A sound like a bell: it is soft yet powerful. I am drawn in by a single light in the darkness. Several treasure chests are at the focus of my vision. They serve as my guide into the world of sound, the world of a bell — a voice. Voices of all timbres rise and fall with the accompaniment, plunging the audience into the world of opera, leaving us, the audience, as mere listeners. This is “she sings: a journey of the woman’s voice in opera,” performed and presented by the Muhlenberg College Opera Workshop.
Traditionally, the Opera Workshop “is a music ensemble class that all students who wanted to participate in were able to audition to be a part of,” according to Sam Tropper ‘18.
“Every year the Music department chooses a new professor (or, this semester, professors) from the voice faculty to choose an opera to direct,” said Tropper. “This year Lauren Madigan and Fiona Jackson directed the workshop and decided to put together a series of opera scenes that focused on showcasing the voices of women in opera – ergo the title of the production, ‘She Sings.’”
The production was an amalgamation of various art mediums, presenting inspired costuming, intricate staging and of course powerful vocal talent from the Muhlenberg student body. With the combined efforts of several members of the Music department faculty, this year’s Opera Workshop guided us through history, presenting key operatic works belonging to the woman’s voice.
Ranging from the classical repertoire of W. A. Mozart to the beloved music of Leonard Bernstein, I was astonished by the vocal talent presented throughout the various operatic genres. One particular work, in which the Chamber Choir was featured as well, was Act II: Scene 1 of Charles Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. The scene itself is one of a classic Greek tale, in which the greatest musician in the world, Orfeo (played by Julia Tyson ‘18), seeks to enter the underworld to save his recently deceased love Euridice (as heroes always do). However, as he approaches the crossing, the Furies, Greek goddesses of vengeance, block his path. Orfeo attempts to calm the raging deities with the one gift he has, his voice.
Of course the hero eventually prevails, but the true mastery of this piece lies in the confrontation between a single, piercing voice and that of an unforgiving and breathtaking choir. With a grand fortissimo, demanding recognition, commanding our attention, the choir chants: “Chi mai dell’ Erebo fralle caligini sull’ orme d’Ercole e di piritoo conduceil pie?,” which translates to: Who dares to walk through the dark mists of Erebus, in the footsteps of Hercules and Piritheus?” The choir sets the tone immediately. Orfeo has entered the underworld, and the audience goes right along with him. Gluck’s piece continues with this call-response pattern, in which Orfeo pleads for safe passage only to be denied — at least until he finally convinces the Furies otherwise through his powers of song and lyric.
As Tyson attempts to approach the crossing, her voice remains strong yet graceful, as if rather than combatting the furious choir with rigorous passion, she instead glides over it, voice rising above all of us in yearning. And as the scene continues, the choir eventually gives in to Tyson’s will. The furies are calmed, Orfeo passes, the choir fades, and I am left breathless.
“To be part of Opera Workshop is to be part of any other cast,” Pietrina Poritzky ‘21, a Fury within the choir, stated. “But it’s also hard work, we had long rehearsals and each of us had to learn music in a variety of different languages … We do it because we love it so much, and the end result is something to be proud of which proves how much fun Opera can be!”
I asked Poritzky to further describe a favorite piece within the workshop. She chose Cendrillon by Jules Massenet.
“The scene we performed was the one where Cendrillon (Caroline Rafizadeh ‘18) is encountered by her Fairy Godmother (Carly Dove ‘18) and a huge swarm of fairies,” Poritzky said. “Though this scene is fun and light hearted, it had a lot going on at on at once; ribbon dancing, quick changes, couches turning into coaches, light up dresses; also, we were singing in French the whole time. It was awesome being one of many overly excited fairies completely transforming the stage into a magical wonderland.”
A second piece of particular interest to me was Samuel Barber’s A Hand of Bridge, a one-act. The scene was made up of five characters: Sally (Maggie Capone ‘20), Bill (Owen Yingling ‘21), Geraldine (Tropper) and David (Ryan Estes ‘21). From the outside, the piece was a standard game of bridge among friends; as the music continued to drone, however, dark secrets and desires are revealed within each player. This was represented through the usage of masks — while the characters played the card game, the masks covered their faces. When speaking their inner thoughts, however, the masks were removed to reveal the characters’ true selves. Said thoughts and desires were further represented by the passing of a red scarf, contrasting drastically with the black and white costuming. It is the one color we as an audience see and recognize as unsaid desire.
“I was honored to be cast as Geraldine in Samuel Barber’s A Hand of Bridge,” Tropper described, as the “aria in this opera was written in an atonal style, which basically means that the piano was usually playing every note [except for] the ones I had to sing. It was also a piece that was rhythmically complex, and for a long time felt impossible to learn. In the end, this role was extremely rewarding to sing — and I am a better musician now because of it.”
The Opera Workshop was truly an inspiring, unbelievable masterpiece that I am proud to have attended. It was a voyage through time, a glance into operatic history, a “journey of the woman’s voice” and an exploration of the talent that is our music department.
