Workshop Gets Inspired By Shakespeare

Scenes inspired by famous playwright William Shakespeare will be featured in “An Ode to Opera” during the School of Music’s fall Opera Workshop production on Friday and Saturday (Oct. 20-21).

Performances, which will exclusively feature the Opera Players section—the more advanced group comprised primarily of voice principals in music education and music performance, will be held at 7:30 p.m. on both days in the Recital Hall.

The workshop will include scenes performed in a number of different languages, including four scenes from Benjamin Britten’s composition of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” sung in English; and Otto Nicolai’s “Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor” (“The Merry Wives of Windsor”), sung in German.

Four scenes will also be performed in French, including two scenes from Charles Gonoud’s “Roméo et Juliette” (“Romeo and Juliet”) and two scenes from Hector Berlioz’s “Béatrice et Bénédict” (“Beatrice and Benedict”), based on Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.”

To facilitate patrons' understanding of the opera scenes, surtitles will be projected on a screen above the stage, which will also help with the language barrier, according to Dawn Padula, voice faculty member and opera workshop co-director.

“This set-up mimics that of the majority of opera houses and other school programs in the country,” Padula said. “The one thing that always keeps people away from opera productions is the lack of understanding what the performers are ‘saying,’ so we have modernized so that the students can benefit from singing in the original language, and the audiences can benefit from having a full understanding of what is happening.

“We had great success with this set-up last year and audiences responded very well to all three of our productions sung in foreign languages with English surtitles,” she said.

School of Music faculty members Ilonka Rus and Kathy Daniel will accompany the scenes on the piano and flute, respectively.

Another section of the Opera Workshop, comprised of younger voice principles and some non-majors, will be featured in another workshop performance in February, which will be inspired by mythology and fairy tales, according to Padula.

In addition, the Shakespeare program and the mythology/fairy tale program will be performed in Houston-area high schools in the spring semester, she said.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $5 for non-SHSU students and senior citizens, and free for anyone with an SHSU ID.

For more information, call the School of Music at 936.294.1360.

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SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
Oct. 13, 2006
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