What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1471612
faculty and orchestra and staff are all paid professionals, and the nature of our program, as a residential festival, requires us to feed everyone, maintain our aging facilities and keep everyone as safe and healthy as possible. That's been a challenge in the covid years! "It's important to note that not all our singers will become stars at the Metropolitan Opera," Preis cautions, "but all of them will continue to have music in their lives and will have learned valuable life lessons about collaboration and teamwork." And audience members have the chance to "see facial expressions and subtle acting moves that wouldn't be possible in a very large theater." "People are surprised by what we put on the stage — the level of singing is often extraordinary and the sets and costumes, while not lavish, are evocative of the time period and allow the audience to use their imaginations to fill in the details," Preis concludes. "One of the most fun aspects is the ability to meet and get to know some of the singers and to follow their careers as they move on. We have lots of audience members who have become opera travelers. They follow young singers they got to know at OIO and go hear them as they perform at widespread venues all over the country." The Singers Meet three of this year's performers here: Ashley Troester San Francisco 'Pinocchio' "I originally started out doing my community musical theater, and when I got to my senior year of high school, I took my first voice lesson — and she introduced me to opera and I fell in love. I've always had a passion for singing, and when I found out that it could be a possible career choice for me, I had to take it! "'Pinocchio' is an amazing opera to be a part of because it combines so many different operas. The purpose of the show is to introduce children to opera. It's something I really wish I had growing up, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to perform this opera for children. "It's very inspiring to be in this environment around so many amazing singers and performers and to learn from all of them. "Opera is always thought about as one specific thing, but opera has lasted for hundred of years. No opera is like the other, and there is an opera for everyone." After OIO, Troester will return to finish her master's degree at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Carl Rosenthal Arlington, Va. Ruggero in 'La Rondine' "When I was a boy, I discovered 'The Three Tenors,' and I thought they were so cool! I probably listened to their CD about 1,000 times. I would sing along, daydreaming about serenading enormous crowds while wearing a sharp- looking tuxedo. Later, I found a home in high school choir — like so many of us do — and the rest is history! "While I fell in love with opera very JULY 26-JULY 2, 2022 WHAT'S UP! 9 COVER STORY See Opera Page 41 Troester Rosenthal FAQ Opera in the Ozarks WHEN — 7:30 except Sunday, when there is a 3 p.m. matinee, through July 22; check the website for special events WHERE — Inspiration Point in Eureka Springs COST — $25-$30 INFO — 253-8595, opera.org But There's More! See video from a rehearsal of "Cosi fan tutte" at youtu.be/2tySExsXr2A. Also look for a podcast with OIO General Director Nancy Preis. Kobe Kendrick, Hunter Eisenmenger and Mathew Cook rehearse Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte." (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Spencer Tirey) Emily Cotten and Autumn Schacherl rehearse "Cosi fan tutte," which is costumed in fashions of the 1920s. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Spencer Tirey) FYI Opera in the Ozarks: The Operas Now in its 71st season, this year's repertoire includes three exceptional operas: Mozart's "Così fan tutte," a farce about fidelity; "La rondine," a love story often described as Puccini's answer to "La traviata"; and Sondheim's "A Little Night Music," the American master's musings on the nature of love. While this season's three operas are unified by the theme "Love on the Rocks," each will be distinct in time and place — from 18th century Naples to 1900s Sweden to Paris in the 1920s. In Puccini's "La rondine," the "kept woman" Magda escapes soci- ety to find her true love, whom she must ultimately relinquish because she cannot free herself from her past. Mozart's two couples in "Cosi fan tutte" are preyed upon by the cynical Don Alfonso, who for a wager sows doubt, betrayal and deception into their relationships. And in Sondheim's "A Little Night Music," comedic partner shuffling gives way to wounded egos and humiliation, but in the end, to the reuniting of tender hearts. "No simple, syrupy love stories in these glorious operas!" notes OIO Artistic Director Thomas Cockrell. "Men, women, and their relation- ships are complex, their hearts untamed. With 'Love on the Rocks,' the stories can either end in ship- wreck or make their way to safe harbor."