocal performance graduate Frances Rabalais teamed up with other composers, singers and stage directors to compose and perform a 10-minute opera scene in 24 hours at Atlanta Opera's second annual 24-Hour Opera Project.

Jennings and Wehr participated as singers, while Rabalais was a stage director.

Composers and lyricists were randomly teamed together and given 12 hours to write an opera scene. After the initial 12 hours, stage directors chose singers and had eight hours to rehearse before presenting their pieces in a concert 24 hours after the project began.

Jennings said each team — consisting of a composer, lyricist, stage director, music director and three or four singers ­— was given two props to use in its opera, which was to include an "accidental affairs" theme. The LSU representatives placed on separate teams.

Jennings said her team, whose composition was titled "Edward's Eatery," received sausage links and fishing net as props, which lent themselves to plenty of humourous sexual innuendos.

Five lyricists were paired with five composers Friday night, Jennings said. The five lyricist-composer teams wrote through the night until singers, stage directors and music directors were added to the teams the next morning.

"Each composition went in complete opposite directions, which was neat," she said.

Jennings said the teams weren't allowed to see other teams' performances, but the crowd favorite was a comedy about the butter-loving television chef Paula Deen.

She said the project was simultaneously fun and hectic. All of the participants knew their final product was not going to be perfect, but that may have been the intentions of the project, Jennings said.

"To learn opera, and especially to learn modern opera, takes time," she said. "To have the music be what we wanted it to be was very difficult. It's a lot to ask for everybody involved."

Dugg McDonough, artistic director of LSU Opera, has worked with Rabalais, one of the 24-Hour participants, on a number of shows. He said the 24-Hour Opera Project is significant because it exposes opera to new people, who may find the art appeals to them.

The three 24-Hour participants come from an opera school rich with history.

The University's opera program is the most continuous performing arts organization in the history of Louisiana, spanning more than 80 years with the help of some remarkable leaders, McDonough said.

University opera dates back to the 1930s under the leadership of Pasquale Amato, famous Metropolitan Opera baritone, and has produced internationally distinguished performers, including tenor James King, mezzo soprano Frances Greer, baritone Michael Devlin and numerous others, according to the program's website.

"We're not only proud of the history of the organization," McDonough said. "We are proud of the people who have come out of the organization who are spreading great opera around the world."

The opera program performs four shows a year — two full production operas in the Shaver Theatre and two smaller productions.

"La Cenerentola", Italian for "Cinderella," is the next performance on the University's opera agenda. The remake of "Cinderella," which will show March 29-31, is an Italian comic opera by Gioachino Rossini that is sung in Italian, but an English translation will be projected over the stage.

"It's one of the most beloved pieces in the operatic repertoire," he said.

McDonough said opera and music in general at the University is special and its future is bright thanks to supporters in the community. Despite University budget cuts, the program is in great shape, he said.

"I really want people not to be afraid of the art form," he said. "Give it a chance. We've got exciting things in store for next year and beyond."

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Contact Ferris McDaniel at fmcdaniel@lsureveille.com