Brown Opera Productions
Encyclopedia
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
community and is a space for singers and musicians to collaborate on exciting classical performance projects. BOP produces a full-length opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
every spring, and throughout the year produces concerts of classical vocal music on campus and in local hospitals, nursing homes, and schools. As the name implies, the group is composed of Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
students, who also work with RISD students at times. BOP does not charge admission for its performances but depends on individual donations.
History
Brown Opera Productions was co-founded in 2005 by Michael Hadley ‘07 and Clara Schuhmacher ‘06. The inaugural Board consisted of Michael Hadley (Chair), Clara Schuhmacher (Opera Producer), Christie Gibson (Concert and Community Service Chair), Kathryn Wallem (Publicity Manager), Emily Dunne (Secretary), Kate Tsunoda (Treasurer), and Jonathan Ichikawa (Webmaster). Throughout its first year, the new organization produced a variety of on and off campus concerts. In April, BOP presented Gian-Carlo Menotti's “The Medium,” Brown’s first-ever student-produced full-length opera.Over the subsequent years, BOP has grown to be one of the premiere Brown performing arts organizations. So far, BOP has produced six full-length operas (”The Medium,” Granados’s “Goyescas,” Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice,” Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore,” Offenbach's "Monsieur Choufleuri," and Britten's "Turn of the Screw") BOP has also produced four scenes concerts, four children’s operas (including the student-written “Frog Prince”), and numerous arias concerts.
The Fall Operetta
Every fall, BOP puts on a fully staged operetta. In the fall operetta's inaugural year, BOP performed Monsieur Choufleuri.http://www.boosey.com/pages/opera/moreDetails.asp?musicID=49419 In Fall 2010, BOP will produce Puccini's "Gianni SchicchiGianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
." Performances usually occur in Alumnae Hall on Pembroke Campus.
The Spring Opera
A fully staged, fully orchestrated, completely student-run full opera put on every Spring. The directors, designers, production staff, and orchestra are all students. Directors and Music Directors are chosen at the end of the Fall semester and the operas themselves are usually in early or mid-April. BOP's most recent Spring production was "The Turn of the ScrewThe Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw is a novella written by Henry James. Originally published in 1898, it is ostensibly a ghost story.Due to its ambiguous content, it became a favourite text of academics who subscribe to New Criticism. The novella has had differing interpretations, often mutually exclusive...
" by Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
. Performances are usually in Alumnae Hall on Pembroke Campus.
The Children's Opera
Every year, BOP puts on an opera for children. Past productions have included a reduction of The Magic FluteThe Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
, Hansel and Gretel
Hansel and Gretel
"Hansel and Gretel" is a well-known fairy tale of German origin, recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812. Hansel and Gretel are a young brother and sister threatened by a cannibalistic hag living deep in the forest in a house constructed of cake and confectionery. The two children...
and a student-written opera, The Frog Prince. The children's opera is only one of the many ways BOP reaches out to the Providence community. In 2010, BOP performed a reduction of the Magic Flute for the Providence Athenaeum
Providence Athenaeum
The Providence Athenaeum, founded in 1753 in Providence, Rhode Island, is the fourth oldest subscription library in the United States. Only the Library Company of Philadelphia, founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin, Newport's Redwood Library and Athenaeum, founded in 1747, and the Charleston Library...
on Benefit Street. BOP also has at least two nursing home concerts during the year and one in the summer. It is also planning to launch an opera/classical music education program for surrounding Providence schools.
The Scenes Concert
BOP puts on short scenes from various operas and operettas, with staging, singing, and sets. In the past BOP has done scenes from many operas and operettas, including Porgy and BessPorgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
, The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
, Norma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
, The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
, Candide
Candide (operetta)
Candide is an operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire. The operetta was first performed in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman; but since 1974 it has been generally performed with a book by Hugh Wheeler which is more faithful to...
, and Monsieur Choufleuri. Performances occur in multiple venues across campus, including the Production Workshop (PW) upspace and Grant Recital Hall. Directors apply to direct scenes and singers audition to be placed within individual scenes.
The Fall and Winter Arias Concerts
These concerts are great opportunities for vocalists to debut or to just sing something they've been working on. Accompanists are provided, and people are encouraged to sing whatever they want, from HandelHANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
to John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
, Puccini to Gershwin. The Arias Concert takes place in Grant Recital Hall. Recently, BOP has added a Spring Arias Concert and is planning on producing a Summer Arias Concert.
Production history
In the Spring of 2010, BOP produced "The Turn of the ScrewThe Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw is a novella written by Henry James. Originally published in 1898, it is ostensibly a ghost story.Due to its ambiguous content, it became a favourite text of academics who subscribe to New Criticism. The novella has had differing interpretations, often mutually exclusive...
" an opera by Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
In the Fall of 2009, BOP produced Monsieur Choufleuri, an operetta by Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
.
In the Spring of 2009, BOP produced L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...
, composed by Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
in 1832.
In the Fall of 2008, BOP produced The Frog Prince, a new chamber opera for children by Jacob A. Greenberg.
One of the duets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqZV_K0jB0I
In the Spring of 2008, BOP produced Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing...
, composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
in 1762.http://media.www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/2008/03/14/ArtsCulture/Brown.Opera.Performs.A.Classic.Myth-3269837.shtml?norewrite200608221219&sourcedomain=www.browndailyherald.com
In the Spring of 2007, BOP produced the Spanish opera Goyescas
Goyescas
Goyescas, Op. 11, subtitled Los majos enamorados , is a piano suite written in 1911 by Spanish composer Enrique Granados. This piano suite is usually considered Granados's crowning creation and was inspired by the paintings of Francisco Goya, although the piano pieces have not been authoritatively...
, composed by Enrique Granados
Enrique Granados
Enrique Granados y Campiña was a Spanish pianist and composer of classical music. His music is in a uniquely Spanish style and, as such, representative of musical nationalism...
in 1916.http://media.www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/2007/04/16/ArtsCulture/Bops-goyescas.Hits.A.High.Note-2843413.shtml?norewrite200608221219&sourcedomain=www.browndailyherald.com
In the Spring of 2006, BOP premiered its first opera, The Medium
The Medium
The Medium is a short two-act dramatic opera with words and music by Gian Carlo Menotti. Commissioned by Columbia University, its first performance was there on 8 May 1946. The opera's first professional production was presented on a double bill with Menotti's The Telephone at the Heckscher...
, composed by Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...
in 1946.http://www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/2006/04/17/ArtsCulture/Bops-the.Medium.Brings.UserFriendly.Opera.To.Brown-1857580.shtml?norewrite200608221219&sourcedomain=www.browndailyherald.com