Get your togas ready, Tufts! "Dido and Aeneas," the Opera Ensemble's first full-length opera performance, will play tonight through Sunday in Distler Performance Hall. Two talented casts will sing the opera, written by English Baroque composer Henry Purcell, during this four-show run.
"Dido and Aeneas", based on a story from Virgil's "Aeneid," tells the tale of Dido, Queen of Carthage, and her star-crossed Trojan lover Aeneas. First performed in the late 1600s, the one-hour work is renowned as one of the top English operas and is a monumental step for the Tufts Opera Ensemble.
In addition to being the first full-length opera staged here, "Dido and Aeneas" will be the first Tufts Opera Ensemble production ever to be accompanied by an orchestra. Past performances relied on a single pianist, but this year, Music Director Steven Morris on harpsichord and five students on string instruments will add their talents to the show. Since operas typically require an orchestra, Tufts directors see this collaboration as a big step forward for the Opera Ensemble.
According to Carol Mastrodomenico, director of the Opera Ensemble, past performances have forgone orchestral accompaniment due to cost and the challenges of coordinating rehearsal times. Budget constraints have also affected the number of production staff available for this year's show, forcing Mastrodomenico and stage manager Johanna Thelin, a senior, to take on many additional responsibilities.
"Opera costs a lot of money, and we have a certain budget which we're grateful for, but if it's going to continue as a tradition, we're going to have to work on expanding it," Mastrodomenico said.
Mastrodomenico chose "Dido and Aeneas" with orchestral accompaniment in mind. She believes it's a "good play to start with" because of its beauty and length.
"It's one of the greatest operas ever written," Mastrodomenico said." It's a very well-known story and is also a short work for our first complete opera; the whole opera takes place in about an hour."
"Dido and Aeneas" will be performed in the Baroque style, with gestures, dance and costumes typical of that period. While many ensembles choose to contemporize the show, Mastrodomenico feels the story loses some of its dramatic effect in modernization. She believes that students will enjoy seeing the opera as a period art form and that the show's plot will be particularly accessible.
"Other operas are more acrobatic," Mastrodomenico said. "This is very text- and drama-based. The music is absolutely stunning, the choruses are very important, and the arias are beautifully written, but drama is very central to the work."
Junior Julia Torgovitskaya plays Dido in the Friday night and Sunday matinee performances. "I think that 'Dido and Aeneas' is a fantastic opera because while it takes place in ancient Greek/Roman times, its storyline is still very poignant today," she said. "It is a story about love, sacrifice, betrayal, destruction, hate, friendship and trust. I think that everyone one of us can in some way relate to all of the characters in this opera."
Junior Caitlin Felsman, who will play Dido on Thursday and Saturday night, agreed that the opera will appeal to most students.
"The emotions are really accessible. Anyone who's ever been in love and broken up can understand what's going on," Felsman said. "This is opera, of course, so it's more extreme and someone dies in the end, but still."
Sharing the lead role has had its own advantages for the two heroines. "I'm happy to share the part; this way, more of us get the opportunity to experience this incredible opportunity to sing such a beautiful role," Torgovitskaya said. "Believe it or not, we have extremely different interpretations of Dido's emotional states and reactions to events throughout the opera. If someone attends each of our performances and gets to watch and hear both of our interpretations, they are in for a very different experience each time."
"Dido and Aeneas" is in English, but understanding the story wouldn't be difficult even if it were in a different language. Felsman said the music alone effectively communicates the characters' feelings.
"I think what opera does is transform human emotion into something that's purely musical. You can feel Dido's angst and pain in her solo, in one chord, in the color of her voice," Felsman said.
Torgovitskaya agreed.
"In opera, there is more of an emphasis on the purity and ring of the voice than in musical theater or a play," Torgovitskaya said. "Don't be fooled, though: Opera is as much about the acting, movement, and expression as it is about creating beautiful music. Where before, opera was mostly about the beauty, brilliance and power of the voice, it is now beginning to increasingly also involve the physical presentation of the music, so there is now more of an emphasis on acting and movement on stage. In our opera, there are even dancers!"
Although this production is not as plush as a professional opera, the costumes and set are duly effective. Most of the cast is dressed in togas and Roman-style sandals, but the leading actresses wear a sensuous gold dress and a black sorceress ensemble worthy of a drama film.
The set is well-adapted to the Distler Performance Hall, and any inconveniences the space may have posed for theatrical performance are well worth it. The sound carries beautifully, and the audience can see the performers from practically any seat.
It may come as a surprise that most of the opera's cast members are underclassmen. Only one senior and two juniors are involved in the show.
"I think incoming classes have more and more kids interested in music. The seniors are busy in other productions and therefore freshman aren't readily cast in those," Mastrodomenico said. "I think we reaped those rewards."
Youth has not prevented the cast from performing admirably. Both Mastrodomenico and Felsman noted how much time students have devoted to the show. "The most rewarding thing has been seeing the students embrace this incredible historical piece of work and change as musicians as well as actors as they've gotten into their characters," Mastrodomenico said.
Torgovitskaya, who plans to pursue a professional career in opera after her graduation, has prepared hard for her starring role.
"We have had a rigorous rehearsal schedule for the past month and a half and it has definitely been paying off," she said. "We all arrived after winter break having memorized our roles, but from that time forward, I have still been working on my role on a daily basis, singing through difficult spots and working hard to establish a true emotional connection to what I am expressing at every instant in the opera."
"Dido and Aeneas" represents a lot of firsts for Tufts. One of these includes a cameo appearance by University President Lawrence Bacow and his wife Adele in the shows on Thursday and Friday. What exactly the Bacows' opera debut will include, however, remains a surprise.
"He should be quite easy to spot," Torgovitskaya said of the president. "It was great fun for us to work with him; he is a very easy-going person and learned his part very quickly!"
For the two leads, playing a powerful woman has also brought its own challenges and surprises. "I've really struggled with being a strong female character without being too abrasive," Felsman said. "It's a really interesting role to have because of Hillary currently running for president. I think female strength is a timeless problem in society."
"To me, Dido represents everything I hope I can someday become: a strong woman who can do her job well but who loves with all her heart and finds it in herself to take the risk of giving herself so completely to another person," Torgovitskaya said. "Singing Dido, I am able to temporarily experience her enormous strength and bravery, her torment as she confronts her inner demons, and her ultimate sacrifice."
"Dido and Aeneas" will run from tonight until March 2. All performances will begin at 8 p.m. except for the one on Sunday, which will start at 3 p.m. Tonight, tickets cost $1 with a student I.D. and $5 without. After that, tickets will be $7 with any college I.D. and $10 for adults, including seniors.
Before each performance, the Early Music Ensemble will perform 17th-century English masque music in the lobby of the Granoff Music Center.
