Verdi Operas: The Olympics of Singing

Hot off the press! A bit of background on Virago and a chat with Director Ellen St. Thomas, Maestro Robert Ashens and Virago Resident Music Artist Eileen Meredith (singing Leonora)

GRAND OPERA IN AN INTIMATE SETTING

Did you know that Alameda is home to an opera company?  Since 2006, Virago Theatre Company has produced plays, musicals and operas staged here in Alameda, San Francisco and Berkeley.  Their next opera production is Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore (The Troubadour) opening Friday, January 31 at 7:30pm for four performances at the turn-of-the-century Alameda Elks Lodge Ballroom, 2255 Santa Clara Avenue, Alameda.  Tickets are available via Virago’s website, www.viragotheatre.org, or by calling 510-865-6237.

Virago Theatre Company was founded in 2005 by four Alamedans, Robert and Laura Lundy-Paine, Angela Dant and Eileen Meredith.  Virago has mounted nearly 30 productions, from world premiere musicals like Zombie Vixens from Hell – the Musical to contemporary classics, as in A Taste of Honey (2012) and Harold Pinter’s The Lover (2013). In recent seasons Virago produced three operas from the heart of the repertoire, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and Verdi’s  La Traviata at Alameda’s Rhythmix Cultural Works and at the Hillside Club in Berkeley.   

I recently met for coffee with Virago’s production team for Il Trovatore, Eileen Meredith, Virago Co-Founder & Resident Music Artist, Ellen St Thomas,  Stage Director, Maestro Robert Ashens, Musical Director, and Jean-Francois Revon, Set Designer to discuss their upcoming production. 

Meredith has been performing with the San Francisco Opera since 1998.  Maestro Ashens’ career includes long tenures with Connecticut Opera and Eugene Opera. Of course, San Francisco Opera is one of the very best in the US and the world.  Still, the Bay Area is home to so many successful opera companies, so many more than other population centers of a similar size.  How is it that there is such great support for smaller companies here? 

“People recognize the different quality of intimacy and theatricality in a smaller house,” said Revon.  “I’ve seen so many productions in large venues and thought, ‘I wish I was closer’.  At a smaller house you are face-to-face with the singer.  People really appreciate that.”  Revon should know, he’s been designing sets for operas for twenty years, adopting and adapting projection technology to make sets for small venues both simpler and more elaborate.

“Yes, the voices wash over you,” Meredith added.  “Grand opera in an intimate setting, that’s our goal.”  “Also, convenient parking,” quipped Meredith.

Maestro Ashens noted, “Opera should not feel untouchable, performed remotely and in a corset.  The intimacy of a smaller venue makes opera more reachable, both figuratively and literally.”

“And the fact that there are so many opera companies in the area means that singers in the Bay Area have many chances to sing principal roles multiple times.” St. Thomas said. “So, we’ve got a great talent pool.  Many of the singers who perform principal roles in Virago productions also sing for San Francisco Opera and Opera San Jose.”

What was the attraction to the Elks Lodge Ballroom as a venue for Il Trovatore?  “First, we consistently sold out our previous venues,” said Meredith,  “so, we needed something larger.  More importantly, the Elks Ballroom has a great operatic feel.  It was built during the Golden Age of Opera in the early part of the 20^th century.  The actual mounted elks’ heads, the stained glass ceiling feature, the carved thrones on each wall, are a great dramatic setting for rustic, earthy operas like Il Trovatore or Lucia di Lammermoor, set in the Scottish Highlands.  And, the beautiful Mahogany Room with bar and food is a great place.”  “The elks’ heads give it an opera sports bar feel.  Big music, big game.” added Ashens.

Why perform Il Trovatore, certainly one of the grandest of grand operas, in a smaller venue?  “Of course, we all love the music,” said St. Thomas.  “And, what I loved about the plot, which is a bit chaotic, is that Azucena, the gypsy mother, takes matters into her own hands. It’s like the storyline for Breaking Bad. People’s desperate actions have desperate consequences.  When she throws that baby into the fire, chaos breaks loose.” 

St. Thomas continued, “It’s our job to tie together the plot twists with the music.”  “We have to help the audience tie together the first act with the final act. Ferrando, Captain of the Guard tells us in the opening scene that Count Di Luna’s father, on his deathbed, commands the Count to find his lost brother.  And, in the last act, spoiler alert, the Count kills his romantic rival Manrico, the Troubadour himself. Guess who is the Count’s brother?”

Meredith continued, “And why does Leonora fall in love with Manrico the poor Troubadour instead of wealthy Count di Luna?”  “Yes,” said St Thomas, “one minute Manrico is so strong, the next he’s such a sobbing mama’s boy.”  “Well” Meredith added, “She had decided to become a nun rather than marry Count di Luna.”  Such are the twists and turns of Verdi opera that St. Thomas plans to illuminate for the audience.

How does Virago approach the different challenges of producing musicals and operas?  Ashens explained, “Technical abilities have changed a great deal over 30 years.  When I coach opera singers today, I sometimes ask ‘Have you ever done a musical?’  I ask that because I sometimes need them to apply some of the dramatic and physical principles of a musical to an operatic recitative.  The dramatic and physical requirements are not that different anymore.”  He continued, “Is Sweeney Todd a musical or an opera?”  “Still” Ashens concluded, “Verdi operas are the Olympics of singing.”

- By Robert Boyd

marketing@viragotheatre.org

Il Trovatore at The Elk's Ballroom, Alameda Jan 31-Feb 9, 2014.

Tickets: www.viragotheatre.org

Don Giovanni, 2013 Virago Theatre Company Production

                           Angela Moser, Anders Froehlich, Elizabeth Baker, Eileen Meredith

                                                              photo by Laura Lundy-Paine, poster design (top) by Edna Cabcabin Moran