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TEACHER RESOURCE GUIDEUniversity Musical Society

2001/2002 Youth Education

Orfeo ed EuridiceAn Opera by Christophe Willibald Gluck, 1762Peter Sparling, Director and ChoreographerMartin Katz, Musical Director

Dance of the Furies, Act II, Scene 2

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This Teacher Resource Guide is a product of the University Musical Society’s Youth Education Program It was prepared by Kristin Fontichiaro and Jennie Salmon and editedby Ben Johnson. Photographs of the May stage production of Orfeo ed Euridice by David Smith. Backstage photographs by Kristin Fontichiaro.

We would like to give special thanks to the sponsors of the University Musical Society’s Youth EducationProgram and selected performances.

Ford Motor Company FundUniversity of MichiganAnn Arbor Area Community FoundationAssociation of Performing Arts PresentersButzel Long AttorneysCafé Marie/David LoeselCFI GroupCharles Reinhart Company RealtorsComerica IncorporatedCommunity Foundation for Southeastern MichiganConsumers Energy FoundationDTE Energy FoundationFord FoundationForest Health Services/Mary and Randall PittmanHeartland Arts FundJazzNet/Doris Duke Charitable FoundationKeybankMASCO CorporationMichigan Council for Arts and Cultural AffairsTHE MOSAIC FOUNDATION (of R. and P. Heydon)National Endowment for the ArtsNew England Foundation for the ArtsOffice of the Senior Vice Provost for Academic AffairsPepper Hamilton LLPPfizer Global Research and Development; Ann Arbor LaboratoriesProQuestTCF BankTexaco FoundationThomas B. McMullen CompanyUMS Advisory CommitteeVisteonWallace-Reader’s Digest Funds

Wallace-Reader’sDigest Funds

umsADVISORY

COMMITTEE

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University Musical Society2001/2002 Youth Education

Youth PerformancesThursday, November 8, 2001

Friday, November 9, 200111:00 am - 1:00 pm

Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor

Orfeo ed Euridice(or-FAY-oh ed yer-ih-DEE-chay)

An Opera by Christophe Willibald Gluck

Peter Sparling, Director and Choreographer • Martin Katz, Musical Director

Euridice’s solo during the Dance of the Blessed Spirits, Act II, Scene 2. Photo courtesy of Peter Sparling Dance Company.

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The Youth Performances of Orfeo ed Euridiceare dedicated to the memory of

Robert E. Meredith, a generous supporter ofthe University Musical Society and

passionate advocate for arts education.

5Table of ContentsOverview

7 The University Musical Society* 8 Overview of Orfeo ed Euridice

10 The Orfeo Cast and Company11 Christophe Willibald Gluck13 Orfeo’s Artistic Team

Attending the Youth Performance* 16 Coming to the Show

About Orfeo ed Euridice* 19 The Story of Orfeo ed Euridice

21 Orfeo’s Historical Context22 Peter Sparling’s Artistic Statement23 Martin Katz’s Artistic Statement

Behind the Scenes25 The Director’s Job Behind the Scenes26 How Does the Set Designer Design?27 A Bird’s Eye View of the Michigan Theater Stage28 How do Costumes Get Made?30 Lighting Design for Opera31 The Orfeo Lighting Plot33 Getting the Lights in the Air34 What is Blocking?35 Blocking Mini36 Stagehands and Stage Management

About Opera38 A History of Opera

* 41 The Elements of Opera* 42 Opera Vocabulary

43 Additional Opera Terms

Lesson Plans and Activities46 Introduction47 Connections to State of Michigan Standards48 Lesson 1: The Director’s Approach to Orfeo

* 52 Lesson 2: Watching the Video60 Lesson 3: Recitative62 Lesson 4: Constellations

* 65 Lesson 5: Literacy and Lyric Composition67 Lesson 6: Civil Rights Connection70 Lesson 7: Civil Rights Connection72 Bibliography/Recommended Reading73 World Wide Web Resources74 Community Resources

IN A HURRY?

*

We have starred

the most

essential pages.

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Overview

Act I Dancers mourn Euridice’s death.

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The goal of the University Musical Society (UMS) is to engage, educate, and serveMichigan audiences by bringing to our community an ongoing series of world-classartists who represent the diverse spectrum of today’s vigorous and exciting live per-forming arts world.

Over its 122 years, strong leadership coupled with a devoted community haveplaced UMS in a league of internationally- recognized performing arts series.Today, the UMS seasonal program is a reflection of a thoughtful respect forthis rich and varied history, balanced by a commitment to dynamic and cre-ative visions of where the performing arts will take us into this new millen-nium. Every day UMS seeks to cultivate, nurture, and stimulate public interestand participation in every facet of the live performing arts.

Since its first season in 1880, UMS has expanded greatly and now presentsthe very best from the full spectrum of the performing arts: internationallyrenowned recitalists and orchestras, dance and chamber ensembles, jazz andworld music performers, opera and theater. Through educational endeavors,commissioning of new works, youth programs, artists, residencies and othercollaborative projects, UMS has maintained its reputation for quality, artisticdistinction and innovation. The University Musical Society now hosts over 90performances and more than 150 educational events each season. UMS hasflourished with the support of a generous community that gathers in AnnArbor’s Hill and Rackham Auditoria, the Power Center, the Michigan Theater,St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, the Museum of Art and the LydiaMendelssohn Theatre. Additional performances are presented in varioustheaters in Detroit.

While proudly affiliated with the University of Michigan, housed on the AnnArbor campus, and a regular collaborator with many University units, theMusical Society is a separate non-profit organization that supports itself fromticket sales, corporate and individual contributions, foundation and govern-ment grants, and endowment income.

The University Musical Society

Burton MemorialTower,

Home of the University

Musical Society

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An Overview of Orfeo ed EuridiceThe Story of Orfeo ed EuridiceIn Christophe Willibald Gluck’s retelling of the Greek myth, Orfeo mourns the suddendeath of his beloved wife Euridice. His mournful music is sostirring that Amor, the goddess of love, gives Orfeo a lyre and asecond chance at love: he may go to the underworld and bringEuridice back to life. However, if Orfeo looks at her, she will dieforever. Orfeo travels to the underworld, where he faces theFuries and finally arrives in the Elysian Fields, a beautiful but stillstrange place in the underworld. Euridice is there, watching thedances of the Blessed Spirits. Euridice is coaxed forward toreunite with her husband. Orfeo and Euridice begin their jour-ney. Euridice grows upset that her husband will not look at herand begins to doubt his true love. Does he turn around to provehis love or save her life by looking away?

What is Opera?Opera is a type of performance that tells a story by linking manydifferent elements. All operas use singing and music to tell thestory. It is very unusual to hear anyone talk onstage during anopera. All operas include singers, an orchestra, design (decidingwhat items decorate the stage), and a story. Many operas arewritten in other languages. The most popular opera languagesare French, German, Italian, and Russian. These four languagesrepresent four different areas where opera was important to people. Hundreds ofyears ago, when there was no TV, radio, video games, or computers, everyone came tothe opera: butchers, queens, dukes, tailors, and neighborhood people. Today, newoperas (many written by Americans like UM’s William Bolcom) are still written andperformed alongside old favorites from centuries past. People who write the music foroperas are called composers. People who write the words are librettists.

What is a Dance Opera?Peter Sparling, the choreographer and director and MartinKatz, the musical director of Orfeo ed Euridice a “danceopera.” Back in the 1700s, when Gluck was writing, it wasvery popular to have the story be interrupted by a dance.People came to the theater to see opera being sung andballets being danced. Usually, the dance was a chance togive singers a break to get some water and rest for a mo-ment. Orfeo ed Euridice has lots and lots of dance music init; in fact, there was so much dance music that Maestro Katzdecided to leave some of it out! (Maestro means “master”in Italian. It’s a word we use when we’re talking to conduc-tors in order to show respect to them.)

Peter SparlingDirector and Choreographer

Martin KatzMusical Director

ChristopheWillibald Gluck

1714-1787

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What are Supertitles?As we mentioned before, many operas are written in other languages. Sometimes,people change the words to English to make things clearer for the audience, but thathas gone out of style almost everywhere in the world. The words in the originallanguage were chosen purposely to accompany the notes being sung. English wordsdidn’t flow quite right. Supertitles were created to copy the words at the bottom of amovie screen when the film is in a foreign language. A special screen gets hung abovethe stage. Two people sit in the lighting booth at the very back of the auditorium. (Ifyou’re lucky enough to sit in the balcony, you can see it along the back wall.) Oneperson follows along in the music and tells the other when to change the slide. Eachslide has an average of 10 words on it. That way, the audience can look up and seewhat the singer is singing about! Supertitles havemade opera much more popular in the United States!

What is a “Pants Role”?In earlier centuries, some men had voices that couldsing as high and as beautifully as a woman’s voice.These men’s voices were considered very beautiful, andmany operas were written for these high men’s voices.However, it is very difficult to find a man whose voicecan still sing that high today. Many roles are nowplayed by women instead. That’s the case with Orfeoed Euridice. Orfeo was sung in the late 1700s by aman, but it is almost always sung by a woman today.We nickname roles like that of Orfeo “pants roles,”because the female singers dress in men’s clothing (pants).

What makes this production of Orfeo ed Euridice unique?This opera has been in planning and rehearsal for nearly two years. It represents acollaboration between UMS and Ann Arbor artists with world-class reputations. At thehelm of the project are director/choreographer Peter Sparling, UM Professor of Danceand Artistic Director of the Peter Sparling Dance Company, and Martin Katz, the UMArtur Schnabel Collegiate Professor of Music and world-renowned opera arranger andaccompanist. Designers Graceann Warn, an artist with exhibits nationwide, andNephelie Andonyadis, UM Costume Design Professor, rounded out the Ann Arborartistic team. The lead roles and dancers live in or near Ann Arbor. The productionincludes two other arts organizations in Ann Arbor: the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestraand the UMS Choral Union. To have every Having so many artists in Ann Arbor

Orfeo mournsEuridice (in shroud)

Act I

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ORFEO ED EURIDICEChristoph Willibald Gluck

PETER SPARLING DANCE COMPANYANN ARBOR SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAUMS CHORAL UNION

Peter Sparling, Choreography and DirectionMartin Katz, Musical DirectionSteven Jarvi, Youth Performance ConductorThomas Sheets, Chorus Master and

Musical Director of the UMS Choral Union

Scott Zielinski, Lighting DesignGraceann Warn, Set DesignNephelie Andonyadis, Costume Design

Principal RolesPei Yi Wang, OrfeoLoren Allardyce, EuridiceKathryn Alexander, AmorMichael Spencer Phillips, JupiterLisa Catrett-Belrose, EchoJulianne O’Brien Pedersen, Euridice’s Spirit and Moon Goddess

Peter Sparling Dance CompanyLisa Catrett-BelroseHolly HobbsLisa JohnsonJulianne O’Brien PedersenMichael Spencer PhillipsTim SmolaMichael Woodberry-MeansAngela YouellsGena Buhler, understudy

The Orfeo Cast and Company

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Every period in history has rebels whose creativity and new ideas move culture forward.In our culture, Madonna is one of those rebels. She is always changing her music andstyle, always presenting something new. When jazz was an early art form, manypeople thought it was so different that it was actually bad!

Chistophe Willibald Gluck (KREE-stoff VEEL-ee-balt GLOOCK)was a rebel, too. He took the existing opera form and turned itinto something completely different.

Gluck was born on July 2, 1714. His father was a gamekeeper,someone who lived on a rich person’s land and took care of thehunting animals on it. He went to school at a Jesuit seminary, akind of Catholic school that was a common form of education inthose days. He also studied in Prague, Czechoslovakia, andMilan, Italy, both of which were very important cities for opera.(These cities were as important in opera as Broadway is for playstoday.) In Milan, he studied with one of the period’s leadingcomposers, Giovanni Battista Sammartini.

Gluck’s first opera, Artaserse, was produced at LaScala, an operahouse in Milan, Italy, that still exists today. This was a very highhonor. In those days, opera wasn’t just for rich people. Peopleof all backgrounds – shopkeeper, student, and countess – wentto the opera like we go to movies today. Gluck was writing likeeveryone else in those days.

Since opera had begun, most composers wrote in the same way. The goal of operawas to create music that would make an opera singer sound like a superstar. It wasn’timportant to act out the story or show the emotions you were singing about. Operasingers were like movie stars – they got their way in opera houses!

Gluck wrote this way for a while, but he didn’t like how fake and artificial operasseemed. He learned about the ideas of the poet Ranieri di Calzabigi, who wrote alibretto (the words to an opera) for him. Calzabigi’s idea was that words and musicshould work together to express an emotion or feeling. If the song was sad, it shouldsound sad. Hopefully, the singer would look sad, and the words would be sad.Everything would agree. So in 1762, the two wrote Orfeo ed Euridice (Orpheus andEuridice). The Orpheus myth was an ancient one, and myths were popular subjects inthis period of music history.

In this ancient Greek myth, Euridice dies unexpectedly. Overwhelmed with grief, Orfeobegs the gods to allow him to go down to the underworld to retrieve his wife. Thegods agree with one condition: Orfeo may not look at her during the journey back tothe land of the living, or she will die again . Orfeo travels down and finds her, but onthe way home, she starts worrying that he’s not looking at her because he has stoppedloving her. Of course, this isn’t true, but Orfeo can’t tell Euridice that. Finally, he can’tstand it. He turns and looks at her. In the traditional myth, Euridice dies again, endingthe story unhappily. Gluck decided to give the myth a happy ending, and the goddessAmor gives Euridice a second chance at life anyway.

Christophe Willibald Gluck, composer

ChristopheWillibald Gluck

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Gluck’s signature

At the opera’s premiere, things started out normally, but what a scandal followed!Things started out normally. The overture (the music that is played before the opera’sstory gets underway) sounded like what they were used to: light, perky, happy notes.But when the curtain went up, the music suddenly became very dark and sad, and thesingers’ voices were sad, and the words were sad. It was like nothing people had seenbefore. At the very end of the opera, Gluck tried to settle the audience down and wentback to the “old,” perky music (In this production, thelights get very bright, and so do Orfeo and Euridice’scostumes), almost as if he was trying to reassurepeople that everything would be OK. Some peoplehated this rebellious opera style, but so much of theopera was so pretty that other composers decided totry the same thing.

Gluck went on to compose other operas that are stillperformed today, including Alceste (1767) andIphegenie en Tauride (1779), which some people callhis masterpiece.

Today, when we listen to Orfeo ed Euridice, the music doesn’t sound cutting-edge, likeit did back then. But just remember that Gluck was the first to try this. You mightknow some of the operas that were inspired by Gluck’s musical “invention.” Mozart’sopera The Marriage of Figaro, Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Donizetti’s Daughter of theRegiment, and Beethoven’s Fidelio all use Gluck’s idea of putting emotion, words, andmusic into one “power-punch.”

THINK ABOUT IT

Imagine that UMS has just hired you to write a new opera.

What myths, books, TV shows, or movies might

you choose as the main idea?

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PETER SPARLING, Choreographer and Director, is a professor and former chair (1988-95) of the UM Department of Dance and also Artistic Director of the Ann Arbor-basedPeter Sparling Dance Company. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and theJuilliard School, he was a member of the José Limón Dance Company from 1971-73and a principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company from1973-1987. He returned to Graham’s company for its Library of Congressperformances of Appalachian Spring in 1998. Mr. Sparling has held resi-dencies at numerous American universities and throughout the world. Heis a recipient of the 1998 Governor’s Michigan Artist Award and awardsfrom the National Endowment for the Arts, Michigan Council for Arts andCultural Affairs, Arts Foundation of Michigan and UM Rackham School forGraduate Studies. Mr. Sparling was a 1996-97 Faculty Fellow at the UMInstitute for the Humanities and 1998 Fellow at the UM Rackham SummerInterdisciplinary Institute. He has worked extensively with composers,actors, visual artists and scientists to create collaborative performanceworks. A writer and poet, he has written performance text and beenpublished.

MARTIN KATZ, Musical Director, has been called “dean of accompanists”by The Los Angeles Times, was the 1998 recipient of Musical America’sAccompanist of the Year Award. He regularly collaborates in recitals andon recordings with opera singers including Marilyn Horne, Kathleen Battle,Cecilia Bartoli, and José Carreras. In his career, he has performed withvocal artists at Carnegie Hall, Salzburg Festival, La Scala, the Paris Operaand the Edinburgh Festival, among others. His work has been recorded onthe RCA, CBS, Cetra, BMG, EMI, Phillips and Decca labels. The Metropoli-tan, Houston Grand and Ottawa Operas have performed his editions ofHandel, Vivaldi, and Rossini. At the University of Michigan, in addition toinstruction in ensemble for pianists, Mr. Katz coaches singers, teaches vocalrepertory, and is a frequent conductor for the School’s opera productions. He is the UMArtur Schnabel Collegiate Professor of Music.

GRACEANN WARN, Set Designer, is an artist residing in Ann Arbor. Her mixed mediaassemblages are shown in galleries throughout the US as well as Great Britain andCanada. Orfeo ed Euridice is Ms. Warn’s first set design project. In this production, sheincorporates her existing design skills as a landscape architect with graduate study inClassical Art and her current studio work. Of the challenge in designing for the theatershe says, “I have always thought of my art as having a physical life that will exist longafter I am gone, but with scene design I must create a visual life that will only remain inthe imagination.”

NEPHELIE ANDONYADIS, Costume Designer, recently moved to California from AnnArbor, where she was a UM Assistant Professor of Set and Costume Design. She hasdesigned sets and/or costumes nationally for a wide range of theaters. Recent projectsinclude designs for South Coast Repertory and Cornerstone Theater Company in south-ern California, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, and the Juilliard School in New York City.She and Peter Sparling have collaborated on Chronicles and Small Comforts and theOrfeo Suite. Ms. Andonyadis is the recipient of a design fellowship from the NEA andseveral UM grants. She has an MFA in Design from the Yale School of Drama.

With scene design

I must create a

visual life that

will only remain in

the imagination.

•

Graceann WarnSet Designer

Orfeo’s Artistic Team

14SCOTT ZIELINSKI, lighting designer, is based in New York City. Prior work in New Yorkhas included designs for Joseph Papp Public Theatre (Drama Desk nomination), Theatrefor a New Audience, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, New York TheatreWorkshop, Ontological-Hysteric Theatre (with Richard Foreman), and Signature TheatreCompany. Other projects have included designs for The Guthrie Theatre, Mark TaperForum (Garland Award), Goodman Theatre (Jefferson nomination), Steppenwolf The-atre Company (two Jefferson Awards), Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, American Reper-tory Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre, Center Stage, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre.Recent choreographic lighting designs have been created for The Joyce, Kennedy Cen-ter Modern Dance Festival (with Twyla Tharp), American Ballet Theatre, National Balletof Canada, Canada Dance Festival, San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, andthe Kansas City Ballet. Mr. Zielinski has worked as Associate Designer toRobert Wilson. Orfeo ed Euridice marks Mr. Zielinski’s first collaborationwith Peter Sparling Dance Company.

STEVE JARVI, conductor of the Friday Youth Performance and assistantmusical director, received a BM in Music Theory and Orchestral Conductionfrom the University of Michigan School of Music where he studied withKenneth Kiesler, Martin Katz, Jerry Blackstone and Katherine Collier. Hehas conducted over twenty concerts in the Ann Arbor area as well as con-certs in the Czech Republic and Great Britain. Mr. Jarvi recently completeda two-year tenure as Music Director of the Michigan Pops Orchestra.

THOMAS SHEETS is Music Director of the 150-voice Choral Union underthe aegis of the University Musical Society (UMS). Under his leadership,the Choral Union expanded beyond its traditional UMS performances tocollaborate with leading regional orchestras including the DetroitSymphony Orchestra. He has prepared the Choral Union for several DSOperformances, including the Chandos recording of Tchaikovsky’s The SnowMaiden, conducted by Maestro Neeme Järvi. Before moving to Ann Arbor, Mr. Sheetswas Associate Conductor of two prominent Southern California choruses, the WilliamHall Chorale and the Master Chorale of Orange County. His editions of choral musicare published by Augsburg-Fortress, and he is a regular contributor of articles on choralmusic performance. Dr. Sheets is a graduate of Chapman University and CSU Fullerton,and received the degree Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of SouthernCalifornia.

DID YOU KNOW?

Costume designerNephelie

Andonyadis and lighting

designer Scott Zielinski

became friends when both

were students at the Yale

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Attending the Youth PerformanceM

itchell Elementary students enjoying the October 2000 UM

S Youth Performance of Balé Folclórico da Bahia

16Coming to the ShowWe want you to enjoy your time in the theater, so here are some tips to make your YouthPerformance visit successful and FUN!

BEFORE THE PERFORMANCEHow do we get off the bus?You will park your car or bus in the place marked on your teacher’s map. Only Ann ArborPublic Schools students will be dropped off in front of the theater.

Who will meet us when we arrive?UMS Education staff will be outside to meet you. They might have specialdirections for you, so be listening and follow their directions. They will takeyou to the theater door, where ushers will meet your group.

Who shows us where we sit?The usher will walk your group to its seats. Please take the first seatavailable. (When everybody’s seated, your teacher will decide if you canrearrange yourselves.) If you need to make a trip to the restroom before theshow starts, ask your teacher.

How will I know that the show is starting?You will know that the show is starting because you will see the lights inthe auditorium get dim, and a member of the Education staff will come outon stage to say hello. He will introduce the performance.

What if I get lost?Please ask an usher or a UMS staff member for help. You will recognizethese adults because they have name tag stickers or a name tag hanging around theirneck.

DURING THE PERFORMANCEWhat do I do during the show?Everyone is expected to be a good audience member. This keeps the show fun foreveryone.

Good Audience Members...• Are good listeners.• Keep their hands and feet to themselves.• Do not talk or whisper during the performance.• Laugh at the parts that are funny.

THINK ABOUT IT

In Orfeo ed Euridice, awoman plays the part of

Orfeo, who is a man.Should the audience say,

“Bravo!” or “Brava!” to thesinger during the curtain

call?

A: Brava. In a curtain call, youapplaud the singer, not the

character.

17• Do not eat gum, candy, food or drink in the theater.• Stay in their seats during the performance.

How do I show that I liked what I saw and heard?As a general rule, each performance ends with applause from the audience. This ishow the audience acknowledges the performers. Applause says, “Thank you! You’regreat!” The louder and longer the audience clap, the greater the compliment it is tothe performers. In opera, people might call out, “Bravo (brah-VOH) !” to a male singer,“Brava!” (brah-VAH) to a female singer, or “Bravi tutti!” (BRAH-vee too-tee) to every-one. If audience members really enjoy the show, they may stand and clap in what iscalled a standing ovation. One person you might not recognize in the opera bows isthe conductor, the person who stood in the orchestra pit and waved his hands so theorchestra and singers would sing and play at the same time. Generally, you can recog-nize the conductor because he is wearing a suit or, at night, a tuxedo. If it’s the firstperformance of a show, the director, choreographer, and designers bow, too!

AFTER THE PERFORMANCEPlease stay in your seats after the performance ends, even if there are just a few of youin your group. Someone from UMS will come onstage and announce the names of allof the schools. When you hear your school’s name called, follow your teachers out ofthe auditorium, out of the theater, and back to your buses.

WHEN YOU GET BACK TO SCHOOLWe want to know what you thought of your experience at a UMS Youth Performance.After the performance, we hope that you will be able to discuss what you saw withyour class. What did your friends enjoy? What didn’t they like? What did they learnfrom the show? Tell us about your experiences in a letter, review, drawing, or othercreation. We can share your feedback with artists and funders who make theseproductions possible. If you had a wonderful time or if you didn’t enjoy the experience,we want to hear your thoughts.

Please send your opinions, letters, or artwork toYouth Education ProgramUniversity Musical Society881 N. University Ave.Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1011Fax 734.647.1171

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About Orfeo ed Euridice(section divider - needs picture)

About Orfeo ed Euridice

Act I, Scene 1: Orfeo begs the Furies to let him into the underworld so he canfind Euridice. Photo by David Smith

19The Story of Orfeo ed EuridiceOvertureThe music is fast and cheerful. Jupiter is the god of the sun. Jupiter’sworkshop is full of strange and marvelous objects. Although it’s early inthe morning, he is full of energy. His assistants help him dress for the day,for he has plans for a game: to bring a story – Orfeo ed Euridice – to life.His dance introduces us to some of the scenes and characters we will meetduring the opera.

Act IUnlike the music in the overture, Act I begins with very slow and sadmusic. A funeral procession crosses the stage bearing the spirit ofEuridice, the beloved wife of Orfeo. Orfeo mourns the loss of his wife withthree short arias. His loss is so deep and his music so beautiful that Amor(ah-MORE), the goddess of love, comes down from the world of the godsto help him. She gives Orfeo a lyre (LIAR – a stringed instrument like ahandheld harp) for his music and a second chance at love: he may go tothe underworld and bring Euridice back to life on earth. However, if Orfeolooks at her or tells her why he cannot look, she will die forever. Thrilled atthe thought of reuniting with his wife, Orfeo’s mood turns from sorrow tojoy. The act ends with celebration.

Act II, Scene 1Jupiter pulls Orfeo in a boat across the River Styx (STICKS), the only way toreach the underworld. Orfeo descends into the darkness, where the Furiesand their dark shadows whirl angrily across the stage. They threaten him,calling upon Cerberus (SER-ber-us), the triple-headed dog/monster thatguards the entrance to the nether world, to rip him to shreds. Frightened,he begs to enter, and the Furies repeat, “No,” until he reaches for his lyreand sings of his love for Euridice and begs for a single moment with her,which is granted at last.

Act II, Scene 2When the lights come up in this scene, the underworld has changed. Thefrightening dark shadows have gone, and in their place are the ElysianFields, a light, dreamy place where good souls live after death and forgettheir troubles in life.. The Dance of the Blessed Spirits begins the act. Evenin this calm forgetfulness, Euridice’s spirit still yearns for Orfeo and joins inthe dance. Euridice herself (Euridice and her spirit are played by twodifferent people) reclines under some trees, watching the dance. The moodis both sad and beautiful. Euridice seems almost in a trance. Orfeo ismesmerized by the serenity. Euridice is coaxed forward by the Blessed Spirits to joinhands and reunite with her husband. Orfeo is careful not to look at her.

JUPITER

Jupiter was the head ofthe Roman gods and

goddesses. The Greeksreferred to him as Zeus.If you look in the score

(the music) for Orfeo edEuridice, you will not

find Jupiter listed as acharacter. So how did he

end up in the youthperformance? Peter

Sparling, the director ofOrfeo, decided to add

him in. Opera directorsoften add non-singing

characters to theirproductions. Jupiter is

portrayed as the sungod. What can you find

on his costume thatshows this?

MichaelSpencer Phillips

as Jupiter

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Act III, Scene 1The stage is set to look like a tiny theater to represent the landscapebehind Orfeo and Euridice as they travel on their journey. Euridice growsupset that her husband will not look at her and begins to doubt his truelove. Remembering Amor’s warning, Orfeo can say nothing. Left alonefor a moment, Euridice expresses her fears. Orfeo returns, and they sing aduet: Euridice wanting a sign of Orfeo’s love and Orfeo torn betweenlooking at her to prove his love or looking away to save her life. Finally,Orfeo, gives in to Euridice and turns to look at her. Euridice collapses anddies. Orfeo blames himself for causing his wife’s death then sings theopera’s most familiar aria, “Che farò senza Euridice?” (What will I dowithout Euridice?). Without his wife, his life is empty . He grabs a daggerto kill himself so he can join Euridice in the underworld. Amor suddenlyappears with her two handmaidens, who stop Orfeo. Amor proves thatshe is the goddess of love by giving Orfeo another chance at happiness.She brings Euridice back to life and reunites the couple. The scene endswith a joyful trio.

Act III, Scene 2At the Temple of the Goddess of Love, Jupiter reappears, his “game” nowover, to lead everyone in celebrating Orfeo and Euridice’s reunion.. A joyfuldance follows, led by Jupiter and the Moon Goddess. Orfeo and Euridicearrive in the boat, wearing sparkling new clothing. Everyone celebratestheir love and good fortune.

Euridice’s dressfor Act III, Scene 2

in the Power CenterCostume Shop

Aria- a song sung by one singer

Duet - an opera song sung by two people together.

Elysian Fields - a place in the underworld where the spirits of very good people are kept.

Gods and goddesses - Some ancient cultures, especially the ancient Greeks and Romans, believed not in one God, as is commonin America today, but in many gods and goddesses that helped humans solve their problems.

Greek - adjective describing things from the nation of Greece.

Lyre - a small stringed instrument like a small harp.

Myth - a story created to explain something in ancient history or a story told to help explain why something is the way it is.

Overture - a piece of music played by the orchestra (no singing) before the opera story begins.

Trio - an opera song sung by three people together.

Underworld - A place under the earth where dead spirits live. Generally, this term is used in Greek myths.

21Orfeo’s Historical ContextIn 1762, when Orfeo ed Euridice had its first performance in Vienna, here is what elsewas happening in Europe and America.

• The United States is still a colony of Britain. The Declara-tion of Independence will not be signed until 14 years later,in 1776.

• Detroit, Michigan, has been founded 61 years earlier, in1701.

• Catherine II, known as Catherine the Great, takes power inRussia.

• The British, under the rule of King George IV, captureMartinique, Grenada, Havana, and Manila, increasing thesize of its empire.

• Seventeen Shakespeare plays are translated into German.

• The Italians are performing slapstick comedies calledcommedia dell’arte.

• Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, Angelica Kauffmann, andFréderic Boucher are painting in Europe.

• Music of Bach, Haydn, Cherubini and Handel is popular.

• Africa is being explored by Europeans.

• The Sorbonne Library in Paris opens.

• Mozart, age 6, tours Europe as a musical genius.

• Benjamin Franklin improves the harmonica, turning it into a practical musicalinstrument.

• In Ironbridge, England, cast iron (a very hard metal) is converted from the first timeinto bendable, shapable iron.

Catherine the Great painting from www.hermitagemuseum.org

JohannSebastian Bach

22

The moment the curtain opens on Orfeo ed Euridice’s sad funeral dirge, the shifting,weighted step of the burdened human body is everywhere. The phrasings of the musicmatch the mourners’ singing, the heavy breath, the halting sobs or long, low lunges ofthe dancers as they create world of sadness around the funeral bier.

Throughout Act 1, Gluck creates a perfect space for the dancing body to tell the story,to show the grief and mystery through which Orfeo mustpass to achieve his fate. By the time we arrive in Act II to thefamous Dance of the Furies – placed back-to-back with theDance of the Blessed Spirits – we have one of the greatestmood swings in the history of music. Here, Gluck allows thedance to tell the story of Orfeo’s inner and outer journey:the shifting extremes of sorrow and joy, fear and terror to akind of blessed and calm forgetfulness. The layers ofdrama, images, and emotion in the opera helped to set thetone for operas for the next 200 years.

In the last scene, Gluck has our original mourners reappearto celebrate a dance of sun and moon, reunion and rebirth,and the second marriage of Orfeo and Euridice. Everythingcomes full circle in this happy-ending version of the tragicmyth.

I have never had an easier time choreographing to music.Gluck has handed me a gift over a 250-year gulf, and I haveseized the opportunity explore its precious and exquisitemusic with a talented team of artistic collaborators,including my company of devoted dancers. The trueachievement of 20th century dance is its expressive range asshown in the dances and the increased physicality and skillof the dancers. Perhaps we are finally prepared to take on,reinterpret and perform musical scores as they never couldhave been before. Some scores do not need our dances; others, like Orfeo, blossominto visual and emotional splendor.

I wish Gluck could be here to see our new production. I wonder what he’d think?

Peter Sparling’s Artistic Statement

Peter Sparlingspeaking to PinckneyHigh School students

about Orfeo

23

Christophe Willibald Gluck was determined to be a well-known and respected operacomposer but seemed trapped by how people composed in the past. Singers andinstrumentalists used music to show off and rarely went deeply into a story or an emo-tion. Gluck wrote 29 operas between 1741 and 1762, but none felt very creative;some were even dull.

Then it happened. His 30th opera was Orfeo ed Euridice, a work whichforever changed opera, if not music altogether. The Greek myth was turnedinto an Italian libretto by Calzabigi, and the story must have inspired Gluck towrite music of incredible beauty. It is not at all like operas that came before it.Its orchestrations were different, and he experimented with music forms aswell. For example, musical pieces of the past might be either arias (a solo) orduets (two people singing), but not both at the same time. Euridice’s aria inAct III, however, is an aria that becomes a duet that later becomes an ariaagain.

Orfeo is simple, not overdone. The music slices right through to the heart ofthe matter; in fact, it is created in a way that makes it almost impossible forsingers and orchestras to show off and leave the story and emotions behind.The vocal ranges are restricted and not particularly challenging. The choraland orchestral music almost readable at first sight. But the simplicity is important, notbabyish. It allows the opera’s message to remain shining and foremost in our mindsand ears at all times. In rehearsals for our May 2001 workshop performance, oursingers and dancers often referred to feeling pure or “cleansed,” for such is the natureof Gluck’s score.

The composer has reasons for varying his style occasionally. The Overture to the opera– which our director has decided to choreograph rather than have it played before aclosed curtain – provides a feeling of celebration, of expectation. One could even go sofar as to guess that the overture had to be extremely cheerful in order to make theopening funeral scene more mournful. Historically, this overture looks back and re-sembles earlier operas by Gluck as well as others. Perhaps Gluck has used it to set acontext for what will never be the same, as if to say, “This is how opera used to be –but here’s what it’s going to sound like now and in the future!”

At the end of Act I, Orfeo sets off for Hades with a confident, no-holds-barred aria ofenormous range and virtuosity. But these techniques, which are never employed againin the opera, fully capture the courage and mission of our hero; simple music would beout of place here and would fail to illustrate the situation. Lastly, the famous ballet,Dance of the Furies in Act Two, provides the orchestra with its most virtuoso measuresin the opera. What else could Gluck have employed to picture this terrifying world?Coming after music of majesty, serenity and simplicity, these cascades of notes from thestrings sound as terrifying today as they did centuries ago.

As Peter Sparling says in his essay, dance had never played such an important role intelling an opera’s story. We have jointly tried to create for you a ballet-opera or anopera-ballet, whichever term you prefer. I believe you will hear text in the dancing andsense movement in the singing. Gluck’s beautiful score has made this possible, and haskept this tale fresh and yet lasting to all who work with it. Working on Orfeo has beena joy for all of us.

Martin Katz’s Artistic Statement

Martin Katz

24

The Costume Shop at Power Center. On the table is Amor’s breastplate; to the right is Jupiter’s breastplate. Their armor is moldedfrom plastic, not metal. In this photo, they have not been painted yet.

Behind the Scenes

25The Director’s Job Behind the Scenesby Royal Opera House Assistant Director Richard Gregson

The director’s most important job is to take an opera from the printed page, interpret it inpartnership with the conductor and colleagues and present it to an audience. This presen-tation should create entertainment, stimulus, challenge, novelty, familiarity, terror, pity, orhumor in varying amounts. The director may share his ideas, or concept, with most of hiscolleagues, but the main responsibility for what happens on the stage remains with him orher. The main responsibility of the conductor is to make musical choices. Although eachhas a specific role, both the director and conductor do give input on each other’s work.

The opera director has to reconcile the needs of the words and themusic as well as overseeing the visual side in partnership with thedesigners. A good designer will have listened to the music and willhave their own opinions. The director must come to terms withthis. He or she may have to act as a go-between the conductor’sview of the opera and the designers’. In all of this, the directorbecomes the binding force.

Arising from the music, there are also some more specific needs.One important one in most operas is that the singer/actor has tokeep in touch with the conductor for much of the time. This is forthe same reason as the orchestral players: they need to play together with great accuracy ,but may be even more difficult for the singer. Sound travels slower than “sight,” and in alarge or even medium-sized theatre the sound from the orchestra would reach the audi-ence and the singer at about the same time. If the singer sang then, he or she would bebehind the orchestra by the time the voice reached the audience. Thus the singer must seethe beat, to sing with it and so keep in time with the orchestra. This puts limits on whatmovements the director can plan. Other restrictions are created by the need of the singerto retain control over breathing and certain muscles (i.e., of the diaphragm).

The chorus is a curious creature. The individuals may each have their own character, but atthe same time they sing as a group. How far should the director emphasize the differenceof the characters? Most of the chorus will need to see the conductor most of the timethey are singing. The needs of the chorus can affect the design of the set, too, and thedirector has to help the designer solve certain problems. In someoperas, the whole chorus has only a few seconds to enter and sing,so the doorways or other entrances need to be placed so that theycan see the conductor immediately on entering.

These are only some of the problems an opera director must faceand solve. But they are also part of what can make opera soexciting and involving. If they are tackled with energy, originalityand honesty they can help the whole show change into a highergear. The music may provide the driving force of the operaticdrama: but the director can bind the many different elements into a whole which createsan experience that all will remember for the rest of their lives.

Edited from Richard Gregson’s article for London’s Royal Opera House at http://www.royalopera.org/Education/EdWelcome.htmPhotos from a Spring 2001 school visit. Notice how the costumes changed for the actual production.

26

The set designer is the person responsible for making decisions about everything placedonstage except for light, costumes, and people. Set pieces can include hanging scenerylike the constellation drop, furniture like the funeral bier, and flat scenery like the shortgray length of columns upstage. For Orfeo ed Euridice, the set designer was GraceannWarn. This is the first time she has been a set designer, but as you will read below, shehas worked a landscape architect and studied art and architecture.

In this passage, Graceann discusses how her background and interestsinfluence her designs.

I create pieces that are half the story. The remaining half is told by theviewer. I try to make work that is like a fragment [tiny piece] of a poem,resonating but never fully revealing itself.

The inspiration for these works comes from myriad [many different] places.My background in urban design and classical art and archeology, togetherwith study and travel in the Middle East, Mexico, Italy and Greece blend afascination with history and am appreciation for the formality of architec-ture, most notably its classical forms.

I love the fact that history rhymes with mystery. Often the two intersect forme. I like to use found objects because their complete history is a mystery. Isave them and raise them to a level of adoration perhaps not known previ-ously. I give them new life, an altered state.

I study history from an archaeologist’s viewpoint. Our information about the past is nevercomplete because new facts can always be unearthed. So even that which we believe weknow is not totally known. History is a mystery. We only know so much. The rest is left inthe ground, shrouded, in the past.

As scene designer for Orfeo, I am embarking on a very exciting artistic journey. My back-ground in landscape architecture and my present life as a studio artist are uniting tocreate a completely new expression.

Overall, the design concepts of Orfeo stay true to the work I do in the studio. However, therealities of scene design present many contrasts. Translating the intimacy of my assem-blages to the large scale of the stage is invigorating. Working as an artist is a solitaryendeavor [a project one does alone], whereas Orfeo is a collaborative one [a project onedoes with a group]. Not only is the creative process an effort among many people, but theactual piece of art onstage will be inhabited by singers, dancers, music, and time.

This may be the most wonderful challenge of all.

How Does the Set Designer Design?

THINK ABOUT IT

How do you

come up with

your creative

ideas?

27

Bird’s Eye View of the Michigan Theater Stage

28How Do Costumes Get Made?1. The costume designer signs a contract to make thecostumes for a show. The contract is an agreement thatsays what show the designer will work on, what the datesare, and the designer’s fee (payment).

2. The director and designers meet to talk about ideas.Their conversations involve what the show will look like, inwhat time period it is set, whether certain colors are goodor bad to use, and whether a costume has to be able to bedanced in (dancing costumes have to be able to movefreely in many directions) or just worn like everydayclothes.

3. The costume designer starts drawing her ideas. Shemight collect drawings, fabrics, or magazine clippings forideas. Then the director approves the designs, and thecostume shop gets started. When she draws her ideas,she might design wigs for the characters as well.

4. The costume shop gets the measurements of eachsinger. The cutter/draper uses those measurements todesign a pattern. Sometimes, they drape the fabric overa mannequin that is the singer’s size. Costume shopshave lots of sizes of mannequins!

5. A version of the costume is made out of an inexpensivefabric called muslin. The singer comes to the shop to tryon the muslin costume. The cutter/draper makesadjustments so it fits just right. This visit is called acostume fitting, or fitting for short.

6. The cutter/draper uses the muslin as a pattern for 7.

4.

4.

29

cutting the real fabric.

7. The stitchers sew the costume together. In Picture 7 onthe previous page, Euridice’s dress for the last scene isbeing worked on to get the bodice (top of the dress) justright. The singer will get another fitting after that.

8. Armor and hats are also made in the costume shop.

9. The costume and wig get taken to the theater andplaced in the dressing room for the performance.

10. The wardrobe crew backstage is now in charge of thecostumes - including the laundry!

10.

9.

9.

9.

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Lighting occupies a unique position in that it interacts directly with all the otherelements. Obviously the visual appearance of the set and costume are determinedby and can be altered by the lighting used. By properly arranging the brightnessdistribution across the performance space, the visual focus on the performers andthe staging can be enhanced and status relationships emphasized. Poor lighting canleave actors struggling to communicate and the audience struggling tounderstand the story. The timing and pace of lighting changes adds adynamic structure. The lighting may appear to be led by the music butsometimes the lighting will appear to lead.

It is impossible to avoid making decisions about lighting design even ifthey are made by default. Performing in daylight will be different to per-forming under whatever artificial light is available in the space. Since youcan’t avoid lighting, why not engage with it? Theatre lighting equipmentgives the opportunity for sophisticated control and a great deal of varietybut it requires time, resources and some technical expertise to use. Desklamps, clip-spots and flashlights all give different qualities of light and canbe used with color gels (thin colored plastic placed in front of a whitebulb, making the light look like different colors).

Light is such a powerful tool for creating theatre that even very simplevariations will enhance a performance. There aren’t any rules, thoughsome books on lighting may inspire you to try different styles and give youideas for how to use different lights. The main thing is to gather somelight sources and experiment.

Nick MacLiammoir is a freelance lighting designer in the UK.

This article was written for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, England.http://www.royalopera.org/Education/EdWelcome.htm

by Royal Opera House Lighting Designer Nick MacLiammoirLighting Design for Opera

Since you can’t

avoid lighting,

why not engage

with it?

•Nick MacLiammoir

31The Orfeo Lighting PlotScott Zielinski, the lighting designer for Orfeo ed Euridice, used many different kinds oflights to create the lighting design for the production. He and Peter Sparling, thedirector, agreed that light was a powerful way to show emotion. Lighting can also beused to hide something else that is going on. By lighting one part of the stage andleaving another part dark, the dark part is “hidden” from the audience.

Unlike everyone else in the cast, artistic staff, production staff, orchestra, and crew,Scott does not live in Ann Arbor, so it wasn’t possible for him to see every rehearsal.Yet he had to turn in his light plot (a drawing of the theater that showswhere each light should be placed) before he ever saw a rehearsal. Howdid he do that?

Peter (the director/choreographer) made many video tapes of rehearsals tosend to Scott and talked on the phone and via e-mail so they could shareideas. Graceann and Nephelie (the set and costume designers, respectively)sent copies of their drawings, including small pieces of fabric calledswatches, so Scott could learn what colors were being used and decidewhat colors he needed to put into his lights.

In the theater, it took over three days to get the lighting ready for a re-hearsal. Nearly two full days were spent hanging the lights, which meansputting up lights in the theater according to Scott’s plot or map. Next,each light had to be focused. Electricians (stagehands that work withlighting equipment) got up on tall ladders and pointed the lights whereScott asked them to. Next, Scott and the Master Electrician worked withthe light board, a special computer that controls the lights. He had todecide which lights to use in which places. Every time he changed thelights, it became a cue. Later, the cues were given to the stage manager,who wrote the cues in the music so she could tell the light board operatorwhen to push the computer button and change the lights. You can see cues in thelesson plans.

Look at the Michigan Theater when you see the youth performance and try to figureout where the lights are coming from. If the top of someone’s head is well lit, the lightis probably above them onstage. If the sides of their bodies are well lit (this is muchmore important for dance than for other art forms), the lights are probably hanging ona tall pole called a boom in the wings. If you can see the singers’ faces well, they areprobably being lit from a light hanging off of the audience balcony railing.

A stage light gives off bright white light, but it’s pretty unusual to see a show just withwhite lights. Sometimes, lights have a “gel” in them. A gel is a thick piece of coloredplastic; gel comes in literally hundreds of colors. When the gel is placed before a light,the light turns the color of the gel.

Another thing that can be placed in front of a light is a template (also known as agobo). A template is a kind of metal stencil. If the template has a star shape cut intoit, the light will appear in the shape of a star. There are just a handful of templates inOrfeo -- can you find them? Common templates make shadows representing windowsor the shadows of leaves on trees.

Light - a

powerful way

to show

emotion.

32

Keep your eyes open for times when the area around a singer is just a little bit brighterthan the rest of the stage. Chances are, you’re looking at a followspot (also called aspotlight). These are special lights that can move around and “follow” an artist acrossthe stage. It takes one person to run each spotlight, and there are two spotlights inOrfeo ed Euridice.

The entire light plot is not in this guide, but part of it is shown here. This is the key tothe light plot. Each shape represents a different kind of lighting instrument.

A triangle drawn inside a lighting instrumentmeans there is a template or gobo in it.

Putting stripes in the lighting instrument means it will beplaced along the floor. This is important for directors toknow so his singers and dancers know not to bump into it!

Cyc (pronounced sike) lights sit on the floor ofthe stage and light up the backdrops frombelow.

A ministrip is a narrow box of lights that sits onthe floor and lights up backdrops. Look for two ofthese at the beginning of Act III.

If you put a real lamp, like a desk lamp or an electric candle,onstage, it is called a practical.

Two very small lights.

This is a large fresnel (fruh-NELL). Likethe par can, you can’t change the shapeof the light beam. A scroller is attachedto each that allows each light to flipthrough three colors of gel, depending onhow the cue is set in the light board.

Par can. This light is used a lot for rock-and-roll shows. They’re popular for touringconcerts because you can hang them fast. Youcannot change the shape of the light beam.

Various kinds of lekos (LEE-kohs). Lekosare lights that have flaps in front of themso you can adjust the size of the beam.Lekos can be as small as 18” or as largeas almost 3 feet.

“Position in Plan” means to look carefully on the planand make sure the light is placed exactly as drawn.

33Getting the Lights in the AirBefore a show is brought into a theater, it iscompletely empty. There are no lights hangingabove the stage.

The job of the master electrician and otherelectricians is to look at the lighting designer’splot (drawing showing where the lights go) andput the lights where they belong with the rightcolor. This is called “hanging the show.” In the first picture, the bigboxes have lights in them. The master electrician, Ellen Katz, is lookingat the light plot and deciding where the crew should start its work.

After the lights are “in the air,” the designer gets involved. He comes inand tells the electricians where each light’s beam should be pointed.Some lights have little door flaps on them thatcontrol how big the light beam will be. In thesecond picture, an electrician is leaning over thebalcony railing to adjust lights hanging there.(These lights are lekos - can you find theirsymbols on the plot key?)

Now that all the lights are ready, the lightingdesigner, master electrician, director, and stagemanager sit at a big table in the auditorium and start deciding whichlights to use in each scene and how bright they should be. The masterelectrician puts all of the designer’s decisionsinto a light board computer, shown in the thirdpicture. This is called “cuing.” At the sametime, the designer tells the stage manager wheneach cue (lighting change) should be “called.”The stage manager marks the cue in her score(book that has the music of the opera in it) soshe calls it at the same time. The masterelectrician runs the light board and is in charge of fixing problemsduring the show.

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One of the first questions performers get asked is, “How do you remember what to doonstage?” In many operas, singers learn as many as four hours’ worth of movements,so someone has to keep track of what the director is asking the singers and dancers todo. Often, cues (see Orfeo Light Plot article) are based on when and where people are.

Two people take responsibility for writing down where people move, which is calledblocking. Blocking is always written in pencil, because singers and directors spendweeks of rehearsal figuring out exactly which positions are the best ones.

In Orfeo ed Euridice’s case, the key person for recording blocking was the assistantdirector, whose job it is to help the director carry out his/her vision. The assistantdirector needs blocking in case a singer gets sick and a new one need to be trainedquickly and to have a record of all of the staging. Singers also use the assistantdirector’s blocking notes when they forget something they’re supposed to do. Videotapes are also helpful for jogging people’s memories.

However, stage managers fill out blocking as well, mostly to help with cues (see OrfeoLight Plot article). Often, lighting designers change the look of the lights based on aparticular action ormovement.

One of the easiestways to keep trackof the movementsis with a “mini,” aminiature birds’-eye view of thestage. The mini onthe next pagecomes from Act II,Scene 2, andrecords the move-ments of Euridicewhen she wandersamong the danc-ers. In a blockingbook, there is amini on one sideof the binder andthe music on theother, so theperson taking theblocking can see both at once.

Everyone who takes blocking does it a bit differently. Some people use no minis butwrite the movements in the music. Some people create symbols for each character;others use initials. When the French take blocking, the symbol of the heart meanschorus, because the French word for heart (coeur - pronounced ‘ker”) sounds almostexactly like the word for chorus (choeur - pronounced “core”). As long as the blockerunderstands the codes, it can be a successful system.

What is Blocking?

Blocking notes often tell where someone is onstage or where a singer isheading. In opera, it is common to divide the stage into nine sections.Downstage refers to the audience side of the stage (they usually sit “down”from the stage). If Orfeo (O) sings downstage center, then turns and exits(EX) upstage right, a stage manager might abbreviate and write:

O turn, X UR, EX

These abbreviations helpstage managers and assistantdirectors to write a director’sideas down quickly duringrehearsal.

Stage RightSR

UpstageRight

UR

UpstageLeftUL

UpstageCenter

UC

DownstageLeftDL

DownstageRight

DR

Stage LeftSL

DownstageCenter

DC

Orchestra Pit

Center StageC

35

This mini is labeled with the Act and scene.

The CL symbol stands for “center line.” Itdivides the stage in half. The other two slashmarks are called “quarter lines,” because theydivide the stage into quarters. See how mathcomes in handy? Dancers use these marks tospace themselves out properly.

This reminds the stage manager which backdrop is inthe scene.

This shows where the ground row goes. Remember the cyclights from the lighting diagram? They go here! Euridice’s bower, a sort of bed made from branches. There are

no symbols on it, so no one is currently sitting on it.

These are legs, black drops that hidethe lights and wings from theaudience.

The shaded areas show where theproscenium arch is onstage. Theproscenium is the “picture frame”around the stage.

Symbol for a female dancer.

Symbol for a male dancer.

The line with the arrow shows the directionin which Euridice moves as well as the pathshe takes.

Cypress legs - thin piecesof scenery shaped likecypress trees.

ES is the code for the dancerplaying Euridice’s spirit.E is the code for the singer playingEuridice.

These notes explain what is going on onstage andare abbreviations. Sometimes, movements aredecided faster than someone can write them downin sentence form. This means, “Euridice’s spiritleads Euridice up left (meaning towards the upperright-hand corner of the drawing) through thedancers.” Of course, someone else might have acompletely different set of abbreviations!

Blocking Mini

36

Stagehands (also called “the crew”) are the behind-the-scenes people whose effortsmake the show come together. Stagehands for UMS events are members of the unioncalled IATSE, the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees. Stagehandswork in many categories:

• PROPS people deal with the “properties” of a show, which include things performershold in their hands (the lyre and the knife, for example), furniture and furniture-likeitems onstage.

• RAIL HANDS pull the ropes that make the scenery “fly” on and off stage from the“ceiling.”

• CARPENTERS move scenery on and off stage that doesn’t fly.

• The WARDROBE CREW makes sure every costume piece is clean and in good condi-tion for the show. They help change performers’ costumes, especially if there is very littletime! Their day can include anything from sewing on abutton to washing dancers’ tights. They always have safetypins attached to their clothes for emergencies! In Orfeo andmany other shows, the wardrobe crew helps with wigs and/ormakeup, too.

• ELECTRICIANS hang the lights, operate the spotlights,make the supertitle projector run, and control the light boardcomputer.

• SOUND ENGINEERS are important to opera. Nobody inopera uses a microphone, but the sound engineer’s job is tomake sure that special speakers broadcast what the orchestrais playing onto the stage. Believe it or not, sometimes it’sharder for an onstage singer to hear the orchestra than anaudience member sitting in the balcony! The monitors, asthey’re called, help the singers hear and stay on beat.

• The SUPERTITLES TEAM projects English translations ofwhat the opera singers are singing in Italian. Many operas are written in other lan-guages. Supertitles were created to copy subtitles, the words at the bottom of a moviescreen when the film is in a foreign language. A special screen gets hung above thestage. Two people sit in the lighting booth at the very back of the auditorium. (If you’relucky enough to sit in the balcony, you can see it along the back wall.) One personfollows along in the music and tells the other when to change the slide.

STAGE MANAGERS are not part of the stagehand union. They work with the design-ers, technical directors (who supervise the stagehands and the construction and execu-tion of the set), and administrators to make sure everyone knows what is going onduring rehearsals and the performance. Stage managers take blocking, set up therehearsal room, even play the part of a singer who might be absent. Onstage, the stagemanager’s job is to keep rehearsals running smoothly, to follow the music and call thecues, and to make sure the show looks like the directors and designers intended. Stagemanagers are responsible for making emergency decisions as well. It is their job to callthe cues at the right time; the stagehands’ job is to carry out the cue.

Stage Management and Stagehands

Cal Hazelbakeron the rail

37

About Opera

Orfeo and Euridice by Eugeniusz Waniek (1933 - 1997)1989www.curiositel.tm.fr/ waniek/c33_g.gif

38

Opera’s first great composer was Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1634). He usedhis talents as composer and dramatist to elevate the operatic form. He alsoelevated the importance of the orchestra above the typical function of servingas mere support for the vocalists. The foundations of the bel canto (beautifulsinging) style, stressing precise, phrased and sung melody, along with theroots of opera buffa (comic opera) can be traced to Monteverdi. Monteverdi’sbest known operas are Orfeo (different from Gluck’s Orfeo) and The Corona-tion of Poppea.

Monteverdi’s pupil, Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676) further developed theopera buffa style. Cavalli is often considered the first ‘popular’ opera com-poser and helped in the evolution of the overture (the orchestral introductionto the opera). Cavalli’s influence extended to French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully(1632-1687), who developed a distinctive French style of opera. His works are structuredand formal, designed to please the tastes of an aristocratic audience. His successor, Jean-Phillippe Rameau (1683-1764), loosened the restrictions of the French opera and gavethe instruments an identity separate from the voices. He also advanced the French ver-sion of the recitative, (half-spoken, half-sung text inserted between musicalnumbers).

Most early German opera was influenced by Italian composers who took upresidence in Germany. Reinhardt Keiser (1674-1739) united achievements ofFrench and Italian opera with German qualities, specifically bringing changesto the aria (a solo piece written for a main character).

Back in Italy, Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) perfected many devices ofItalian opera - including the da capo (from the beginning) aria where twocontrasting sections of music are followed by a repetition of the first section,sung the second time with improvised vocal embellishments. Display of thevocalists was prominent in this form of opera.

George Frederic Handel (1685-1759), a German composer living in England, was a greatexponent of opera seria. His operas, where singing rather than drama was the focalissue, were enthusiastically received in London. His works are based on historical,mythological, or legendary subjects which suited the tastes of the aristocrats.His operas Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar), Agrippina, and Ariodante remain intoday’s operatic repertoire, but he is best known for his oratorio The Messiah,performed at UMS each season since its founding in 1879.

Christophe Willibald Gluck changed the face of opera by uniting emotionand musical style with Orfeo ed Euridice.

Opera seria was dominant in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century.Eventually, the overemphasis on vocal display and ornate melody becametiring and brought about a major opera reform. The music and dramaticaction were simplified and the music began to closely reflect the situations ofthe story. The orchestra now played a greater role in the production.

A History of Opera

George Frederic Handel

Claudio Monteverdi

Alessandro Scarlatti

39Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), considered one of opera’s greatest figures, wasa master of the opera seria. He also composed both the Italian opera buffa and theGerman Singspiel (comic opera with spoken dialogue). Mozart’s charactersexpressed different thoughts simultaneously as he united elements fromserious opera and comic opera with dramatic music and technical genius.Mozart’s best-known operas are Così fan tutte, The Marriage of Figaro, andThe Magic Flute.

Mozart’s tradition was carried on by Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868). Bestknow for his bubbly comedy (especially The Barber of Seville), Rossini was aprolific composer. His last work ushered in opera’s Romantic era to whichVincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) and Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848),composer of Daughter of the Regiment, were the successors.

While Mozart and Rossini ushered in the nineteenth century in Germany andItaly, Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842) laid the framework to make France thecenter of operatic activity for the next fifty years. His works are based onclassical subjects and he marks the dividing line between Classical opera and Romanticopera.

The opera-lyrique style of French opera originated in the nineteenth century.This opera form is intimate and deals with sentimental subjects, rather thanhistorical events. Charles Gounoud (1818-1893) was one of the firstinterpreters of ‘opera-lyrique’ with operas like Faust and was followed closelyby Georges Bizet (1838-1875) whose Carmen caused an uproar in Frenchsociety because of its controversial main character.

By the end of the eighteenth century Russian opera had only begun to appear.Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881), best known for his orchestral workPictures at an Exhibition, composed starkly realistic stage works, that weremystical and dramatically effective. Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) typically set his operas in romantic fairy-tale kingdoms. Piotr IlyichTchaikovsky (1840-1893), whose ballet The Nutcracker is a holiday favorite,represented the Russian school of European opera using much orchestrationand melodrama.

France dominated opera in the first half of the nineteenth century, butGermany and Italy led the latter half of the century. German Romanticopera emphasized myths, legends, nature and the supernatural. Carl Mariavon Weber (1786-1826) and Richard Wagner (1813-1883) are two of themost famous German opera composers. Wagner wrote his own librettos(the text to the opera) and based his music on leitmotifs, musical passagesthat represented a person, object, or situation and would be repeatedthroughout the work. With operas including The Ring Cycle, Tristan andIsolde, and Die Miestersinger, his influence was so great that opera in thelate nineteenth century was divided into “Wagnerian” and “non-Wagnerian”.

Guiseppe Verdi (1813-1901) was the Italy counterpart to Wagner. Hisscenes of intimacy and grandeur flowed naturally into each other withoutinterruption. Shakespeare was the inspiration for many of Verdi’scompositions, including Macbeth, Otello and Falstaff (based on The Merry

Charles Gounod

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

40Wives of Windsor), but La traviata is perhaps his most-performed work.

At the end of Verdi’s career there occurred an Italian opera rebellion againstthe stilted conventions of traditional opera. This group of composers, calledverismo (realism) called for operas which portrayed peasants and ordinarypeople in real-life situations. Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) is closely tied toverismo. Setting his operas in a small cabin and Wild West saloon in The Girlof the Golden West or an office in Tosca grounded opera and made it seemreal.

Early twentieth century German composers such as Der Rosenkavalier’sRichard Strauss (1864- 1949) and Lulu’s Alban Berg (1885-1935)augmented opera with new ideas. Dissonance, non-melodic and non-tonalmusic began to be used in these modern operas.

In early twentieth century France there was a complete break with Germanoperatic traditions. Claude Debussy (1862-1918), with orchestral works likeLa Mer (The Sea) and the opera Pelléas and Melisande, founded the Impressionistmovement composing music with sensuality, symbolism and subtlety. Maurice Ravel(1875-1937) and Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) also composed works withgreat emotional strength.

Twentieth century opera has also blossomed under Soviet composers, DimitriShostakovich (1906-1975), Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953 - his balletCendrillon is on this year’s UMS Youth Performance roster) and IgorStravinsky (1882-1971). Shostakovich angered Soviet officials with hiscompositions of dissonance and driving rhythms. Prokofiev lived abroad for aperiod of time and incorporated European ideas into his music. Stravinskylived in America for a time and wrote, with poet W.H. Auden, The Rake’sProgress, in English.

The composer known for establishing opera in English was Benjamin Britten(1913-1976). His works are traditional with recurring themes and tonalwriting. Gian Carlo Menotti (b. 1911 - Amahl and the Night Visitors), and SamuelBarber (1910-1982 - Antony and Cleopatra) along with Virgil Thomson (b. 1896) andCarlisle Floyd (b. 1926 - Susannah) have all produced operas in English that havefurthered the acceptance of English as an operatic language.

Opera continues today to thrive as modern day composers provide new worksfor the genre. Important operatic composers of the past twenty years includeJohn Adams (b. 1947), whose best-known work, Nixon in China, was basedon the historic 1972 presidential visit, and John Corigliano (b. 1938 ), whocreated The Ghosts of Versailles, loosely based on the characters seen inRossini’s The Barber of Seville and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Recently,UM Composition Professor William Bolcom’s new opera MacTeague premieredat the Lyric Opera of Chicago. This centuries-old musical form will continue todevelop as these talented composers add to the repertoire.

Composer images for this section come from www.azopera.com, the website for the Arizona Opera. Monteverdi image from www02.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/qa2/ naomi-s/monteverdi.htm. Handel image from web.nwe.ufl.edu/~craddock/ biogs.html. Corigliano photo from www.fsu.edu/~musicps/events/ fnmprogram.html.

Carlisle Floyd

Giuseppe Verdi

John Corigliano

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Opera has frequently been called “all the arts in one” because of its comprehensive useof drama, music, dance and the visual arts. All of these elements must work togetherfor a performance to be successful.

Drama comes into play through the libretto, the story or text of the opera. Sometimes,the libretto is adapted from a novel or play, but most often it is written in the form of aplay or poem before the composer writes the musical score.

The music in opera production has two distinct elements: vocal and instrumentalperformance. The singers are the most important parts of theopera. A singer needs complete control over his or her voice, andmust be able to maintain the energy needed through a two-or-three hour performance. Singers must be able to project theirvoices over an orchestra and be heard and understood as well asbeing strong actors. The orchestra is there not only to accompanythe singers, but also to add the drama and illustrate the action onstage. In early opera, the orchestras were small and remained onstage throughout the show. As orchestra size grew and as moreemphasis was placed on visual aspects, the orchestra was movedinto a pit, an area below and in front of the stage.

Some form of dance is used in most operas today. Professionaldancers are frequently hired by opera companies. The dances canrange from simple folk dances to more complicated nationalisticdances to ballets. Orfeo ed Euridice, like many operas of its day,has significant time devoted to dance.

The visual aspects of opera are the sets, costumes, scenery,lighting and make-up. These are created by artists who specializein bringing visual elements of opera stories to life. Often, theexpense of scenery and costumes is so great that opera companies can afford to addonly one or two new productions to their schedules each year. A recent developmentin opera is co-production, a collaboration between two or more opera companies on asingle production. Existing productions are also rented from other opera companies.Orfeo ed Euridice is a new production. Everything was built in Ann Arbor. Nothing wasrented except for the supertitles.

While all of these elements are vital to opera production, it should be remembered thatthey all work together or form an integrated whole. Opera can be seen as yet anotherway of communicating ideas to a large audience, so every element must deliver thesame message. As each element grows more powerful, the potential for expressionalso grows. Since opera combines so many media (music, acting, etc.) which can eachsend messages individually, it is easy to see that it contains great communicationcapabilities when all the elements are working together.

Sources: New York City Opera Education Department and Edmonton Opera

The Elements of Opera

Detail fromOrpheus in the Underworld

by Jean Delville(1867-1953)

www.artmagick.com/

42Opera VocabularyAn opera is a story, a play set to music, so some of the terms and elements of an operaare the same as for a play. Both are performed on a stage. The physical elements onthe stage, including the drops (painted fabric), create the set. Small items the singers/actors use, such as a book, a fan, a note, are called properties, or props, for short.Sometimes dramatic special effects are also used - effects that look like fire, fog,storms, smoke or explosions!

Opera has two main components: the music and the libretto, the words of theopera. The person who writes the music is the composer, and the person who writesthe words is the librettist.

Singers and the parts they sing are designated by gender and singing range. A femalesinger who can sing very high notes is called a soprano. She should be able to hit highC with power and projection. Some sopranos are able to reach E above high C. Amezzo-soprano has a range a little below a soprano. She is not able to sing as highbut can comfortably hit lower notes. An alto is a woman who sings the lower range.The woman with the lowest range is called a contralto.

Men who sing highest are called tenors. A tenor should be able to hit high C. Forsome reason, the tenor is most always the operatic hero, the one who “gets the girl.”In the range beneath the tenor we have the baritone. The men who sing the lowestare called bass (pronounced ‘base’). An opera bass must be able to sing E below thestaff, again with power and projection.

In earlier centuries, some men had voices that could sing as high and as beautifully as awoman’s voice. These men’s voices were considered very beautiful, and many operaswere written for these high men’s voices. However, it is very difficult to find a manwhose voice can still sing that high today. Many roles are now played by womeninstead. That’s the case with Orfeo ed Euridice. Orfeo was sung in the late 1700s by aman, but it is almost always sung by a woman today. We nickname roles like that ofOrfeo “pants roles” because the female singers dress in men’s clothing (pants).

The opera singers are accompanied by an orchestra which usually plays in a sunkenarea in front of the stage, called the orchestra pit. Before the singing and actionbegins, the orchestra plays an introduction to the opera called the overture,introducing the musical themes that will appear later.

During the opera, a singer may sing a solo, or sing alone. When a main character singsa solo, it is called an aria. Music for two singers is called a duet. A group of three ormore is called an ensemble. In operas, large groups of singers portray groups orcrowds of unnamed characters. These groups and the music written for them arecalled the chorus.

The last, or final, musical number of an opera is the finale. The chorus and all of theprincipal characters (who have not died) are onstage and sing together in a final,rousing, dramatic conclusion.

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Acoustics - the science of sound; qualities which determine hearing facilities in anauditorium, concert hall, opera house, etc.

Act - a section of the story usually followed by an intermission. Acts are sometimesbroken into smaller sections called scenes.

Artistic director - person responsible for the artistic concept of the opera: the overalllook and feel of the production.

Backdrop - the curtain at the back of the stage which can be painted or left plain;helps to set a mood.

Backstage - the area of the stage not visible to the audience, usually where thedressing rooms, extra scenery, and crew are.

Bravo or Brava or Bravi - Italian shout of approval meaning “Well done!” See page 12for how to use these terms during the opera!

Choreographer - The director of the dancers.

Chorus master - person who prepares the chorus musically (rehearses and directsthem).

Composer - a person who writes the music for the opera.

Comprimario - a small singing role, often a servant or other minor character. There areno comprimario roles in Orfeo; all of the soloists sing major roles.

Conductor (musical director) - person who leads or conducts the orchestra andsupervises all musical details, including rehearsals. Conductors make decisions abouthow loud, soft, fast, and slow the music should be.

Costumes - clothing which is used to define the time period and individual singer’spersonalities.

Designer - the person who creates the lighting, costumes or sets.

Diaphragm - the muscles which separate the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity;used by singers for breath control; allows them to “project” their voices to the back ofthe auditorium.

Director - the person who instructs the singer/actors/dancers in their movements onstage and in their interpretation of their roles.

Downstage - the front of the stage nearest the audience.

Duet - A piece of music sung together by two people.

Additional Opera Terms

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Flats - stretched canvas and wood panels on which scenery is painted.

Full dress rehearsal - the final rehearsal before opening night with all singers present infull costume.

Leitmotif- a repeating musical phrase used to identify a person, event or idea.Pronounced LIGHT-moh-teef

Motif - a short musical idea on which a melody is based. Pronounced moh-TEEF.

Opera seria - literally “serious opera;” opera form of 17th and early 18th centurieswith subjects of death, revenge and danger. Pronounced OH-peh-rah SEH-ree-uh.

Pants role or trousers role - the part of a male character sung by a woman, usually amezzo-soprano. This term got its name because women wore men’s pants and not awoman’s dress to play the role. Orfeo is a pants role.

Principal - a major singing role, or the singer who performs such a role.

Proscenium - the structure or “picture frame” that surrounds the stage, often calledthe proscenium arch.

Recitative- musical singing in the rhythm of speech. Pronounced reh-sih-tah-TEEV inEnglish or reh-chih-tah-TEEV-oh in Italian.

Role - the character that a singer portrays.

Score - the music of an opera or other musical work where parts for differentperformers appear vertically above one another.

Sitzprobe- a sit-down rehearsal where the performers sing with the orchestra for thefirst time. German for “sit and practice.” This rehearsal is almost always onstage butwithout costumes, scenery or props. Pronounced ZITS-probe.

Stage left - left side of the stage from the performer’s perspective as they face theaudience.

Stage right - the right side of the stage from the performer’s perspective as they facethe audience.

Trio - A piece of music in which three singers sing at the same time.

Upstage - the part of the stage furthest from the audience.

Wings - the sides of the stage where the performers wait before making theirentrances.

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Lesson Plans and Activities

Orpheus returning from the Shades by William Blake Richmond (1842-1921) Oil on canvas, 1885Royal Academy of Arts, London, England

46IntroductionThe following lessons and activities offer suggestions intended to be used in preparation for the Youth Performance. Teachers may pick and choose from the cross-disciplinary activities and can coordinate with other subject area teachers. The lesson plans are meant as aids or guideline. You may wish to use several activities, a single plan, or pursue a single activity in greater depth, depending on your subject area, the skill level or maturity of your students, and your intended learner outcomes.

Learner Outcomes·• Each student will develop a feeling of self-worth, pride in work, respect, appreciation and understanding of other people and cultures, and a desire for learning now and in the future in a multicultural, gender-fair, and ability-sensitive environment.

•·Each student will develop appropriately to that individual’s potential, skill in reading, writing, mathematics, speaking, listening, problem solving, and examining and utilizing information using multicultural, gender-fair and ability-sensitive materials.

•Each student will become literate through the acquisition and use of knowledge appropriate to that individual’s potential, through a comprehensive, coordinated curriculum, including computer literacy in a multicultural, gender-fair, and ability-sensitive environment.

Mingus Big Band Youth Performance , January 2001

47Connections to State of Michigan StandardsEnglish Language Arts

Standard 5: LiteratureAll students will read and analyze a wide variety of classical and contemporary literature and other texts to seek information, ideas, enjoyment and understanding of their individuality, our common heritage and common humanity, and the rich diversity of our society.• Later Elementary: Describe how various cultures and our common heritage are represented in literature and other works.• Middle School: Identify and discuss how the tensions among characters, communities, themes, and issue from literature and other texts are related to one’s own experience.• High School: Describe and discuss archetypal human experiences that appear in literature and other texts from around the world.

Standard 6: VoiceAll students will learn to communicate information accurately and effectively and demonstrate their expressive abilities by creating oral, written, and visual texts that enlighten and engage an audience.• Later Elementary: Identify the style and characteristics of individual authors, speakers, and illustrators and how they shape text and influence their audiences’ expectations.• Middle School: Compare and contrast the style and characteristics of individual authors, speakers, and illustrators and how they shape text and influence their audiences’ expectations.• High School: Analyze the style and characteristics of authors, actors, and artists of classical and masterpieces to determine why these voices endure.

Social Studies

Standard I-2: Comprehending the PastAll students will understand narratives about major eras of American and world history by identifying the people involved, describing the setting, and sequencing the events. • Later Elementary: Identify and explain how individuals in history demonstrated good character and personal virtue.• Middle School: Select conditions in various parts of the world and describe how they have been shaped by events from the past. Use historical biographies to explain how events from the past affected the lives of individuals and how some individuals influenced the course of history.• High School: Select events and individuals from the past that have had global impact on the modern world and describe their impact.

Standard I-3: Analyzing and Interpreting the PastAll students will reconstruct the past by comparing interpretations written by others from a variety of perspectives and creating narratives from evidence.• Later Elementary: Use primary sources to reconstruct past events in their local community.• Middle School: Analyze interpretations of major events selected from African, Asian, Canadian, European and Latin American history to reveal the perspectives of the authors.• High School: Challenge arguments of historical inevitability by formulating experiences of how different choices could have led to different consequences.

48Mathematics

Standard I-1: PatternsStudents recognize similarities and generalize patterns, use patterns to create models and make predictions, describe the nature of patterns and relationships, and construct representations of mathematical relationships.• Elementary: Use patterns to describe real-world phenomena.• Middle School: Describe, analyze and generalize patterns arising in a variety of contexts and express them in general terms.• High School: Use patterns and reasoning to solve problems and explore new content.

Standard II-1: Shape and Shape RelationshipsStudents define spatial sense, use shape as an analytic and descriptive tool, identify characteristics and define shapes, identify properties and describe relationships among shapes.• Elementary: Recognize and name familiar shapes in one, two and three dimensions such as lines, rectangles and spheres and informally discuss the shape of a graph.• Middle School: Derive generalizations about shapes and apply those generalizations to develop classifications of familiar shapes.• High School: Compare and analyze shapes and formally establish the relationships among them, including congruence, similarity, parallelism, perpendicularity and incidence.

Science

Standard II-1: Reflecting on Scientific KnowledgeAll students will analyze claims for their scientific merit and explain how scientists decide what constitutes scientific knowledge; how science is related to other ways of knowing; how science and technology affect our society; and how people of diverse cultures have contributed to and influenced developments in science.• Elementary: Show how science concepts can be interpreted through creative expression such as language arts and fine arts.• Middle School: Show how common themes of science, mathematics, and technology apply in real-world contexts.• High School: Show how common themes of science, mathematics, and technology apply in real-world contexts.

Standard IV-3: Motion of ObjectsAll students will describe how things around us move and explain why things move as they do; demonstrate and explain how we control the motions of objects; and relate motion to energy and energy conversions.• Elementary: Describe or compare motions of common objects in terms of speed and direction.• Middle School: Qualitatively describe and compare motions in three dimensions.• High School: Describe that whenever one object exerts a force on a second object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first object.

49Lesson 1: The Director’s View of OrfeoPurposeTo introduce the audience to the director, Peter Sparling, and to help them see the production through his eyes.

MaterialsCopies of Handout: The Director’s Approach

Procedure1. Pass out the handout to the class. Read it individually or as a group

2. Discuss how the director’s synopsis and description of the production is different from the others you have read and heard. Possible discussion points include: • Which ideas seemed the most interesting? the least? Why? • Peter Sparling talks about stories around a campfire. Do we have a similar kind of activity in the 21st century? What would it be? (i.e. telling ghost stories, watching movies, etc.) • Are there modern myths, stories that aren’t necessarily true but are told anyway? Stories that many people know? (Think about urban legends, rumors being spread, or fairy tales.)

Peter Sparlin\ director and

choreographer

50HANDOUT 1: The Director’s ApproachBy Peter Sparling

Imagine yourselves gathered at night around a campfire, seeing shapes in the dancing flames and telling ghost stories or strange tales of a hero’s adventures. What superpowers does your hero have? What dark, hidden part of the universe is he traveling in? What unheard of feats does he accomplish?

Human beings have always told stories to one another. Even in ancient Greece, 5,000 years ago, people created fantastic stories called myths to explain the puzzles and mysteries of the universe. These myths told the stories of a family of gods and goddesses who had extraordinary powers but who often behaved very much like human beings. The Greeks believed that these heroes wandered the skies as constellations of stars, or lived on top of the impossibly high Mount Olympus, or dwelled deep below the earth’s surfaces in the depths of the oceans. Every once in a while, these gods and goddesses involved themselves in the world of humans. They saved and assisted humans in times of trouble, and they scolded or punished them if they were displeased with something humans did. In order to share the myths with each other, the Greeks invented theatre, the art of telling stories through dramatization on stage. The Greeks had a profound understanding of human nature and of human weaknesses, of what makes us mortals and not superheroes.

Much later, in 1762, the German composer Christophe Willibald Gluck decided to take a well-known Greek myth, Orfeo ed Euridice, and write an opera about it. In his life-time, opera was used to tell stories the same way Greek theatre told stories 5,000 years earlier. But because the myth expressed so much about human nature, it was loved just as much by Germans in the 1700s as the Greeks in 3,000 BCE. Gluck’s production was performed for the first time in Vienna, Austria, and the opera’s style was very new and different for its time. It tells the story simply without complicated plot twists, and it has a flowing melody that allows time for the music, voices and dancing to bring the story to life. The singers sing in Italian, and at the first performance, the leading role of Orfeo was sung by a man with a very high voice. Today, a woman with an alto voice usually sings this role.

Orfeo ed Euridice is the tale of the young man Orfeo, a mortal with a divine gift for making music. He was such a fine singer that even the gods marveled and were charmed by his music. When Orfeo’s beloved wife, Euridice, was bitten by a snake and died, the echoes from Orfeo’s sad singing were heard by the gods and moved them to tears.

Amor, the goddess of love, looked down in sympathy and gave Orfeo permission to free Euridice from the land of the dead. Orfeo was to be the first living human to enter the dark side where only spirits or the dead wandered. There was one condition: Orfeo could never look at his wife as she followed him up to the land of living. If he does, she will disappear forever.

Before our hero can pass safely through the underworld to retrieve his beloved wife, he must use his music to convince the Furies to let him pass. The Furies who guard the underworld are angry, vengeful creatures, the spirits of hot, burning flames rising up from pits of lava. After frightening poor Orfeo nearly to death, the furies grant Orfeo safe passage. Walking out of the darkness, Orfeo arrives in the underworld and looks upon the most beautiful, surreal scene he has ever laid eyes upon.

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The spirit of Euridice wanders in this world, having lost her memory of her time alive. If you close your eyes, you can see her searching through the groves of trees, along the meandering brooks, across the green fields, searching for something, some previous life she once knew. Orfeo awakens Euridice out of her trance but quickly turns his face away so as not to see her. As she follows Orfeo on the long journey back to the surface of the earth, she cannot understand why he will not look at her. She begins to doubt his love for her and begs him to prove his love by looking into her eyes. What would you do in a bind like this? Turn to assure her you loved her, or keep moving ahead? Would you choose to risk losing her love, or her life?

Many of the Greek myths have sad, tragic endings, perhaps more often than happy ones. The traditional Greek version of Orfeo ed Euridice is no exception. In the original version of the story, Orfeo cannot resist his wife’s tortured pleas, and he finally turns back to look at her. Euridice immediately is swallowed back into darkness. Orfeo remains standing alone, crying out “What shall I do without Euridice? What shall I do without my love?” Orfeo, broken-hearted, sings his heart out, believing he has lost Euridice forever.

Gluck, however, had different ideas for the end of his opera. As he sings of his mistake and his mistake made in a moment of weakness, the beauty of his voice once again moves Amor. The goddess graciously decided to bring Eurydice back from the underworld and returns her to Orfeo.

The musical score, the traditions of dance and music, of staging, costuming, lighting, all weave together to preserve these beautiful visions and worlds and to pass on timeless stories from one generation to the next. Music speaks with or without words from the heart, the soul and the imagination. Dance speaks from the body and the emotions, from gesture, body language, and it also communicates deep feelings like the music and voice.

What can we learn from this story? The power of art, of music? Or perhaps it makes us wonder what each of us will do to find our creative music, our soul, our heart, the love inside us, when we feel it is lost? Are we capable of sustaining faith that it will follow us if we go seeking for it, if we go deep into ourselves to draw it back out? Do we all have inside us the doubts that Euridice expressed? Do we all have both Orfeo and Euridice inside us, when we question our hopes, our love, and our reason for being alive?

These are big questions, the questions that all great art, literature, philosophy and religion have asked for centuries. Perhaps we need not go so deep or read into the meaning of the Orfeo myth. We can simply thank Gluck for his opera and allow ourselves to sit back and be moved by the music, dancing, costumes, sets and lights. The next time you look into the flames of a fire, you may be inspired to write your own stories, draw your own pictures, sing your own songs, and pass them on to your friends, your children and the world.

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PurposeTo introduce students to the plot of Orfeo ed Euridice

MaterialsVideo of Orfeo ed EuridiceVCR and televisionOne of the handouts found on the following pages: Watching an Opera - for younger students A Close Look at Orfeo ed Euridice - for older students

Procedure1. View the video, either scene by scene or in its entirety. Use the scene by scene description found on page 20 in this guide.

2. Divide the class into small groups or have students work alone.

3. Ask students to use what they have learned to answer the questions on the handouts.

4. OPTIONAL: Ask students to make a creative presentation based on what they’ve viewed. Students might write a newspaper article, create a news show, recreate what they’ve seen, interview a character, make comic strips, draw pictures of each scene, etc. (UMS loves to see student work, so if something turns out great, we hope you’ll send us a copy!)

Lesson 2: Watching the Video

53

Characters 1. Who are the characters in the story?

2. On another page, draw the major characters (Orfeo, Euridice, and Amor).

Plot1. What happens in the story? Make a list of the major events in the order in which they happen in the story.

Setting1. Where does the story take place?

2. On another page, draw a picture of your favorite scene.

Exposition1. How did the story begin?

2. How were the characters introduced?

Climax 1. Was there a high-point in the story where the story became more exciting? Where?

2. Did the story have surprises? What kinds?

Conclusion1. How does the story end?

2. Is there a lesson that the story teaches you?

Vocabulary1. What new words did you learn from the story?

OPTIONAL: keep a running list of new vocabulary words and create dictionaries with the definitions or characters.

HANDOUT 2a: Watching the Video

54Handout 2b: A Close Look at Orfeo ed EuridiceQuestions about the Overture

1. How many characters do you see onstage? Which one(s) look(s) the most important?

2. What items do you see onstage?

3. How does the dance correspond with the music?

Questions for Act I (Funeral)

1. Where does this act take place? What clues are onstage to help you?

2. How does the movement of the dancers and chorus help you know what mood they’re in?

3. What is a shroud?

4. Who is in the shroud?

5. What is a lyre?

6. Why does Amor give Orfeo the lyre?

7. Why does the mood change from sad to happy?

Questions about Act II, Scene 1 (Underworld)

1. Where is the boat going? What is that place?

2. Who is in the boat?

553. Who is pulling the boat?

4. What piece of scenery shows us that Orfeo is going down into the Underworld?

5. Where does this scene take place? How did you figure this out?

6. There is very little scenery onstage. What colors are used in the costumes and lights to explain the location?

7. What is the mood of this scene? How can you tell?

8. What is Orfeo trying to do in this scene? Does he succeed?

Questions about Act II, Scene 2 (Elysian Fields)

1. Where does this scene take place? How is this place significant?

2. How is it different from the previous scene?

3. Who do we meet for the first time in this scene?

4. Which dancer represents Euridice’s shadow?

5. What is the mood of this scene? What in the scenery, costumes, and lights tell you this?

6. Does Orfeo succeed in getting Euridice back?

Act III, Scene 1A (The Journey – staged as if in front of a theater)

1. Why does Orfeo refuse to look at Euridice?

2. Why does Euridice get upset that Orfeo won’t look at her?

563. This scene is unusual because its scenery isn’t as easy to figure out. Why do you think the set designer made the landscape framed by a proscenium arch (a proscenium arch is the “picture frame” around a stage)?

Act III, Scene 1B (The Ramps and the Boat)

1. What happens to Euridice when Orfeo looks at her?

2. How does Orfeo react to that?

3. Who stops Orfeo from acting on his emotions?

4. Who appears to fix the situation? What does (s)he do?

5. The scenery includes the skeleton of a boat. Why do you think the director and designer wanted it there? Does it relate to the other boat we’ve seen? How?

Act III, Scene 2 (Finale)

1. What is the mood of this scene?

2. Describe the costumes you see. How are they different from the costumes seen throughout the opera?

3. What is added to the boat to make it look more festive?

4. The opera ends with a happy ending, but in the original Greek myth, Euridice is not brought back to life at the end. Which ending would you choose if you were writing a new opera about Euridice and Orfeo?

57Answers for Handout 2aCharacters1. Jupiter and his assistants, Amor and her handmaidens, Orfeo, Euridice, the chorus, Euridice’s spirit, the Moon Goddess, Orfeo’s Echo.

2. Students might draw Orfeo as having a long braid, grey or silver suits, laurel crown, and lyre. Euridice might appear with a white dress, laurel crown, or silver strapless dress. Amor might appear with her breastplate and large Gibson girl wig. Or they just might be redesigned by a child’s imagination.

Plot1. Refer to The Story of the Opera on pp. 19 and 20.

Setting1. Answers might include a funeral, the underworld, outside for the trip home, and in Jupiter’s workshop.

2. (Drawings will vary.)

Climax1. Was there a high point in the story where it became more exciting? Where? Answers might include the arrival in the Underworld, Euridice joining hands with Orfeo, Euridice doubting Orfeo’s love, or Euridice’s second death.

2. Orfeo gets past the Furies, but no other mortal can. Euridice dies again and then is brought back to life. The music between Act II, Scene 1 and Act II, Scene 2 is a big change. Amor appearing in the branches in Act I and on the ladder after Euridice’s death.

Conclusion1. Euridice is brought back to life, and everyone celebrates. 2. Possible answers: True love triumphs over bad events. Stay loyal. You can conquer your fears. If you are a good person, good things will happen to you.

Vocabulary1. Answers will vary.

58Answers for Handout 2bOverture1. Jupiter, 2 of his assistants, Amor, and 2 of her assistants for a total of 6. Jupiter appears the most important.

2. Stage drop with windows, plumb bobs, pedestals, ladder, lyre, Jupiter’s costume, etc.

3. The dance seems to be in the same rhythm with the music.

Act I (funeral)1. At a funeral. Lights are dim, dancers’ heads are covered with black veils, the body is laid out on the flat funeral bier, and the music is slow and sad.

2. They move slowly and sadly.

3. A large piece of fabric used in ancient times to wrap a dead body.

4. Euridice’s spirit.

5. A small stringed instrument like a small harp.

6. As a reward for being such a wonderful musician. He will need it for his trip to the underworld.

7. Because Orfeo is being given a second chance with Euridice.

Act II, Scene 1 (Underworld)

1. The boat is crossing the River Styx, which divides the world of the living from the underworld, the world of the dead.

2. Orfeo.

3. Jupiter.

4. 3 black ramps. (Because the lighting is dark, they are hard to see.)

5. In the Underworld. The music is scary, the Furies move angrily, and the backdrop glows like something is on fire.

6. Red, orange, and dark yellow.

7. Angry. You can tell because of the music, the colors, the dark lights, and the dancers’ movements.

8. Orfeo is trying to get the Furies to let him through to the Elysian Fields. Yes.

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Act II, Scene 2 (Elysian Fields)1. The Elysian Fields. It is significant because it is the serene place where the souls of good people end up.

2. The music is no longer fast and angry; it is slow and calm. The underworld was dark; the Elysian Fields are white and bright. The costumes change from very dark to very light.

3. Euridice.

4. The main dancer who has a solo.

5. The mood is calm and peaceful - almost too calm and peaceful. The scenery is very symmetrical and orderly. The costumes are simple and do not draw attention to them. The lights feel like daylight.

6. Yes.

Act III, Scene 1A (The Journey - staged as if in front of a theater)1. Because if he looks at her, she will die again.

2. She thinks Orfeo isn’t looking at her because she doesn’t love him.

3. Answers will vary. Maybe to show that this is still a play and not real? To emphasize how unnatural the situation is?

Act III, Scene 1B (The Ramps and the Boat)1. She dies.

2. He is heartbroken and wants to die so he can join her in the underworld.

3. Amor and her handmaidens arrive and take the knife from him.

4. Amor. She lets Euridice come to life for a second time.

5. Answers will vary.

Act III, Scene 21. Triumphant, joyful, happy and exhilarating!

2. The colors are brighter. Some of them glitter.

3. A garland of flowers and the lyre.

4. Answers will vary.

60Lesson 3: RecitativePurpose For students to gain a greater understanding of the opera concept of recitative and the story of the opera.

MaterialsOrfeo ed Euridice videoHandout from following pages

Procedure1. Begin by introducing the term recitative. Sometimes in opera, the characters’ singing seems different. There is no long aria (solo) by one person or no long duet or trio or quartet for a group. Instead, each singer sings a short line and another singer responds with a short sung line. In some operas, like The Magic Flute, they might actually stop singing and talk to one another. When any of the above happens, it is called a recitative (reh-sih-tuh-TEEV). People in opera sometimes nickname it recit (REH-sit).

2. Choose a recit to explore. It may be helpful to point out that the character name Amor means Love. Orfeo ed Euridice has two very important recits: Amor giving Orfeo a chance to rescue Euridice in Act I and Euridice being concerned that Orfeo doesn’t love her anymore in Act III, Scene 1.

3. Divide the class into pairs. Ask each student to take a part and work as pairs to figure out the scene.

4. After 5 minutes, ask the students to switch roles.

5. When students have gained confidence in the scene and the characters, ask them to do a “dress rehearsal” for performance to the class. At this point, they are ready to choose which student should play which role. A few theatrical reminders: • Actors must speak loudly so everyone in the room can hear them. • Actors should show the side or front of their bodies to the audience, not their back. • Audience members should follow the UMS guidelines (you may wish to choose one or two).

Just like at a UMS Youth Performance, good audience members … • Are good listeners. • Keep their hands and feet to themselves. • Do not talk or whisper during the performance. • Laugh at the parts that are funny. • Do not eat, gum, candy, food or drink during a performance. • Stay in their seats during a performance.

6. Ask students to perform for the class. Consider taking volunteers first. Many reluctant performers gain confidence if allowed to watch first.

7. Immediately following each performance, ask the audience suggest at least three things they liked

8. Closure/extension activity: Ask students to watch the overture on the video WITH THE SOUND OFF. (It is at the very beginning of the video.) Ask them to write a recit that might have been performed by the people onstage during the overture.

Lesson Plan by Kristin Fontichiaro, UMS Youth Education Manager

61HANDOUT: ScenesACT I: AMOR GIVES ORFEO ANOTHER CHANCE WITH EURIDICE\(19 minutes into Act I)

Orfeo (alone): Oh, stars! I’m so unhappy to have lost my wife. Help me find my wife, the woman I love!

Amor (entering): (to the audience) I, Love, will help this unhappy husband! (to Orfeo) I will rescue you from your unhappiness. Go! Go and find Euridice in the underworld.

(in the video, Amor’s aria is inserted here)

Orfeo: Stars! I’ll be able to see her again?

Amor: Yes. Listen. Listen well, Orfeo! If you look at your wife, you will lose her forever! This is the rule you must follow if you want Love to bring Euridice back to life.

ACT III, SCENE I: EURIDICE DOUBTS ORFEO’S LOVE (beginning of Act III)

Orfeo: Come! Follow my steps, my true love!

Euridice: It’s you? Or am I just dreaming?

Orfeo: Yes, my love, it’s me, and I am still alive. I went to the Elysian Fields to find you, and you were brought back to life.

Euridice: I’m still alive? You’re still alive? How?

Orfeo: You’ll know everything later.

Euridice: How amazing . . . but . . . why won’t you look at me? Don’t you love me anymore?

Orfeo: (to the audience) I can’t tell - I promised!

Euridice: Just look at me for a moment

Orfeo: (to himself) I can’t tell, or she’ll die again.

Euridice: You’re cruel! You’re a barbarian!

Orfeo: Come with me. Come with your husband.

Euridice: No. Love is more important than being alive with you. Leave me in peace

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Lesson 4: ConstellationsPurpose To help the students understand the connection between the opera production, Greek mythology and constellations by designing their own star systems.

MaterialsHandout on next pageblack construction paperchalk, gel roll pens, or any other writing tool that will show on black paperpaper hole punchers and scissors or pencilsan overhead projector or fluorescent lights

Procedure1. Pass out copies of the Constellations Handout to each student.

2. Use the material on p. 61 to teach the students about Orfeo’s lyre and how Greek mythology explains it became a constellation. Also discuss the other constellations and the myths or traditions behind them.

3. Discuss the various characters from the opera (Orfeo, Euridice, the furies, etc.) and what traits or characteristics distinguish them. If the students were to design their own constellations, which character would they choose to base it on?

4. Pass out the project materials to each student.

5. After selecting a character, have the students begin designing their own constella-tions. Use the paper hole punch and scissors or pencils to make the stars on the black construction paper. The chalk or gel roll pens can be used to connect the stars and clarify the design and to label them. To encourage the students to create more abstract designs, consider limiting the number of stars the students may use. We recommend ten.

6. To display the constellations, turn off the lights and project them on an overhead projector. If fluorescent lights are available on the ceilings or walls, the students may enjoy pasting their constellations on top of them.

7. Give each student the chance to explain their design, why they selected a particular character, how they chose to portray them, etc.

Lesson plan by Jennie Salmon, UMS Education Assistant

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Constellations are groups of stars that form a shape. Throughout history, people have named constellations according to what the shape looked like. For example, you probably recognize the constellation pictured below as the Big Dipper. In England, however, the same constellation is called the Plough.

Many constellations receive their names from Greek mythology. In fact, the constellation called the Lyre is associated with the legend of Orfeo and Euridice and has a interesting background.

According to Greek mythology, the lyre was invented by Hermes. As a child, he created it by pulling a cow-gut across a tortoise shell. Hermes gave this lyre to his half-brother, Apollo (both were fathered by Zeus). As the god of music, Apollo became associated with the instrument.

Apollo gave the instrument to Orfeo when the hero was still a young child, and the Muses taught him how to use it. He became such a talented musician that even Nature herself would stop to listen, enraptured by his music. When Euridice, the wife of Orfeo, died and was taken to the underworld, Orfeo followed in hopes of bringing her back. His playing moved Hades so greatly that he agreed to release Euridice, providing Orfeo did not look back at her during their journey home. However, just as the hero emerged into the sunlight, he turned and gazed upon his wife. She was immediately taken back into the underworld and was lost to him forever.

There are several versions about the death of Orfeo. In the most widespread version, the goddess Dionysus invaded Orfeo’ home, and he was torn apart by her followers. His lyre, interestingly enough, was thrown haphazardly into a river, where it floated to Lesbos, near the temple of Apollo. Apollo then convinced Zeus that the instrument should become a constellation. That way, everyone who saw the shape of the lyre in the night sky would remember Orfeo and his moving music. Zeus agreed, and he placed the lyre between the shapes of Hercules and Cygnus in the sky.

HANDOUT: Constellations

The Big Dipper

The Lyre

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There are many other constellations named after characters from Greek mythology. Another very famous myth that explained constellations is the story of Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia. .

Cassiopeia believed that she and her daughter were more beautiful than any of Poseidon’s sea nymphs, and she taunted the God of the Seas until he lost his patience. Poseidon punished the vain mother by chaining her daughter to a rock to be sacrificed to a dreadful sea monster.

Perseus, the hero famous for slaying the Gorgon Medusa, saw their distress. Attracted by Andromeda’s beauty, and no doubt eager to take advantage of a potentially heroic opportunity, he agreed to rescue her - but only if he could marry Andromeda afterwards.

Cepheus and Cassiopeia were not anxious for their daughter to wed Perseus, but they had little choice, so they agreed. Perseus skimmed over the water, confused the monster, and then cut off the its head. The wedding followed soon afterwards.

At the wedding Casseopeia’s relatives distrupted the proceedings, probably at her insistence. In the confusion and fighting that followed, both Cassiopeia and Cepheus lost their lives. Poseidon put them both in the heavens. Much later Athene put Andromeda in the same region of the sky, between her mother and father.

Lesson 5: Literacy and Lyric Composition

Andromeda

65Lesson 5: Literacy and Lyric CompositionPurposeTo explore the relationship between visual, aural (heard), and written expression in the arts by composing original lyrics that relate to the imagery students see and hear from Orfeo ed Euridice.

MaterialsEnclosed video of Orfeo ed Euridice Enclosed listening tape with selected phrase of music neededEnclosed phrase of written music

Procedure1. Watch the video of Orfeo ed Euridice paying particular attention to the beginning of Act II, Scene 2, ‘The Dance of the Blessed Spirits.’

2. Discuss, either in small groups or as a class, what the dancing and visual imagery in ‘The Dance of the Blessed Spirits’ is trying to illustrate. Make a list of words and emotions that best describe what this scene is about.

3. It may be necessary to watch the scene a second time in order for students to articulate what they see in words.

4. Listen to the selected phrase of music from the scene on the audio tape. What kind of imagery is heard within the music alone? How does the music make you feel? What sort of story does the music tell?

5. Discuss and compare the visual imagery in the video and the aural imagery in in the listening tape. Do they work together to express a story? How can you describe what you hear and see in words?

6. Have each student develop an original situation or story that they think this scene is about. What words would accompany this music and dance?

7. Using the enclosed music sheet have the students write their original lyrics to the phrase underneath the music. NOTE: In order to do this, students must break words up into one syllable per note to fit the music. Additionally, it may be necessary to play the music multiple times in order for students to fit their lyrics to the music.

Lesson plana dapted by Ryan Steinman, UMS Education Assistant

66HANDOUT: Be a Librettist!Some parts of this opera do not have words. What if they did? Assigning words to music is the job of the librettist.

Using the cassette the teacher has for the class, write some opening words to this music, The Dance of the Blessed Spirits, from Act II, Scene 2.

HINT: One thing that helps librettists make the words fit is to place one syllable with each note.

If you finish early, you might want to work backwards. Now use the words you wrote to help you compose a piece of music of your own!

67Lesson 6: Civil Rights ConnectionPurposeTo help students understand how civil rights issues affect the arts.

MaterialsHandout 5 - Shirley Verrett: Opera Trailblazer

Procedure1. Distribute the Shirley Verrett handout to each student.

2. Read the handout as a class or individually.

3. Discuss the article as a group. Some possible discussion topics include: • What obstacles did Shirley Verrett face to achieve her goals? What obstacles do you face while trying to achieve yours? • How does Shirley Verrett use her talent as a singer to take a political stand? How do her actions affect other people she meets in the “opera world?” • How did the civil rights movement affect opera and opera singers?

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One of the behind-the-scenes coaches of Orfeo ed Euridice is world-famous opera soprano Shirley Verrett, the James Earl Jones Distinguished University Professor of Music at the University of Michigan. Ms. Verrett came to many staging rehearsals; her student Loren Allardyce sings Euridice. Ms. Verrett has recorded that role herself. Professor Verrett is known for her spectacular voice and for being a pioneer in breaking opera’s color barrier.

In this interview with John Ardoin, from Aida’s Brothers and Sisters: Black Voices in Opera, produced by PBS’ Great Performances series, Ms. Verrett discusses her career and the obstacles over which she triumphed.

Was your first goal to sing opera?Not really, although I was put into the opera department at the Juilliard School in New York when I studied there. But because of my religious upbringing, I was not interested in opera. I thought only in terms of concert work. My goal was to be a concert singer like Marian Anderson, and I undertook my first recital tour in 1960, which, incidentally was in the South, just after my graduation.

Was there still an atmosphere of prejudice there?Yes there was. I remember Maestro Leopold Stokowski wanted to hire me as a soloist with the Houston Symphony at the time, but his Board rejected the idea because I was black. I guess they did not want to see a black face among all the white faces in the orchestra, because back then, our orchestras were not yet integrated .

But what about the recital tour?Actually, there were no blatant problems, although my mother was worried about me. She thought I was too outspoken and might get into trouble. But my father said it was a good thing to do, for young blacks would see me, and this would give them courage. So, I decided to go. I did insist that I be met at the airport and taken to wherever I would be staying, which, of course, was usually a private home, because, even at that time, not all hotels were open to blacks. I also told the sponsors that I was not there to fight any battles, but that I would not sing before a segregated audience. And they did try to honor my requests. The one thing I do remember was that in certain places there were still water fountains labeled “white” and “black,” and my accompanist, who was also black, said to me in one place, “I think I will go and drink some ‘white’ water!” And he did, but no one said anything.

You were born in the South — New Orleans — weren’t you?Yes, but when I was young my father moved us to California. At that time, the Civil Rights movement was nowhere in sight, and he decided he did not want his children to grow up in the same atmosphere [in which] he had been raised. He didn’t want us to feel that because of our color we were somehow

HANDOUT: Shirley Verrett: Opera Trailblazer

Miss Verrett in performance

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inferior and have a chip on our shoulder. It was a very significant moment in my life, but little did we know that we would also have to face prejudice in California. But at least it was not overt . It was more hidden.

Was this also the case after you moved to New York, to go school there?It was. For example, if I was by myself, I couldn’t get a cab. But if my husband, who is white, would flag one, it always stopped. Then, I particularly remember when we were trying to find a new apartment. We would make an appointment on the phone to look at a place, but when we arrived, and they saw us, suddenly it was no longer available. But these were problems faced by all blacks. On the whole, as a per-former, I think I have been lucky, for I heard some real horror stories from other of my black colleagues.

What do you think is the role of the artist politically, whatever their race might be?If I had not been a singer, I possibly would have been out there marching and carrying a placard. But because I was an artist, I tried to make a statement with my dignity and my art. But having said that, I knew my life couldn’t be just music. Because of my color, I was representing my race. And I felt the way I could best represent it was to be the best I could be.. . . I think there is still a lot to be done. But I cannot lose track of what has been done. I see this better than the younger generation, who were born in a world where everything has already been fought for. But I also think we have to be very diligent and not become overly complacent . We still find examples of terrible prejudice every day, and we must fight these with every ounce of our strength. What we have won is too precious to take for granted.

Text and photos from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/aidas/meet.html

Dr. Shirley Verrett, UM Professor

70Lesson 7: Be a ChoreographerPurposeFor students to use their math and science skills of pattern and mass to increase their understanding of the choreographer’s role.

MaterialsHandoutCopies of pp. 34 & 35 of this guide (What is Blocking? and Blocking Mini)Pencil

Procedure1. Ask students if they know what a choreographer is. Many know from church or private dance instruction that a choreographer is the person who designs where dancers stand, what their bodies should look like, how much space a dancer or dancers should take up onstage, and the type of energy with which a dancer might move. (For example, is the dancer in a hurry or dancing slowly? Agitated or calm? Flowing or sharp?)

2. Discuss how, in this opera, the choreographer uses his eight dancers (two soloists -- Jupiter and Euridice’s Spirit/the Moon Goddess) to create different patterns. In Act I, for example, they make a funeral line two-by-two and later create a half-circle around the funeral bier (the platform upon which Euridice’s spirit is placed). In Act II, Scene 1, the Furies sometimes make a line, other times a circle, and sometimes, there appears to be no pattern at all. Act II, Scene 2, the Elysian Fields, returns to the idea of lines to create a pathway for Euridice and her spirit and also creates close circles around Euridice’s spirit. Act III’s finale contains curving lines by the delighted dancing friends.

3. Review the blocking handouts from pp. 34 and 35 of this guide. Remind students of the 9 areas of the stage as shown on the inset diagram of p. 34.

4. Using the handout on the following page, ask students to choose their favorite scene from the opera and to add a dance to it. Refer to the examples and codes on the handout. Ask students to draw a diagram representing each of the following: the beginning of the dance, a middle point, and the end.

5. Divide the class into groups. Have the students pose in each of the three positions (beginning, middle, and end). When they feel comfortable with these poses, let them experiment with moving from pose to pose. Pay special attention to entrances, exits and placement of main characters.

71

XXX

XAJJA JA

MG

1. This is what the stage looks like at the very beginning of the overture.

2. This is in the middle of the overture when the music changes.

You have just been hired by UMS to create a new dance for Orfeo ed Euridice. As the choreographer, you may use any or all of these characters:• Orfeo (O) • Orfeo’s Echo (OE) • 6 dancers working together as a group (X)• Amor (A) • Amor’s two handmaidens (H) • Chorus (C)• Euridice (E) • Euridice’s spirit (ES) • Moon Goddess (MG)• Jupiter (J) • Jupiter’s assistants (JA)Create some floor patterns you would like them to make during your scene. Label your scene.

X

X

X

HANDOUT: Creating Dance Patterns

Example:

X

J

72

Anderson, James. The Harper Dictionary of Opera and Operetta. Great Britain: Bloomsbury Publishing Limited, 1987.

Domingo, Placido & Plotkin, Fred. Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera. Hyperion, 1994.

Kaldor, Andra. Opera Houses of Europe. Antique Collector’s Club, 1996.

Mason, Daniel. Orchestral Instruments and What They Do: A Primer for Concert Goers. Reprint Services Corporation, 1990.

Morrden, Ethan. Opera Anecdotes. Oxford University Press, 1988.

Pogue, David & Speck, Scott. Opera for Dummies. IDG Books Worldwide, 1988.

Warburton, Ernest. Single Operatic Arias and Overtures. Garland Publishing, 1993.

Waugh, Alexander. Opera: A New Way of Listening. Stewart, Tabori and Chang, Inc., 1996.

Bibliography/Recommended Reading

DID YOU KNOW?

Placido Domingo, the co-author of Opera 101, is one of “The Three Tenors,” along with José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti?

He is also a conductor and the artistic director of

the Washington Opera in Washington, DC.

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World Wide Web Resourceswww.ums.org The University Musical Society official site.

http://orpheus.ee.duth.gr/english/index.htmOrpheus hailed from Thrace in Greece. Take a virtual tour of Thrace on this website.

http://Music.net EncyclopediaEverything you wanted to know about music.

www.operastuff.comIncludes links to opera singers, sheet music, recordings, and research information.

www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/aidas/meet.htmlJohn Ardoin’s interview with opera singer and University of Michigan professor Shirley Verrett.

www.mythweb.com/A children’s website about Greek mythology.

http://216.237.150.140/greek_resources/greek_encyclopedia/greek_entry.html/orpheus_e.htmlThe Orpheus myth.

www.dibonsmith.com/stars.htmAll sorts of Information about constellations, including mythology, history, star maps and pictures.

www.metguild.org/home.htmOfficial site for the Metropolitan Opera Guild.

www.music.umich.eduUniversity of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance.

www.comnet.org/dancegallery/index.htmlPeter Sparling’s studio website and photo gallery.

74Community ResourcesUniversity of Michigan School of Music/Opera Program 1100 Baits Dr. Ann Arbor, MIchigan 48109-2085 Phone: 734-764-0583 music.webmaster@umich.edu

University of Michigan Dance Department 3501 Dance Building University of Michigna 1310 N University Court Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2217 Phone: 734-763-5460

Detroit Opera House/Michigan Opera Theater 1526 Broadway Detroit, MI 48226 Phone: 313-961-3500 webadministrator@motopera.org

Peter Sparling Dance Company/Dance Gallery 111 Third St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Phone: 734-747-8885 dancegallerystudio@ameritech.net

Detroit Institute of Art 5200 Woodward Ave Detroit, MI 48202 Phone: 313-833-7900