OK, kids, turn off your televisions. The “Sex and the City” finale was last weekend and you can always tape “The Bachelorette.” Today the show is Northwestern’s opera and Cahn Auditorium is the broadcasting station.
This weekend, approximately 40 students in the NU undergraduate and graduate vocal music programs will take to the stage in Giuseppe Verdi’s 1893 opera “Falstaff.” And while a 19th century opera may not be the most common choice of entertainment for the average college student, “Falstaff’s” cast says the show has a certain a timelessness that make its accessible to the masses — including the most devoted pop culture junkies.
Combining elements of two of Shakespeare’s best-known plays, “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and “Henry IV,” “Falstaff” is the story of an aging knight who attempts to use what little remains of his chivalrous charm to seduce and rob beautiful women, using their money to support his decadent lifestyle. When two potential victims discover Falstaff’s plans to embezzle their wealth, they decide to punish him with an elaborate practical joke.
True to its classical origins, “Falstaff” is presented entirely in Italian with period costumes and sets. Nevertheless, the show departs from what many consider traditional opera with its comedic appeal.
“The show is like a two hour and 15 minute pie in the face,” says Music junior Matt Hanscom, who plays Falstaff. “It has more witless humor than a lot of Broadway shows. The only difference is that it’s in Italian.”
Audience members weary of enduring over two hours of Italian musical dialogue will take comfort in the fact that the show features English supertitles. Nevertheless, it is the spectacle of the show itself, not the dialogue, that defines the opera.
“When the music comes together and the costumes come together and the lights come together, there’s nothing else like it,” says Noel Koran, NU associate professor and “Falstaff” director. “It’s really an incredible experience. It makes your skin tingle.
“The students are presenting this opera with such a ‘joi de vivre,’ such drama and intensity,” continues Koran. “A tremendous amount of effort goes into making these things work.”
The company has been at work on “Falstaff” since early last fall. After the cast was selected, principal characters enrolled in a half-credit class in order to learn the show’s extensive musical score. Since the beginning of Winter Quarter, the company has been rehearsing daily and working with a professional stage manager to perfect the technical aspects of the show.
Because opera is a popular specialization within the vocal music major, opera technique is something that most voice students work on from the moment they enter NU. All voice majors must take classes in music theory, music history and aural skills. At the end of each year, they perform selected pieces for juries to determine their placement for the next year, and during their junior year, voice majors choose a concentration in either opera or musical theater. Although voice students are not required to participate in operas, they are the best “real world” preparation that NU offers for budding opera stars.
“I look at our productions as their laboratory,” says Koran. “Often the next step for these students (after graduation) is to become apprentices for an opera company.”
In a day and age in which prepackaged mass entertainment is the cultural norm, some individuals worry that careers in traditional art forms such as opera might become scarce. Even at NU, where the prestigious music program has been known to place students in top opera companies, students still say they are apprehensive about future job prospects.
“You get out of school and you have your degree but you have no guarantees,” says Music junior and “Falstaff” cast member Stephanie Zachrich. “It’s all riding on you.”
Hanscom says that, even though he plans to pursue a career in opera, he is double-majoring in economics as a back-up.
“You never know what might happen,” says Hanscom. “You could have an accident at any time and stop working. Everything that you had put your whole life into would be over.”
Although Koran says that opportunities do exist for opera students, he admits that achieving success in opera can be tough.
“A high percentage of our students go out there and have careers,” says Koran. “But anyone who goes into the arts is taking a risk … The rewards can take years and years to kick in.”
Despite the job insecurity that sometimes comes from pursuing a career in opera, neither Koran nor his students believe that opera will lose its place in society to boy bands or reality shows.
“I don’t have any concern that opera is going to die a slow, languid death,” says Koran. “Pop culture is something that you can get from a vending machine anytime, anywhere. Opera is special and people are discovering that all the time.
“It’s really an incredible experience. You don’t get that from HBO.”
Weinberg sophomore Mackenzie Horras is a writer for PLAY. She can be reached at [email protected].
