A few moments of inspiration, followed by years of toil, frustration and perseverance go into conceiving an opera and ultimately bringing it to the stage.
But most audiences see the product of such an arduous journey only when the theater lights darken and the sights and sounds of the work unfold before them.
A new program sponsored by the University of Colorado at Boulder College of Music gives opera fans a chance to enter the process at a much earlier point — and potentially help shape a nascent work.
The centerpiece of the initiative, called the CU New Opera Workshop, is two sets of student performances of sections of operas that are still in progress. The workshops begin Monday evening and run through Aug. 7.
Not only will audiences get a rare advance hearing of these new works during these events, but they will also get to ask questions and even offer a few opinions about what worked and what, perhaps, didn’t.
While workshops of this kind are common in the theater world, they remain rare in opera. Indeed, CU NOW may be the only university program in the country devoted to this mission.
“I don’t think it would be going too much out on a limb to say that it’s unique,” said composer Robert Aldridge, one of the participants.
He, like many composers who work in relative isolation and often have little opportunity to hear what they write before it premieres, is hungry for this kind of informal tryout and the reactions that come with it.
“You can really get an idea of: OK, what do we have here? And how is it going over? How is it working dramatically? Can this work on stage?” said Aldridge, an associate music professor at Montclair (N.J.) State University.
Aldridge and librettist Herschel Garfein created the opera “Elmer Gantry,” which premiered at the Nashville Opera in 2007, and it since has been performed by the Florentine Opera in Milwaukee and recorded there for the Naxos label. The duo is at the very beginning stages of a second opera, an adaptation of Theodore Dreiser’s 1900 novel, “Sister Carrie.”
During a pair of workshop performances Friday and Saturday, CU students will perform sections from “Elmer Gantry” and a few other works by the collaborators. On the second half, they will present three scenes from “Sister Carrie” — about 20 minutes of music.
“My idea,” Aldridge said, “is that we introduce the opera, we talk about it a little bit, the excerpts are performed and then questions are asked and we talk about it and get feedback from the audience.
“There are tons of decisions to be made about what scenes to include, what characters will be involved, what voice types these characters should be — just any number of artistic, practical questions.”
Work on new piece
The following week will be devoted to Daniel Kellogg, an assistant professor of composition at CU-Boulder who is taking his first stab at opera with a piece titled “The Autumn Orchard.”
Students will perform about 50 minutes of the new piece, which he began working on last fall with his librettist, poet J. Michael Hernandez, a CU Boulder doctoral student. It is based on the life of Spanish Civic War poet Miguel Hernandez.
Many composers, including some famous ones, have stumbled with the first attempts in this form, especially in the area of pacing. Kellogg is hoping that this test outing of “Autumn Orchard” will help him avoid some of those missteps.
“That’s what I really want to learn,” he said. “Where have I made mistakes? Where do I want to expand things? Where have I been successful and how can we maximize on that?”
At the same time that audiences are gaining insights into how operas are created and the composers and librettists are hearing responses to their creations, the seven vocal students taking part are gaining valuable insights as well.
To supplement their experience, Anthony Dean Griffey, a top American tenor and a specialist in modern and contemporary English-language opera, will lead two master classes Monday and Tuesday evenings — events that are also open to the public.
The idea for CU NOW emerged in 2008 when Opera America, the national service organization for the field, held its annual national conference in Denver as part of the National Performing Arts Convention.
In conjunction with the conference, Opera America asked stage director Leigh Holman, then head of Opera Colorado’s young-artist program, to put together a performance sampler of recent premieres from around the country.
That event and a smaller effort under the auspices of Opera Colorado the following year were so successful that she wanted do something similar when she became director of CU Opera in 2009.
That led to CU NOW, which Holman hopes will become an annual event.
“If it’s successful, and we get as much out of it as we think we will, I would love for that to happen,” she said.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
CU New Opera Workshop today-Aug. 7
Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey. Recital. Canyon Theater, Boulder Public Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave. Griffey, one of this country’s most lauded tenors, will present an all-American program of operatic arias and songs by such composers as Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Carlisle Floyd and Kenneth Frazelle. 2 p.m. today. $30.
Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey. Master classes. Black Box Theater, ATLAS Building, 1125 18th St., University of Colorado at Boulder. The public is invited to watch as Griffey coaches CU voice students. 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. Free.
Composer Robert Aldridge and Librettist Herschel Garfein. Workshop. Black Box Theater, ATLAS Building. CU students will perform excerpts from the duo’s 2007 opera, “Elmer Gantry,” as well as a few scenes from a new piece, “Sister Carrie.” 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. $15.
Composer Daniel Kellogg. Workshop. Black Box Theater, ATLAS Building. CU students will perform a lengthy excerpt from “The Autumn Orchard,” a new opera by Kellogg, a CU assistant professor of composition. 7:30 p.m. Aug. 5, 6 and 7. $15.
Information and tickets for all events: 303-492-8008 or .
Workshop leader to give American opera recital
Anthony Dean Griffey has become one of this country’s most sought-after tenors, but he didn’t follow the standard path to success.
Instead of performing the usual operas by Verdi and Mozart, he has devoted much of his career to modern and contemporary English-language works, especially those created in the United States.
“There are people even in our culture that don’t know that we even have American opera,” Griffey said. “When they hear the word, ‘opera,’ they automatically think of foreign languages and viking helmets.”
As part of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s New Opera Workshop, where he will lead two master classes this week, Griffey is presenting a recital at 2 p.m. today at the Boulder Public Library.
Vocal recitals of any kind are increasingly rare, but this one is especially unusual, because it is devoted entirely to American operatic arias and songs.
“As American artists,” Griffey said, “we’re expected to sing in all the languages well, and sometimes we neglect our own repertoire and own language. We actually have quite a rich history of American music.” Kyle MacMillan
