By Natalie Phetsamone/reporter
The NW Campus music program will present a second NW Opera Workshop at 7 p.m. Nov. 18 in WSTU 1303.
During the workshop, students will be introduced to scenes from several well-known operas including Carmen, The Tales of Hoffman, The Merry Widow and The Gondoliers. NW music instructor Patricia Bedford is organizing and leading the workshop.
The workshop is free, and everyone is welcome to attend. If guests arrive late, organizers advise waiting for the end of a scene, and when they hear everyone clapping, guests can enter.
“Opera is drama set to music,” said Echo Wilson, musical accompanist and NW instructor.
The audience should be prepared for variety, Bedford said.
“The story can be a comedy, drama, tragedy or any mixture of those,” she said. “And it can be on any topic, such as real people with real events or mythological.”
The performance is called an opera workshop because they are teaching the students not just about the music but also about the whole concept including costumes and stage design, Bedford said.
“At this time, we don’t produce a full opera, so the idea is to introduce students to a variety of operas,” Bedford said.
The workshop has an advantage, Wilson said.
“It gives them a taste of each one,” she said.
At the beginning of the workshop, Bedford assesses students’ voices to see who will be best suited to each role.
The students will not only perform solos and duets but trios, quartets and even sequences with the entire cast. This gives students the variety that encapsulates a full opera experience, Bedford said.
“There are more ensembles than in the past,” Wilson said. “Men and women are involved in almost every one.”
NW music major Sammie Wade is excited about the workshop.
“[This] is a great opportunity for … us to get out on a stage and to learn and be taught,” he said. “It gives us an opportunity to participate in something that we may be able to incorporate into our future repertoire.”
Bedford said she had wanted to do a workshop for several years. The first workshop held last spring was a success, but many of those students have graduated or transferred, so Bedford wanted to give current students the same chance to participate.
“[In the future, I] would like to be able to have a large student body participating and be able to do not just scenes but a short opera,” she said.
Wade said he hopes the workshop will give other TCC students the chance to see the music department is doing some really interesting things.
