December 1998

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With Award-Winning Voices, Opera Scenes Are Sure to Delight Audiences By Tami Dimock Each year at George Mason, students in the Department of Music's Opera Workshop class spend the fall semester learning scenes from a variety of operas, which they then perform for the entire community. If you've not yet had the opportunity to attend an Opera Scenes performance, this is the year to do so, as the ensemble, which performs Dec. 4 and 5 at 8 p.m. in Harris Theater, features several award-winning student voices. "This will be a very special performance," says internationally acclaimed opera singer Patricia Miller, who heads the Music Department's Vocal Studies Division and was instrumental in establishing the Opera Workshop. "The Music Department had 11 students compete in the NATS [National Association of Teachers of Singing] Virginia State Convention and Voice Competition, which was hosted by George Mason last spring. We had nine winners at the state or regional level, and several of those students are singing in this year's Opera Workshop. "In Opera Workshop, students not only have the opportunity to learn their particular roles," says Miller, "but also to study the history of opera, performance technique, role interpretation, acting, stage movement, and the Alexander Technique, which involves learning to use the body in a proper way to help the voice." Andrea Frakes Pope, a graduate student in vocal performance, is participating in this year's Opera Workshop class. "It's a great place to get experience for young singers wishing to have careers in performance areas," says the 1998 NATS first-place winner in the Graduate Women's Division--at both the state and regional levels. "I have personally learned a lot about my strengths and weaknesses and how to become the best performer I can be." Laura Mann, director of the Opera Workshop class and international opera performer, "makes the class fun and interesting," Pope says, by providing a wealth of knowledge gained from her experiences in the performance world. Stage director Rick Davis, also artistic director of Theater of the First Amendment, "gives the class a fresh perspective and helps us reach our potential." This year's Opera Scenes program includes scenes from Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor;igrave; fan tutte, La Clamenza di Tito, and The Magic Flute, all by Mozart; Verdi's La Traviata; and Amahl and the Night Visitors, by Menotti. "We try to tailor the program to suit the voices of the students," Mann says, "but we also want the students to learn and appreciate a variety of compositional styles and time periods so that our work represents a broad overview of opera." Following the Opera Scenes program, the Opera Workshop will begin rehearsing for a full-length production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, to be held April 23 and 24. "Each fall, we prepare for the spring semester through the workshop and scene performances, giving students an opportunity to focus on musical details and staging. In the spring, we present an opera in its entirety," says Miller, who adds that both events offer audiences an inexpensive, entertaining opera experience. In addition to the spring opera production, next semester brings such exciting events as an appearance by Leonard Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, who will come to campus in March as guest conductor of the GMU Symph- ony Orchestra. In May, the department presents the annual Music Scholarship Benefit Concert, featuring world-renowned baritone William Warfield, who also will treat the community to a masterclass while at Mason. In addition, plans are under way for a memorial concert honoring Dr. Sam di Bonaventura, a beloved, longtime faculty member who passed away earlier this year. Another masterclass, with acclaimed opera performer and Sony recording artist Jubilant Sykes, is tentatively scheduled for the spring semester as well. The Opera Scenes performances are open to the George Mason community and the general public. Tickets are available in advance at the Center for the Arts Box Office, or at the door prior to show time. The cost is $7 for adults; $5 for students, with a limited number of free tickets available to Mason students. For more information about musical events on campus, call the Box Office at x38888 or visit the Department of Music website at www.gmu.edu/departments/music.