Liz DeLillo
Staff writer
Those wondering what it takes to sing like an opera singer can learn and try it themselves at 12:30 p.m. today on Bestor Plaza, where the Chautauqua Opera Company is holding their season’s final Opera Invasion, titled “So You Think You’re Louder Than An Opera Singer.”
Chautauquans who sing in this Opera Invasion also have the opportunity to sing onstage in the Opera & Pops Concert at 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater.
“We will determine who potentially the loudest are, the people with the most stamina, the people who are the fastest, or the people who are the most emotional,” said Chautauqua Opera Company and Conservatory General and Artistic Director Steven Osgood. “All of them will get winning Opera Invasion T-shirts, and … they’ll all get invited to come out on stage that night with the Chautauqua Symphony when we do our Opera & Pops.”
The invasion is open to all Chautauquans with the guts — and lungs — to try their turn belting it out on Bestor.
“Nobody who’s there as a contestant will have been given anything to learn before they arrive, or specific goals,” Osgood said. “… Everybody who chooses to compete — be it three people, be it 20 people — we’ll have them facing off against each other, with some of our Young Artists there to help coach them (and) to say, ‘OK, here’s how we do it. Do you want a couple tips?’ ”
When opera singers project their voices across audiences without microphones, volume is one aspect of many that they target with their vocal technique.
“It’s about being loud. Sometimes it’s about having as much stamina as possible, so you can sustain something as long as possible — so that’s a winning attribute in opera,” Osgood said. “A winning attribute can be how loud you are; a winning attribute could be how long you can hold something; a winning attribute could be how fast you can say something; a winning attribute could be how expressive and emotional you can be in something.”
In addition to those participating in today’s Opera Invasion, several students from Opera in the Schools, a program in collaboration with Chautauqua Arts Education that introduces opera to local elementary schools, will be on stage. Mezzo-soprano Lindsey Weissman is an Opera Company Studio Artist who participated in the program this past spring.
“They’re always fun, (and) you always learn a lot,” Weissman said. “It kind of brings you back to what all of this is all about and the human connection and understanding as an artist, how to relate to people who are either different or similar to you in whatever way.”
This past spring, baritone Joel Clemens, soprano Kathiana Dargenson, mezzo-soprano Rosamund Dyer and Weissman participated in Opera in the Schools, visiting a total of 11 schools and more than 3,000 children.
“We did classroom lessons with them, too — with fourth grade classrooms — where we adapted a mini opera with them and performed it,” Weissman said.
This year, they performed Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?, which is adapted from Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Weissman sang the roles of Grandma and the Boy who Cried Wolf.
“It can be really exhausting working with kids and singing for kids because you need to sing in a way where your language is incredibly clear,” Weissman said. “… There’s kind of a stereotype in the business that outreach can be either really ruinous on your voice or really draining in energy and spirit sometimes; … this broke that stereotype far and beyond. Everything we put in, we definitely got out.”
Weissman emphasized how rewarding she found the program.
“I have to say, this experience, everything from start to finish and top to bottom, was so positive,” Weissman said. “… I would do it again tomorrow.”
