Music will fill the air at Inspiration Point in Eureka Springs through the next few weeks as Opera in the Ozarks celebrates its 62nd season.
The season features Puccini’s “La Boheme,” Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” and “A Little Night Music” by Stephen Sondheim. The latter was originally written for Broadway and is a crossover show, says Jim Swiggart, general director of Opera in the Ozarks.
Opera in the Ozarks is a training program, and singers age 20-33 audition to participate each summer, Swiggart says.
“It gives them an opportunityto have a life in the arts,” he says.
There are 42 singers this summer, in addition to the professional orchestra and staff. They prepare for one month and then have a month of performances, which continue through July 20.
“The Magic Flute” opens the season. The story is about a person who is under spell, and “all of a sudden a magic flute is the key to everything,” Swiggart says. It is a fun, delightful show with exciting music. He notes the Queen of the Night has an amazing aria.
Ashly Neumann, 26, will be playing Queen of the Night.
Neumann, who is pursuing a master’s degree in vocal performance at the University of Houston, says this role is a “pyrotechnic display forsoprano.” The second aria is for high soprano and is difficult technically to pull off, she adds.
The character is conniving and full of rage and vengeance, and she says it is fun to play the role because it is so different from who she is in her real life.
Another opera in the season is “La Boheme.” Swiggart says it is about four artists starving to death in Paris and love stories develop between the lead roles. It is tragic at times and also passionate. He says it has “probably the best music ever written for opera.”
Neumann plays one of the leads named Musetta. She is the on-again, off-again love interest of Marcello, one of the other principal characters.
She is earthy, flirty and “a little spitfire,” Neumann says.
Musetta and Marcello can’tstop fighting, but they have these feelings for each other they can’t deny. She says people will see a different side to Musetta in Act IV. She searches out her ill friend Mimi and brings her to her love Rodolfo, and a side of her is shown where she’s caring and kind.
“It’s really nice that the character has such a strong arc,” Neumann says.
Neumann says being able to sing two full roles in a summer is huge and it is hard for her to pick a favorite. Since the roles are diverse, she says she really gets “to explore very different things dramatically in these roles.” She adds that the singers in Opera in the Ozarks receive so much one-on-one training, and the experience has been fantastic and invaluable.
Whats Up, Pages 24 on 06/29/2012