Opera extravaganza big hit, house packed
By: Thomas Bumpers and Fiona Chin
Issue date: 11/7/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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The house shook with the uplifting melodies.
The concert itself held a variety of talented performers including Joseph Wiggetts who performed in baritone, bassist Richard Colla, tenor Ricardo Campero, sopranos Dawn Peterson, Jenni Samuelson, Lorraine Walsh and Deborah Kavasch, and mezzo soprano Jennifer Champeaux.
In addition CSU Stanislaus professor Stephen Thomas accompanied the artists through their performances on piano.
The classical music concert featured opera arias, duets and choruses. The event was presented by the Department of Music of the university's College of the Arts.
The songs performed were from operas and other musicals such as Die Zauberflöte, Faust, Die Fledermaus, Carmen, and Showboat.
Wiggetts, director of Opera Extravaganza, said many people who have not seen operas have the preconceived notions that the opera is "fat lady singing, wearing horns and a breastplate."
"It can be fun and very entertaining even though a lot of it is intellectually conceived. For everybody, hopefully, they see that there is an incredible variety of operas. It is not all serious. It can be comic and operas, operettas and musical theater have a lot in common," said Wiggett.
He explains that some operas even include dance numbers and ballet. Wiggett calls opera the "height of theatrical arts" due to the activities on stage, costumes, lighting effects and other elements required for a performance.
Professor Geoffrey Mulder hopes the experience of watching performances such as Opera Extravaganza will make people appreciate fine arts enough to encourage others to participate and enjoy it.
"For people who are going to be teachers, I want to make sure they pass along to kids what they learn in this fine arts class. Some schools no longer have music programs so it is important for elementary school teachers to share what they know so that young people will become interested in music, art or theater," Mulder said.
Mulder assigned his students to attend one jazz concert and one classical concert.
The options for the classical concert were Opera Extravaganza and a performance by the Modesto Symphony Youth Orchestra.
"The Modesto Symphony Youth Orchestra concert is all instrumental so I also wanted to include a classical concert representative of singing," Mulder said.
Thursday's concert came at the end of the section of the course which focused on music. Mulder said that students could apply their knowledge from the course to distinguish meters, whether a song was in major or minor key and what the dynamics were.
"Really, the goal is to make students more critical of what they listen to. They might have the radio on in the background but they don't focus on the components," Mulder said.
Sara Alsabagh, a first-year student attended Opera Extravaganza to fulfill a requirement for the course.
"I thought it was good. I liked it and it's nice to have something like that on campus," said Alsabagh.
She attended her first opera, "Phantom of the Opera," at the age of eight to celebrate her parent's anniversary. She was entertained by the dialogue but admits that although she enjoyed it, she "didn't think much about it."
Alsabagh found herself more insightful to opera after completing the music portion of the class.
"At Opera Extravaganza, I understood the complexity of the performances. The talent it requires to be in an opera is pretty impressive," Alsabagh said.
From her experience, she felt inspired to attend more live events and believes that exposing students to opera "broadens people's horizons when it comes to music."
In short the entire performance was great. Wiggett started out the night with his rendition of Avant de quitter ces lieux, the performance was very powerful and the piano accompaniment added a hauntingly beautiful tone to the entirety of the song and once finished it had more than likely made the audience hungry for more. Although in my personal opinion Pres des ramparts de Seville from the opera Carmen and sung by Champeaux left more to be desired and not in a good way.
Granted the song was nice but during the majority of the song her voice was intensely grating on the ears whenever she hit the high notes that were required.
Thankfully the following performances were better and they got a lot of response from the audience.
Samuelson was amusing as she performed What a Movie!, from Trouble in Tahiti which for the most part kept the audience nearly bursting out laughing at the humor contained in the song.
The night was brought to a full close with a wonderful rendition of Champagne's delicious bubbles form the finale of Die Fladermaus sung by the entirety of the performers from the night.
In response to the show Walsh said "It's a wonderful amassing of talent in the area."
Performer Kavasch said that the crowd themselves were highly enthusiastic and welcoming about the night's performances.
In addition she also expressed hope that the CSU Stanislaus Opera Extravaganza would become a yearly event to draw in more people. Although the opera concert is over there are still many more musical performances scheduled for the year, if you would like to know what styles shall be showcased please go to the music departments website at www.csustan.edu/music.
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