Opera
 (Photo: Cliff Coles) From Mozart's The Magic Flute February 10-11, 2010 |
UO Opera Ensemble -
Karen Esquivel, director
The UO Opera Ensemble is a performance class open to all members of the university community. The class prepares the singing actor by offering training in acting, dance, interpretation, music history, singing roles in foreign languages and related disciplines taught in conjunction with colleagues throughout the university and the Eugene community as well as UO alumni. Class work and rehearsals are focused on the works being performed that year. Our goal is to give students the tools they will need to find a place for themselves in the current world of opera. We are committed to bringing opera and vocal music to all of the members of our community.
Each year, UO Opera students perform in a fully staged opera production as well as smaller projects. In 2008-2009, singers participated in:
• a production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas conducted by Marc Vanscheeuwijck and assisted by alumna choreographer Alli Bach and Eugene Tarot Scholar Isha Lerner.
• professional engagements at the Berlin Konzerthaus and in Potsdam, performing José Sanchez Verdú’s Nosferatu
• a scenes program entitled “opera in the empty space,” performed in the community
• spirituals sung for homeless people in Eugene
Our program is historically comprehensive and socially concerned. Working with our active Early and Contemporary music programs, director Nicholas Isherwood has organized a three year plan that enables students to perform operas from the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Contemporary periods. Winter Quarter 2010 will feature Mozart’s Magic Flute conducted by Marc Vanscheeuwijck with choreography and films by dance professor Shannon Mockli. During the Spring Quarter, we will perform scenes from the Magic Flute in retirement centers, schools, prisons and hospitals in the community and region. We will repeat our highly successful "spirituals for the homeless." In collaboration with collegium and the theater department, 2010-2011 will be devoted to the "commedia dell’arte" with performances of renaissance and contemporary madrigal comedies by Adriano Banchieri and Luciano Berio at the University of Oregon and at Renaissance fairs on the West Coast.
In addition to productions organized by UO Opera, students sing small roles in Eugene Opera productions and scenes in their outreach program. The Portland and Seattle opera companies are close by. Our program is committed to providing a bridge to the professional world in the United States, Europe and beyond to help our students to flourish after they graduate. We actively assist our students in their efforts to participate in international opera apprenticeship programs and competitions and help to organize auditions for artistic directors and agents throughout the world.
