Behind the Scenes

Students prepare for opening night of operas

A singer steps forward from the line of her fellow castmates. She finds her mark on the stage and belts her solo. Though it is hard for the other castmates behind her not to erupt into applause as their comrade finishes her song, they contain themselves and remain in character. The director asks her to repeat the fourth to last word in the song’s first stanza. She sings just that word at least five times until the director feels certain that she hits the right note so that even patrons in the back row will hear her.

Dedicated and striving for excellence, the cast of the two upcoming operas "Sister Angelica" and "Monsieur Choufleuri" have become quite familiar with three hour rehearsals. They also know to put aside a couple hours in case their director decides to throw in an impromptu vocal practice.

"We knew that we definitely wanted to perform ‘Sister Angelica,’ which is a classic Italian opera," director Dorothy Maddison said. "We just needed another opera to compliment it, and ‘Monsieur Choufleuri’ is a spoof on Italian operas." "Sister Angelica" is more of a tragedy, while "Monsieur Choufleuri" is a comedy.

"Sister Angelica" is the tragic account of a young woman who is driven into a convent after she has a child conceived out of wedlock. "Monsieur Choufleuri," on the other hand, is full of laughs when the famous singers who Choufleuri invited to his party suddenly can’t attend his soiree. Hilarity ensues when he hires his daughter and her lover to pose as his guest singers’ replacements.

"We have a much larger cast this year," Maddison said. "We tried to take as many people as possible from tryouts."

The director explained that she and the other directors were interested in talented vocalists, but also students with good attitudes and an eagerness to learn.

Though most of these students have performed on stage before, the auditions were not stress-free. "I was a nervous wreck," said senior Erin Crowley, who plays Sister Angelica (along with junior Shelly Milam with whom she shares the role). "A lot of us hadn’t sung all summer and then had auditions for these operas when we came back to school."

But now that these JMU vocalists have been chosen to perform in the operas, there is no time to relax. Each singer must memorize hundreds of musical chords. "I am always running the songs over and over in my head, one line at a time," Crowley said. "We also have the Italian recordings of the songs so we can practice hitting the right notes."

Though they take their work seriously, these young singers know how to have fun. "A lot of us are friends on and off the stage," Yanez said. "In fact, the cast had a big party this past weekend."

Sophomore Mathew Dure, who plays Peterman in "Monsieur Choufleuri," said it is important for the cast to be close outside of rehearsals. "It helps the chemistry on the stage if people are friends at other times," he said. Dure’s observation is evident at all rehearsals. Vocalists share words of support or a wink of encouragement as a friend/castmate stands up to perform a solo.

The cast is excited for the upcoming opening night of the operas, Oct. 20, but they also are nervous.

Sophomore Laura Yanez, who plays the reporter Madame Bamandard in Monsieur Choufleuri, plans to get to the stage two and a half hours before call time. "I’ll sit there and take the time to do my hair and makeup. It calms my nerves."

Dure takes a slightly different approach on the day of the performance. "I’ll do nothing all day, and that includes skipping all my classes," he said. "I also will not talk to anyone for at least three hours before I begin to warm up."

Early in the production process, the sets, costumes and make-up are still in the planning stages. The crew plans to encompass the glamour of historically authentic 17th century costumes and stage sets. By juxtaposing tragedy with comedy, the shows are sure to be a night full of tears and laughter.

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