By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent Media
If you want to know how daunting writing an opera is, just ask Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon.
Speaking last October as the guest composer at the New Music and Art Festival at Bowling Green State University, she said writing her first opera “Cold Mountain” was an all-consuming project that occupied her full time 28 months.
With casting and orchestra and staging, an opera is a massive undertaking beyond what a young composer can wrangle.
BGSU has an answer though. For several years it has invited student composers to submit proposals to write micro-operas, 20 minutes or less. They use small casts and just a few instrumentalists, and can be staged in a recital hall.
Four micro-operas will make their debuts Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. in Bryan Recital Hall in Moore Musical Arts Center. Admission is free.
On the program will be:
* Respectable Woman by Kristi Fullerton with libretto by Jennifer Creswell who directs and Evan Mecarello, conductor.
* Sensations by Robert Hosier, Ellen Scholl, director and Maria Mercedes Diaz-Garcia, conductor.
* Black Earth by Jacob Sandridge, Jeanne Bruggeman-Kurp, director and Robert Ragoonanan, conductor.
* The Lighthouse by Dalen Wuest, Hillary LaBonte, director, and Santiago Serrano, conductor.
Writing an opera, said Hosier, “is the kind of thing I’d considered before. I actually started writing one but the forces required for a full opera, for one thing … I couldn’t get ahold of them. And it’s a lot to write for.”
So he set aside the project aside. Then late last spring semester the call went out from the College of Music to composers to submit proposals for micro-operas.
“This seemed more feasible,” Hosier said. So after his proposal was accepted in June he spent the summer composing Sensations based on his own short story.
Fullerton drew on the talents of a fellow singer for her libretto. Jennifer Cresswell, who directed the Toledo Opera’s Opera on Wheels program, had experience writing librettos for children’s opera.
Together they settled on a story “Respectable Woman” by 19th century southern writer Kate Chopin.
Cresswell said the story proved more an inspiration than a strict blueprint. They gave the tale of a woman tempted to stray from her marriage a contemporary twist, reflecting modern attitudes.
Fullerton said she became aware of the BGSU micro-opera project when she auditioned for the graduate program. As a vocalist as well as composer she was interested in writing for voice and this gave her a prime opportunity.
The micro-operas also provide experience for conductors, singers and musicians to work on new music, said Daniel Cox who has the lead role in Sensations.
“It’s a great connection for vocalists to expose themselves to what composers are writing, in their own language. This gives us a chance to reach out and experience what composers do right now.”
He said it also gives vocalists a chance to help composers learn about writing for voice. Hosier and Fullerton said they found themselves making revisions based on feedback from the singers.
“It’s good to know what your performers are capable of,” said Fullerton, “so you can really cater what you write to them … so they can really take control of the music and showcase what they’re good at.”
The operas are cast as part of the auditioning process for all opera activities. At the beginning of the fall, 2015, semester, singers audition and then are cast in productions. The singers were assigned to specific micro-operas with preparation beginning later in the semester.
Hosier also praised Scholl, his director, for helping him learn about staging and what performers should be doing on stage whether they are singing or not.
