By Victor Henderson and Finesse Love/reporters
Students will have the opera-tunity to enjoy some of opera’s greatest hits, presented by the NE Opera Club Oct. 12 and Oct. 13.
This is the second year a production has been put on by the Opera Club. This year, students will be presenting different arias and scenes from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Bizet’s Carmen.
“All of the works will be performed in the original language and will be semi-staged,” said Stan Paschal, NE music instructor. “I will provide commentary for the audience.”
The students will perform solos and scenes from different opera compositions.
Participants will use material from different composers including Mozart, Bizet, Ponchielli, Verdi, Massenet and Purcell. The workshop will have selections from eight different operas sung in French, Italian, German and English. The scenes consist of comedic and serious topics.
Every student involved in the workshop will have an opportunity to display his or her talent through acting and singing, Paschal said.
“Everybody’s the star of their own show,” he said.
This production is open to the public, and Paschal believes opera is beneficial to everyone involved.
“Opera is a wonderful, all-encompassing art form for the singer and the audience as well,” he said. “We can get the entire story and emotion at one sitting.”
His hope is that students deepen their understanding of music, history, literature and drama. He said he would like for students to see how all of those disciplines are related through the preparation and singing of the operatic repertoire that has been arranged for the night.
For those interested in learning more about opera, NE Campus offers a class each semester called the Opera Workshop. Students may register for the class as they would for any other.
The workshop’s focus is to get students prepared for their future in musical theater and give them tools to improve their skills before an audience, Paschal said.
The free event is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Oct. 12 and 2 p.m. Oct. 13 in the NE Theatre (NFAB 1205).
For more information, send an email to stan.paschal@tccd.edu.
