Projekt Wolfgang Brings Chamber Opera to Cincinnati
Cincinnati is an opera-rich city.
There’s Cincinnati Opera at Music Hall, opera department productions at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and occasional concert opera (un-staged or semi-staged opera) by the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, CSO and May Festival.
Newly created Projekt Wolfgang aims to enrich it even further by launching a chamber opera company. Founded by Antoine-François López and Isaac Selya, students at CCM, Projekt Wolfgang will present a double bill by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at 8 p.m. June 9 and 10 at Hoffner Lodge, 4120 Hamilton Ave. in Northside.
Mozart’s “Der Schauspieldirektor” (“The Impresario”) and “Bastien und Bastienne” are short, one-act operas. They will be fully staged, with a cast of four singers and a chamber orchestra of 24, led by López and Selya on June 9 and 10, respectively. Cast members are CCM students and graduates. The orchestra is drawn from Ensemble Vita, a chamber orchestra founded by López that performs regularly in Cincinnati.
(Hoffner Lodge, a former Masonic lodge, converted into an arts space, is singularly appropriate, since Mozart himself was a Mason.)
The operas span Mozart’s remarkable career. “Bastien und Bastienne” was composed when he was 12, “Der Schauspieldirektor” when he was 30 (he died at 35). Both are comic operas and use spoken dialogue to connect arias and sung portions (a form of German opera called Singspiel). They will be sung in German, with the spoken dialogue in English. Translations will be provided.
López and Selya have combined the operas into a
play-within-a-play. “Der
Schauspieldirektor,” which comes first, is about an impresario (Frank, a spoken
role) who is holding auditions for “Bastien und Bastienne.” Making his task
difficult is a pair of rival sopranos, Madame Herz (“Heart” in English) and
Mademoiselle Silberklang (“Silver Tone”), who are in flagrant competition for
the role of Bastienne. Their audition
arias are impressive (and challenging) and they spar colorfully in a trio with
the tenor, Monsieur Vogelsang (“Bird Song”), who tries to end the dispute. In the end, they agree to make peace for the
sake of art.
“Bastien und Bastienne,” which follows after intermission, is about a shepherd and shepherdess (tenor and soprano) who doubt each other’s love. Each asks the village magician (Colas, a bass) for help. Colas knows their fears are unfounded, but he pretends to help them anyway. He does this by fueling their doubts, then casts a “spell” to reconcile them.
Singing Mme. Herz will be soprano Samantha Stein, with soprano Danielle Messina as Mlle. Silberklang and Bastienne, tenor Ryan C. Connelly as M. Vogelsang and Bastien and bass Cesar A. Mendez as Colas and the Impresario.
The goal of Projekt Wolfgang is to fill the chamber opera
gap in Cincinnati. “There are a lot of
lesser known composers and some very well known composers who wrote small
chamber works that aren’t performed,” said López. Chamber opera -- basically opera for smaller forces
-- encompasses baroque opera (Handel, Purcell, Charpentier, etc.), smaller operas
by Mozart and Haydn and a large body of 20th-century and
contemporary works, such as Benjamin Britten’s “Rape of Lucretia” and “Albert
Herring.”
“So few cities have real chamber opera companies,” said López, son of CSO music director emeritus Jésus López-Cobos. “New York has Gotham Chamber Opera, and in Europe, especially France, there are a lot of baroque opera companies. We thought we would take advantage of that because it’s financially viable. In terms of resources, it doesn’t require a huge amount of money, and it’s something that’s realistic to put together in short amounts of time.”
López and Selya, who is pursuing his doctorate in conducting at CCM with Mark Gibson, hatched the idea together, López said. “We have an advantage in that we’re still students, but even if we weren’t, we’re young enough to know a lot of young people who are looking for experience. They’re professional level musicians who are just looking to play. And with what we have raised thus far, we are going to be able to pay them. We’ve basically almost reached our budget, and there’ll be enough to cover costs and pay people.”
López and Selya have done some paring in pairing the two operas. They reduced the roles in “Schauspieldirektor” to four, the Impresario, Mlle. Silberklang, M. Vogelsang and Mme. Herz (there are ten in the original, seven of them speaking roles). And they re-wrote its lengthy text, much of it of no relevance to modern audiences, to give it an up to date context, “not necessarily Cincinnati, but there are a lot of idioms and cultural references to Cincinnati,” said López. “Bastien und Bastienne” remains a pastorale, a very popular setting at the time it was written. “We are juxtaposing a modern setting with something more traditional.”
They gave M. Vogelsang an audition aria of his own, Pedrillo’s “Frisch zum Kampfe” (“Forward to the fray”) from Mozart’s “Entführung aus dem Serail” (The Abduction from the Seraglio”) “so he will have more to sing. It’s completely out of context, but none of those arias have anything to do with the opera itself. They are just audition works,” said López, a CCM composition major who studies conducting with Leonid Grin in Philadelphia. The operas together will run about an hour and a half with intermission.
To bring their project to fruition, “we’re basically doing everything ourselves,” said López. In addition to a conductor’s normal functions, like studying the score, preparing the parts, rehearsing the musicians and conducting the performances, they planned the production (including set and costumes), put together the set, found and booked the venue, did PR and promotion (including distributing posters) and, of vital importance, attracted supporters. Friends who have lent a hand include Laura Jekel, a cellist in Ensemble Vita and program director for Music for Youth in Cincinnati (MYCincinnati). (MYCincinnati is a Price Hill youth development program, based on Venezuela’s famed “El Sistema,” that uses classical music to enrich children’s lives. Information at http://www.pricehillwill.org/MYCincinnati) “The next thing is finding chairs,” López said, with a laugh. (Hoffner Lodge accommodates about 250 people, he said.)
When you’re an aspiring conductor, you must “make your own opportunities,” he said. “That’s the only way to begin, and a lot of people don’t take it seriously. You can’t just say, ‘I want to be a conductor.’ You have to do things yourself.” Working with aspiring musicians is very rewarding, he added, “because they all come and they actually want to play. There’s a lot of good energy there.”
Projekt Wolfgang’s “Der Schauspieldirektor” and “Bastien und Bastienne” will be performed at 8 p.m. June 9 and 10 at Hoffner Lodge, 4120 Hamilton Ave. in Northside. Antoine-Francois López conducts June 9, Isaac Selya June 10. Admission is free. Donations will be accepted at the door for MYCincinnati. There will be a reception following the June 9 performance.
For further information, call (513) 373-9479, 513) 503-8323 or visit Projekt Wolfgang on Facebook.