Through the Glass Darkly

Last week the creative team and singers of Philip Glass' Orphée moved from the gymnasium of Richfield Springs High School to the stage of the Alice Busch Opera Theater. It was during this week that all of the elements of the show came together to form one cohesive artistic production. During each rehearsal, about 20 people from various departments were in the house of the theatre and about 10 are in the lighting booth and backstage, running the show and taking notes. Some of the corrections, like music and lighting cues, were addressed immediately. Other corrections were made later--changes in costuming, wigs and make-up, and set details.

Director Sam Helfrich explained the challenges he faces during a tech rehearsal. "I've spent three weeks in a room sitting in this one place at this one table, watching the stage from about five feet away and creating the show. The minute you move out into the house and start watching the show from 50 feet away, 100 feet away, it changes. Now it's a question of finessing things."

While looking forward to the show's opening and all the work ahead, the creative team took time last Wednesday to look back at the work they've done so far and present it to the entire staff of the opera. Orphée is based directly from French filmmaker Jean Cocteau's film of the same name. Helfrich's first concern was translating a 1950 film with over 15 sets and effects -- such as reverse motion and people walking through mirrors --into a viable opera.

"You can't avoid--I almost regret it now-- starting out by watching the movie. It's such a beautiful and exquisite piece of filmmaking that the designers and I made the decision early on to try to find a way to approach this piece that would be theatrical, that would work on the stage and that would really have something to say that was contemporary and modern and of its time," Helfrich said.

The design team decided to create one set for the entire opera, rather than 15. It is set up like a living room--complete with walls, ceiling, and realistic furniture. It took over 5 hours to put all the pieces on stage for the first time.

Lighting was a challenge because of the shape of the set. During the seminar, nearly everyone on the creative team pointed out lighting as one of their major challenges during the tech rehearsal process.

"It should be noted that this actually is an enormously difficult set to light. It's not just because it has a ceiling. There are some limitations on what you can do from above, but we wanted to do it all using practical lighting fixtures. It's very tricky finding a balance between looking at the lighting fixtures themselves and looking at a person's face lit next to a light fixture," Andrew Lieberman, Set Designer, said.

Production Manager Matthew Kirby-Smith pointed out that the "practical lighting" is not always enough to fully light the stage. "There are lighting instrument hidden throughout backstage--over doors, in alcoves, etc. We placed lighting instruments anywhere we could to help."

Mirrors play a large structural and thematic role in the opera. To create the same atmosphere as the mirrors in the movie, each major character has a double that matches them exactly in hair, make-up, and wardrobe.

To Wig and Make-up Designer Anne Ford-Coates, the doubles presented a special challenge. "With Caroline Worra, her natural appearance makes it very easy to believe that she would have the big heart that would anchor a really temperamental artist for years. That's already there, so there wouldn't be the need to change that, except when we get to Brenda Rae, her double, who has dark hair and a different look. We have to style Caroline so she can be Eurydice, but also so that Brenda can be her for a split second on stage."

Opera Extras in CCAL seminars

While the staff at Glimmerglass Opera is hard at work preparing each opera production, they are also whetting the appetites of operaphiles and neophytes alike with a variety of related events. The company holds seminars during the year about the operas, but for those who enroll in Cooperstown's Center for Continuing Adult Learning (CCAL) Opera at Glimmerglass course, the company offers a seminar on each of the four operas of the season. Participants hear talks about producing the operas and excerpts from the operas sung by members of the Young American Artists Program.

Last week, the group met John Conklin, set designer of the Gluck, and Kelley Rourke, titles guru and lyricist of the Offenbach. Conklin took them on an in-depth journey through the process of building a set for an opera, showing set models, costume designs, and his own sketches used to plan the set.

He discussed the initial conception of the show's design. "Always the question is 'is the Gluck an 18th-century opera?' Yes, it was written in the 18th century, but it's being seen with modern sensibilities, so in that sense one doesn't want to make it a historical, archeological object. We want to make it vivid and human, but still reflecting some of the ideas of the 18th-century world."

Rourke treated the audience to her take on translating and writing English lyrics for operas. The Offenbach, originally written in French, has undergone many translations, but Rourke created an original one for Glimmerglass to use this season.

"I'm careful about the word 'translate.' It is step one—the translation is one part, but it's not a direct translation of what is going on in the libretto." Rourke tries to stay as true to the libretto as possible, but sometimes the language is convoluted and wouldn't make sense in English. As an example, Rourke cited a line in the Gluck where Amour literally asks Orpheus in French, 'What do we owe you?' "I don't think it's actually true to the intent of the librettist," Rourke said.

After hearing excerpts from the opera, participants go to a production seminar, which is also attended by the staff and guild of the company. Here, the creative team for each of the operas meet and discuss their choices in producing the opera. Friday's rather lively discussion about Offenbach featured Kelley Rourke, Director Eric Einhorn, Set Designer Allen Moyer, Costume Designer Gabriel Berry, Lighting Designer Shawn K. Kaufman, and surprise guest Production Manager Matthew Kirby-Smith. Discussion topics ranged from Offenbach's off-the-wall plot, to the concept behind each set location (Olympus, Earth, and the Underworld), to creating crazy hell costumes.

Berry explained, "Luckily, I got the 'Orpheus goes to France.’ I mean, going in your underwear is fun, going to the underworld is better, going to France in your underwear to the underworld—that's best of all. I had a few mandates from the company and from [director] Eric, and one of them is that we're in the 19th century. I'm like 'great', because that's corsets and hoop skirts." Berry's designs are definitely not strait-laced Victorian, though, warned her audience to be prepared for "cleavage and the occasional studded leather garment."

"What I wanted to talk about with this particular team is pushing the envelope, because I think that that is the quintessential point of this show, whether it is scenery or lighting or costumes,” said Kirby-Smith, who pointed out the sheer size of such a spectacular and grandiose production, especially "the automated moving instruments that we have, the sheer number of costumes, and the thousands and thousands of pounds of scenery that somehow goes up and down."

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For more information about Glimmerglass events, click here.

Gluck Discussion Panel

What does it take to put on an opera? What sort of research is done? Over 150 people were asking themselves the same questions today at noon, when the first of 4 panel discussions were held in Alice Busch Opera Theater (ABOT). At the helm were seven members of the production team for Berlioz’ edition of Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice, all integral components of the planning, rehearsal, and performance stages of a performance. The panel included, from left to right, Kelley Rourke (Dramaturgy/Projected Titles), who moderated the discussion, Lillian Groag (Director), Nicola Bowie (Choreographer), Julian Wachner (Conductor), Robert Wierzel (Lighting), Constance Hoffman (Costumes), and John Conklin(Set).

In planning the production, Director Lillian Groag focused on not just the story of a man, but the story of how a community deals with death—in this case, a community in the 18th century. An understanding of Gluck’s cultural context helps explain the alterations he made from the original myth, mainly, that Eurydice is resurrected a second time. As a German Lutheran, Gluck's belief in redemption would have been a central tenet of his faith. Resurrection and rebirth is a central theme in Christian literature, from the raising of Lazarus to the resurrection of Jesus. Gluck was also living at the crux of the Enlightenment, a time when human invention and intelligence were held to the highest standard. “To send the audience home depressed would be a highly illogical decision,” quipped Groag; rationality had to prevail, as was the style of the time.

Conductor Julian Wachner said that cultural surroundings played a significant role in the music as well; Gluck was working right in between the Baroque and Classical periods. Wachner called the piece “a watershed event [in that] musical expression could be connected to everyday life”. This opera unfolds in real time, meaning a character does not have a six minute aria to portray one emotion. They only have as much time as we do—sometimes mere seconds—to show the world what they are feeling. Wachner also touched on which aspects of the show were altered by composer Hector Berlioz. Keeping the libretto in French, Berlioz reworked the piece less than one might presume. He did, however, create an orchestration that substituted modern instruments for those no long longer in existence, with careful attention to creating a more Baroque sound. He also transposed the role of Orpheus, which already existed in versions for castrato and haut-contre, to a mezzo-soprano. This, of course, required a few key changes. Wachner confessed that he, along with the whole production team, has been “swimming in the love of the music”.

Choreographer Nicola Bowie brings movement in all forms into both earth and the underworld. Although Bowie worked closely with all members of the cast, it was Trey Gillen and Katarzyna Skarpetowska who were a large part of her focus in the rehearsal process. Trained at The Julliard School, both dancers play the roles of instigators, guides, storytellers, as well as a constant reminder of death and its presence in our lives. Their transformation scene by scene, as well as that of the chorus, is overwhelmingly impressive and like a good lighting plot or set design, instantly pulls the audience into the moment.

Since this production just started rehearsing in the theatre this week (their rehearsal space up until now has been off campus), many elements of production including sets, costumes, and lighting were only recently added. This panel discussion allowed the designers to shed some light on their individual and collective inspiration. John Conklin, who designed the set, rooted his inspiration in the spirit of the 18th century, and, like Groag, wanted to connect the audience to the urgency and universality of the story. Conklin tapped into the work of two period artists, Francisco Goya (1746- 1828) and Giovanni Piranesi (1720-1778). In these artists’ depictions, Rome’s fall had left behind countless grandiose ruins and fallen architecture. The people of the time used what they could, by taking pieces and using them as building materials, or squatting in the rooms of crumbling palaces. Conklin used this theme of “melancholy in lost grandeur of a classical world” and allowed his set a pastoral element while still remaining aware of the outside world and its influences.

Costume designer Constance Hoffman was also drawn to Goya; her goal was to make sure the person wearing the costume was the focus and not the other way around. Simple, breathable clothes made from modest materials like linen and cotton allow the singers to portray different characters over the course of the opera.

Light designer Robert Wierzel focused on creating a singular mood for each scene. The lights give the audience an instant hint to the scene they are about to walk, writhe, or dance into. Wierzel also added that one of the advantages of working at the Glimmerglass Opera is having the time to experiment in the space through the whole summer. And considering that Gluck opens in two weeks, it is incredible to think that the performers and designers already have a chance to put the piece together on stage.

A Work in Progress

It's about a month before the first production and already Glimmerglass is bustling with activity, off-site as well as on-site. Glimmerglass employs over 300 people in the summer and all are vital to the success of the season. During the season, designers, directors, stage managers, builders, administrators, marketers, costumers, conductors, and interns of all ilks descend on the Alice Busch Opera Theater and work furiously to bring their individual efforts into one cohesive piece of artistry.

Set building is well underway. The production crew saws and welds away in the scene shop, but often share the stage with the lighting crew, who must hoist approximately 300 lights over the stage of Alice Busch Opera Theater. The set is not merely built on stage, though. Smaller set pieces and props must be constructed, painted, and polished to be ready for opening night.

The costume shop is busy constructing and fitting costumes for four different productions. The racks overflow with over 200 costumes for the summer season.

The 29 members of Glimmerglass’s prestigious Young American Artist Program are busy as well. Several members have lead roles in the summer’s productions, but all are participating in smaller roles or chorus responsibilities. They also have to prepare for masterclasses, on-site auditions, and recitals.

Rehearsals began last week for Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice and Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld. The singers came with their music already memorized (“off-book”), so the directors, choreographers, and conductors started work almost immediately on staging the opera. Singers rehearse daily in preparation for the opening night in three weeks.

While most of the staffers’ efforts revolve around the current season operas, plans are already in the works for next season. This week the director of Glimmerglass’s much-anticipated North American premiere of Wagner’s Das Liebesverbot, Nic Muni, toured the facility in order to explore the space in which he will stage the production.

It looks to be an exciting summer all around. For more info, please visit the Glimmerglass website, keep checking back here, or add us to your feed.