Although opera is an artistic endeavor, the mechanics behind it are not.
“Anything that starts to happen physically goes straight to your voice. It’s the smallest little muscle there in your body,” opera professor Sam Shepperson said. “Opera really is like an athletic endeavor because it’s so physical; it’s part of your body.”
Shepperson said the physical strain is at its peak this week as UNM’s opera singers rehearse two operas every night for their upcoming show “Till Death Do Us Part.” The double feature includes “The Beautiful Bridegroom” written by Dan Shore and “I Pagliacci” written by Ruggero Leoncavallo.
“The Beautiful Bridegroom” is a farce where a woman dressed as a man is set up to marry an older widow whose daughters are in love with “him” too.
“We don’t need any men at all,” the six women exclaim as they line dance in the spotlight. They narrowly miss tripping over their vintage English hoop dresses complete with trains, bustles and corsets.
“I Pagliacci” is an Italian tragedy where a theater actor finds his wife cheating on him and kills her and her lover.
Although “I Pagliacci” is more than a century old and written in Italian, vocal student Grant Garrison said it isn’t difficult to develop a personal relationship with the opera.
“You feel the music, you feel the emotions in the music and it’s not music written down on paper anymore,” he said. “Whether it was written in 1890 or 1990, that doesn’t matter so much. It’s not old. It’s brand new because we’re doing it right now.”
Garrison, one of the only undergraduate lead characters in “I Pagliacci,” said he started his studies as a pre-med student. He shifted to singing and developed a taste for opera. The difference between typical pop singing and opera singing is like night and day, he said.
“When you’re singing all poppy, it’s different. Your whole body’s not involved, you don’t have the same kind of support,” he said. “In opera you have to, otherwise it’s not going to sound operatic at all. It’s really hard to get that balance of having enough air, having enough push, putting your mouth in all of these certain positions that make the sound go forward or back or sound like you’re anxious.”
Garrison said it is difficult for instructors to describe miniscule physical changes singers should implement, such as changes to vowels and breath speed. So they often use metaphors in an effort to make their students sing correctly.
“You get lost in ‘Breathe in like you’re smelling a rose,’ and you end up with all these little ideas of what this could possibly fit into as far as technique,” he said.
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The production involves about 100 students, from light technicians to chorus members, and includes a full orchestra crammed into a “pit” beneath the stage. Small reading lights illuminate the notes as string players try to avoid poking each other with their bows.
Co-director Leslie Umphrey said she and Shepperson chose the operas in April and cast them in May. They’ve been rehearsing ever since. Garrison said he has been putting in six or seven hours a day since December, but he said he doesn’t mind.
“It helps me escape real life and adds some emotional flavor into things instead of just having the day-to-day drag,” he said. “Okay, I’m brushing my teeth, going to school, going home, eating. It provides a little variety in my day.”
Rebecca Brunette, a junior and a lead in “The Beautiful Bridegroom,” said she was originally drawn to opera because of its flashy visual elements.
“Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I get to dress up for a living? That would be rad,” she said.
Alexandra Martinez, a junior in vocal performance and a lead in “The Beautiful Bridegroom,” said people are always surprised when she tells them she sings opera.
“First it’s like, ‘Really? You can sing opera and you’re that tiny?’” she said. “Everybody’s like, ‘Can you sing something for me?’ And I’m like, ‘No. Come to a show and you can hear me sing, but I’m not going to sit here in the SUB and sing for you.’”
Till Death Do Us Part
Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, 2 p.m.
Keller Hall
General admission $8
Faculty and staff $6
Students $4
