If you ever thought you had a loud voice, today is the day to prove it.
At 3:30 p.m. Thursday, July 14, at College Hill Park, the Chautauqua Opera Company hosts “So You Think You’re Louder Than an Opera Singer?” their third Opera Invasion of the 2022 season.
Chautauqua Opera last hosted this particular event in 2019, teaching children the Boys’ and Girls’ Club lines from the opera The Ghosts of Versailles. After learning the lines, the kids competed to see who could sing them the loudest. Max Kirvan, who was 8 at the time, swept the competition and Chautauqua Opera deemed him the loudest singer that year.
This year, however, the participants will not only include kiddos at Club.
“It is a different structure from what we’ve done with the Boys’ and Girls’ Club,” said Steven Osgood, general and artistic director of Chautauqua Opera. “Now, any adults who said, ‘Oh wow, Boys’ and Girls’ Club, they have all the fun. I wish I could do that.’ This is the year you can do it.”
With Chautauqua Opera broadening the requirements of who can be a contestant for “So You Think You’re Louder Than an Opera Singer?,” anyone who signs up can participate.
This year, Osgood and the Chautauqua Opera artists will teach the contestants lines from Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, which opens Friday in Norton Hall. Once everyone knows the lines, they will practice throwing their voice across the field of College Hill Park.
“ ‘So You Think You’re Louder Than an Opera Singer?’ … is really about throwing our audience into how physically active and demanding it is to try to be that loud,” Osgood said.
Like all the Opera Invasions, this one exists to share Chautauqua Opera’s passion for opera.
“We love opera,” Osgood said. “Let’s just go yell about it.”
