Opera is dying. No, wait. Opera is dead. Only old people like opera. These are the headlines I’ve read in the millions of thinkpieces about the state of opera in 2015. I’m not convinced, and here’s why.

If you’ve been into Eggshells Kitchen Co. over the last week, you may have noticed that yours truly has… well, not been there. I’m taking a bit of a vacation (thanks Lindsey!) for my (cue trumpets):

FIRST PROFESSIONAL OPERA GIG

If I sound stoked, it’s because I am. I’ve known about this gig for awhile, but I’ve kept hush hush about it because I’ve had so much other junk going on. Let me take this opportunity to tell y’all a little bit about it!

I have been cast as Barcarolle the Dog in a production of John Davies’s The Bremen Town Musicians. Davies’s work takes the classic fable and uses music from Rossini, Offenbach, and Sullivan–fun, bouncy tunes that don’t always get their due in the operatic canon.

 

Our production of Bremen Town Musicians is part of the revitalization of Wildwood Park for the Arts’s Art to Go! program, which has been dormant for the last couple of years.

Wildwood Park for the Arts contains the largest botanical gardens in central Arkansas and is (in my opinion) an incredibly underused resource for the arts community here.

It used to be the home of a very respected regional opera company and I hope that someday, opera can return full-time to Wildwood. People still use Wildwood for festivals, art workshops, weddings, and other special events, but I would really like to see fully-staged opera make its way back to the park.

In the meantime, though, there’s Art to Go! to carry on the operatic tradition at Wildwood.

Rehearsing for the production has been a whirlwind. We began rehearsals on Monday and have successfully blocked an entire 45-minute children’s opera in four days. It’s hardcore memory work, y’all.

The other three members of the cast, our director, rehearsal accompanist, stage manager, and all other personnel involved have committed themselves body and soul to putting on a high-level, engaging show and I couldn’t be prouder to call myself part of this team.

Children’s opera is not high art–our goal is not to initiate an existential crisis in seven year olds. We don’t need to tackle big issues of philosophy or life in these pieces.

Our goal is to engage these kids–and to expose them to some beautiful music and theatre through a fun story.

We’ll be taking our opera on the road beginning May 11th. It’ll be just the four of us in the cast and our stage manager in a van, loading and unloading our set pieces and high-tailing it all over the state to elementary schools.

Educational outreach is an important part of the trajectory of a young singer, but it’s a lot more than a mere stepping stone in our career.

Outreach gives singers an opportunity to share our love for this art form with the next generation of opera lovers–and yes, I really do believe the next generation of opera lovers will be sitting in a gymnasium at an Arkansas school!

 

I can’t wait for this show. I never had anything like this when I was a kid in elementary school, and I wonder if I would have come to love opera a lot sooner if I had.

There are still open spots in our touring schedule, so if you’re located in Arkansas and are interested in introducing your school or group to opera, please give Sofia Gonzalez a shout by emailing her at sofia@wildwoodpark.org or by calling 501-821-7275, ext. 259.

Or, if you just want to see me dressed up as a German canine, come see me May 17th, 2015 at 2PM at Wildwood. It’s going to be a really cute show!

Have you ever seen an educational outreach opera?

(photo credit: Wildwood Park for the Arts/Sofia Gonzalez)