By Jessie Hethcoat
It's not every day that while backstage at the Newmark Theatre in downtown Portland, you literally run into Jeffrey G. Beruan donning eyeliner and red flames painted on his chest, in costume as Plutone, before an opera by Monteverdi.
Nonetheless, on Friday, I spent my evening at the Newmark blogging with two college students and one professor for the patrons and staff of the Portland Opera.
After working with Claudie Fisher, 2002 UP alumna and public relations and marketing coordinator for the Portland Opera, on reviewing some operas and musical theater touring shows, the Portland Opera asked me to blog for the opening night of "Trouble in Tahiti."
The production of "Trouble in Tahiti" was a Studio Artist performance, meaning that many of the performers were straight from the conservatory or other students of opera.
"Many of them have never had opera roles before, and this allows them to get experience that they can put on their resume," said Julia Sheridan, publicity and publications manager of the Portland Opera.
The opera on Friday was a triple bill. There were two acts by Monteverdi, "Il Ballo Delle Ingrate" (The Dance of the Ungrateful Women) and "Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda" (The Battle of Tancredi and Clorinda). After intermission, the cast performed Leonardo Bernstein's "Trouble in Tahiti."
While the Monteverdi acts were written in 1600, Bernstein's piece was composed in 1952. Though it doesn't seem to make much sense to push the two operas together, the Portland Opera welded the two operas into a cohesive performance.
The first act, "Il Ballo Delle Ingrate," began with Venus (Daryl Freedman) and her son Cupid (Jennifer Forni), whose arrows were no longer making people fall in love. Cupid and Venus decide that they must find Pluto (Beruan) and ask him to release the ungrateful dead so that the human race can see the consequence of their sinful, unappreciative living.
Like "Trouble in Tahiti," the Monteverdi acts were mostly set in the 1950s. While Venus wore a golden toga, Cupid wore a red zoot suit. While the costumes varied, both productions took place on the same descending white platform, ending in a large arch. A projection screen was also used in both productions.
While speaking with the stage director Nic Muni, he told us about the both history behind the Monteverdi and Bernstein pieces and the production that the Portland Opera created.
"It's a very circular discussion creating a production," Muni said. "You start out with just throwing some ideas on the table, and then you start to sift through and start to focus on which of the ideas you really feel are central to the piece, both on visual terms and conceptual terms."
Monteverdi is considered to have created opera with his first in 1607, L'Orfeo.
"(Monteverdi) had to invent certain ways of notating," Muni said. "A diminuendo, for example, no one had ever notated that sign in music."
Before it was referred to as a diminuendo and had its own symbol, Monteverdi would refer to a note getting gradually softer by tying two half notes together. He would write forte over the first and piano over the second, and this would create the decrease in sound.
Bernstein was also notable for his innovation. Most famous for his musical, "West Side Story," Bernstein is referred to by many as the first great American composer. His opera, "Trouble in Tahiti" has an English libretto and themes that are entirely American.
In fusing the two operas together, each character that is introduced in the Monteverdi pieces continues on to the Bernstein piece as a silent member of the stage.
So, housewife Dinah (Daryl Freedman) and husband Sam (Jose Rubio) each have affairs with Pluto and Venus, instead of the originally written affair with Sam's secretary, Miss Brown.
"This is really a world premiere in terms of these three pieces occurring on the same evening in the same production," Muni said. "And so we're all, I think, very curious to see how it will work."
It was inspiring to see two revolutionary works revolutionized, in a sense, with upcoming performers who are still learning all the tricks of their trade. Ultimately, blogging for the Portland Opera was incredible learning opportunity that I'd be more than happy to do again (and again).
My blog can be reached at www.jessiereads.wordpress.com and The Beacon's blog is at www.upbeaconstaff.wordpress.com. For more information regarding the Portland Opera, go to www.portlandopera.org.
