Washington experiences the magic of Opera

WASHINGTON — As Opera Iowa makes their way around the state to “create magic in rural schools, city classrooms, cafetoriums, community centers, concert halls and gymnasiums,” they stopped at Washington High School, Tuesday.

During their time in Washington, Opera Iowa offered workshops for elementary and high school students in the district before offering an affordable performance of Beauty and the Beast in the high school’s performing arts center, Tuesday evening.

Throughout the morning, Opera Iowa invited high school choir students to participate in a master class.

These master classes explore the technical components of singing and dramatic interpretation with students.

During this interactive master class, senior Keegan Colby volunteered to receive interactive instruction as he sang in front of the class of his peers.

Another student, Kyann Miller, also volunteered for this experience.

Following these sessions, the Opera Iowa troupe divided into two workshops for the Lincoln fourth grade students and sunrise singer participants.

According to Lincoln Music Teacher Julie Hill, these workshops also included the fourth and fifth grade students from St. James school.

Opera Iowa Music Director Dura Junn says that the troupe gave the students a brief overview of all the facets of musical theater.

“We taught them about lighting,” she said. “We use the workshops to give them an idea of what goes into it.”

The students learned about the different styles of opera, different parts vocal musical like soprano, baritone, tenor, and mezzo-soprano, and even the different languages in which opera is performed.

Following the workshops, the troupe invited these students and the rest of the Washington School District second through fifth grade students to the Performing Arts Center for a performance of Sid the Serpent who Wanted to Sing.

As students filed in an waited for their show, Washington High School Speech students Bella Lujan, Molly Kilnzman, and Emma Chenoweth performed some of their competition speech material including the story telling of Quackling and Miss Nelson’s Gone Missing, and some poetry from Shel Silverstein.

This opera, written by Malcom Fox in 1977 is designed to engage students and that is exactly what Opera Iowa did with their production.

With the use of a traveling stage, the troupe dressed in silly clown costumes and invited the students to participate.

“So first of all, you are going to hear different voice types,” Junn explained to the children. “There are four different voice types.”

“And second, you are going to hear different musical style,” she said. “This is an opera, so it's classical music.”

Technical assistant Micah Zimmerman then took to the stage to teach the children a simple song that they would help sing throughout the performance.

“First there are the words,” Zimmerman said and encouraged the children to repeat after him.

“Sid the Serpent went away,” he told them and they repeated. “Sent a postcard every day.”

He then taught the children the simple tune and showed them the arm motions to look for from the performers so they would know when it was their turn to sing during the production.

With that, Zimmerman cleared the stage and three energetic and funny clowns came tumbling onto the stage to entertain the students and give them a glimpse into the opera.

Later that evening, the traveling stage transformed for the troupe production of Beauty and the Beast.

While this was nothing like the Disney classic that many anticipate, the simple opera did hold true to many older tellings of the story, and Belle still fell in love with the man that hid behind the facade of the beast.

Belle, played by Soprano Alyssa Barnes of Houston, Texas, gave an animated performance alongside Soparano Sarah Rosales of Cedar Rapids, and Mezzo-Soprano Ariana Warren of Long Island, New York.

The cast rounded out with Maurice played by Baritone Brandon Dell'Acqua of Traverse City, Michigan and the Beast played by Tenor Nicholas Huff of Kenosha, Wisconsin.

This opera told a story that connected Belle with the power of mother nature which her mother also possessed.

The simple traveling stage consisted of multiple back drop currents pulled across at specific times to show a change in scenery and transport the audience through Belle’s home, the woods, and into the castle with the Beast.

Junn accompanied the talented operatic singers with a grand piano just to the side of the stage as an audience filled with children and adults experienced a musical performance not commonly available in this corner of Iowa.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com