From left, Chautauqua Opera Conservatory artists Luis Vega-Torres, Dominic Townsend and Maria Jo Phelps rehearse for their Monday Late-Night Cabaret performance Friday in the McKnight Hall studios
Layla Vinson
Staff Writer
The integration of musical theater and opera as intertwined art forms has grown in appreciation over approximately the past 15 years as conservatories begin to teach students how to perform both music styles. While the pressure to select one genre over the other has faded with time, the lingering impacts of this division makes tonight’s performance a special one for singers excited to express their individual creativity and versatility.
“It’s been since high school that I’ve been like really, completely submerged in the musical theater world, so I’m just really excited to be able to get back into that,” Dean Tarriff, current artist in the Conservatory, one of the artists performing this evening and private student of Jonathan Beyer, director of the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory, said. “I feel like I’m getting a part of myself back by doing this cabaret.”
Chautauqua Opera Conservatory artist Dean Tarriff sings in preparation for the Late-Night Cabaret.
It is this spirit the Conservatory will bring to its first Late-Night Cabaret showcase taking place at 10 p.m. in Roe Green Theater Center. With food and drink offerings from the lobby bar, the genre-bending program selection is curated to reflect the playful nature of the event.
The performance is running as a ticketed event listed at $25 a person, inviting audiences to indulge in a unique side of opera as students trade arias for jazz standards, musical theater favorites and songs from the American Songbook.
For Mark Trawka, chorus master and director of Musical Studies at Pittsburgh Opera, returning to Chautauqua as music director of the cabarets after his stint working for the Chautauqua Opera Company in the ’90s is an opportunity to work hands-on with these artists.
Students like Maria Jo Phelps who have less of a background in musical theater are excited by the challenge to break into something new under Trawka’s guidance.
“He knows where both sides are coming from, but he’s so excited, and it’s made me excited to try something new,” Phelps said. “He’s like a wealth of knowledge in that regard.”
Trawka gained experience in late-night cabarets during his time with the Chautauqua Opera Company in the ’90s, though the upcoming Conservatory cabarets are programmed with a smaller selection of singers in a more relaxed setting. In his work for Pittsburgh Opera, he often has his hands full between chorus and show preparation, but he cites teaching as his greatest source of enjoyment.
“My true love is working with young singers one on one in a coaching room, just helping them grow as singers,” Trawka said. “I really cherish that time in the practice room with them.”
In tonight’s performance, Trawka looks forward to the ability to have fun, be silly and relax a little bit.
“It’s going to be a fun evening. A couple of risque jokes, and a couple of just, you know, pratfalls, things like that,” Trawka revealed. “Just really silly fun things.”
