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Juilliard Transports Two Opera Productions to Spoleto By SCOTT HOLDERER
The Spoleto Festival 2004 unfolds like a kaleidoscope in my mind's eye. Images are bright, colorful, fascinating, and fragmented. With the slightest turn, the memories morph into other patterns, some beautiful, some not completely pleasant. As hard as I try to respond to the question, "How was Spoleto?" a short answer fails me, as elusive as those little bits of glass. But let me begin.
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| Camille Zamora was Ermione in the production of Oreste performed at the Spoleto Festival. (Photo by Jared Slater) |
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Beth Foreman, administrative director of the Vocal Arts department, dropped by my office in March and told me that Spoleto had requested our productions of Oreste and Kaiser of Atlantis for the 2004 festival. My great excitement was tempered by considerable trepidation; my experience as a stage manager and production manager, though extensive, never included work in Europe, to say nothing of dealing with logistics in a foreign language. I certainly knew opera Italian—"che gelida manina" was fine if your tiny hand was frozen, but how do you say, "Move the set two feet to the right"? Far more daunting were all of the unknowns of working with the festival administration and crew.Juilliard's productions of Handel's Oreste and Viktor Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis (written while the composer was at the notorious concentration camp, Teresienstadt) were each conceived by their respective directors, Lillian Groag and Edward Berkeley, for a specific performance space: the former, for the spacious Juilliard Theater; the latter for the formidable Central Synagogue in New York City. In the case of Oreste, scenic designer Raul Abrego created a setting of monolithic proportions to underscore the theme of tyranny subdued by love and sacrifice. John Kassarda, the set designer for Kaiser, chose to utilize the visual impact of the synagogue; a raked platform, a projection screen, and a few simple props were all that he employed in his minimalist approach. Both productions had been enhanced by the powerful and highly atmospheric lighting designed by Mathew McCarthy. It would be a formidable challenge for the directors, designers, and production teams to transpose these two works to the stage of the Teatro Caio Melisso for the 2004 Spoleto Festival—a task made doubly difficult by the constraints of time and language.
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| Christianne Rushton was Filotete (left) and Amy Shoremount was Ifigenia in Oreste at Spoleto. (Photo by Jared Slater) |
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Since neither of the directors was available to remount the productions, the opera department's previous resident assistant director, Andrea Dorf, was engaged for the project. As she had worked on Kaiser but not Oreste, Andrea met with Lillian and studied the production notes and the video to prepare for the latter. Both the original stage managers for Oreste, Sharon Bennett and Maria (Dobi) Veloso, were thrilled to be part of the team. Jeanne Hime, the original choreographer, also agreed to give up part of her honeymoon to come to Spoleto and recreate the dance and movement.The next issue to address was casting, as several singers from both productions had either graduated or were singing or auditioning for other summer productions. While some of the roles could be filled by the singers who had covered them at Juilliard, others required starting from scratch. The title role of Oreste—originally sung by Michael Maniaci, whose male soprano voice was a rarity—was taken on by Alison Tupay. New cast members, of course, created the need for new costumes, which were created for Oreste by Tracy Dorman (who designed the originals) and for Kaiser by Traci DiGesu, the talented head of Juilliard's costume shop.A word at this point about the Caio Melisso: The theater was built in 1735, with some renovations done during the 1840s. It seats a little over 200, with five rings of small boxes created for the purpose of being seen, not of seeing. The stage itself is roughly a third the size of Juilliard's. The task for the designers was to adapt the productions to such a radically different space. In the case of Oreste, Raul Abrego reduced the size of his scenery but with some slight adjustments, the most interesting of which was to follow the natural curve of theater in placing the pillars. This gave a sense of the set being a natural extension of the theater itself, heightening the effect of oppression called for by the opera. Matt was faced with the theater's lack of good lighting positions coupled with enormous budgetary constraints, but his ingenuity resulted in lighting that was brilliant in concept and execution.
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| Also representing Juilliard at Spoleto were jazz students, here in rehearsal. (Photo by Jumaane Smith) |
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Raul was also charged with creating a new set design for Kaiser, coming up with a different production concept to utilize the space. He created a chilling evocation of a concentration camp by placing poles and barbed wire around three-quarters of the performing area. Matt's lighting made the barbed wire look almost electrified.The festival administration requested that I come to Spoleto three weeks prior to the arrival of our design and production teams—three weeks that were the hardest part for me. Suddenly I was in the midst of a maelstrom of activity, only part of which was Juilliard-related. My biggest concern was finding supers for the operas. I wasn't sure that notices in the local paper and flyers posted throughout Spoleto would result in more than three or four people showing up for the audition. Imagine my glee when I arrived at the theater to find close to 50 applicants waiting in the wings. Many had experience in past Spoleto productions, and all were excited and anxious to be chosen. Given the size of the stage, I could only fit a small number of them onto the set. I sent an e-mail back to Juilliard to tell them of our good fortune.During the weeks prior to our arrival, the Spoleto scene shop had been busy building scenery and props, with guidance coming primarily via e-mail from the designers to the shop supervisor.Once Andrea arrived, she had three days to put Oreste together with two new cast members and new supers, working in very cramped quarters. We were assigned an extraordinary stage manager and assistant stage manager from Spoleto for the rehearsal period. They spoke English and the Juilliard crew had taken crash courses in Italian, so rehearsals went back and forth between the two languages, with much laughter.The rehearsal schedule was the tightest I have ever worked with. In the case of Oreste we had a sitzprobe (seated orchestra rehearsal), an hour tech rehearsal, and a dress rehearsal with invited audience prior to opening night. The schedule for Kaiser was slightly more liberal, but not by much. The enormous task for director and cast was to adapt stage movement to a much smaller space while keeping as much as possible of the original blocking intentions. There was also the additional challenge of working with supers and a crew who spoke limited English, and we were fortunate to have an interpreter at all of our rehearsals.
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| The Juilliard Orchestra performed in front of the Duomo. (Photo by Jumaane Smith) |
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The opening night of Oreste went brilliantly (despite the fact that the front of the house insisted on waiting for several members of the diplomatic corps to arrive from Rome, delaying the curtain for some 25 hair-raising minutes).Four days later, Kaiser began rehearsals—with a new lead. The day before we began rehearsals, we had lost our lead singer to a burst eardrum. Fortunately Brian Leerhuber, a recent Juilliard graduate who had sung the role a few weeks prior to Spoleto, was available to step in. Once again, Andrea and the staff succeeded in creating a powerful production that was received with a standing ovation.The final performance of Oreste proved to be the most challenging part of the festival. One of our principal singers developed a case of bronchitis and was unable to perform. Since there were no covers for any of the singers, some major adjustments were called for. Andrea and the cast came through with a brilliantly devised concert version. An announcement was made to the audience explaining the situation. Not one person asked for a refund—and indeed, the performance received a standing ovation at the final curtain call.During production week, the Spoleto Festival staff and crew were engaged in numerous other activities beyond our two operas. It was an amazing logistical triumph that all of the events opened without mishap. In a way, it is not unlike a school year at Juilliard, with multiple productions rehearsing and performing simultaneously. Production folks are the great, unsung heroes of it all.We presented a total of five performances of Kaiser and six of Oreste. Both productions were received by audience and press with great enthusiasm. As I look back on the entire experience, I have to admit that I had a glorious time. The memories will stay with me long after I have hung up my clipboard and headset. I hope that the singers enjoyed their time in Spoleto, and most importantly, that they found it to be a richly rewarding learning experience as well.Scott Holderer is production coordinator for the Vocal Arts Department.
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