Welcome! Hmmmmm, doesn’t look much like Opera in the Park, does it? Well that is because for the first time ever, our group is sponsoring a great opera singer, not in Washington Park but just for you, at Portland Public Schools. And wow, are you in for a treat….

So why are we doing this? We are a group of opera-lovers who want to share this great art form with others. You may THINK you don’t like opera, but chances are you probably don’t know all that much about it. Today, Angela Brown is going to give you an introduction to the magic of opera through her program “Opera From a Sistah’s Point of View”. And we are going to give you some additional background so you can connect with this great music.

Opera uses music, voice, costumes, sets, and lots of drama to tell a story. Many operas deal with historical circumstances and even historical characters. It’s not so different than a show like “Hamilton”, right? The themes in operas deal with universal issues like young love, forbidden love, betrayed love, love of country, love between parent and child, and yes, issues like the pursuit of power, or greed, or military success. There is almost no part of life that has not been touched by one opera or another.

Very likely when people think about opera, the first thing that stands out to them is the use of the human voice as the main instrument. It is indeed, the signature of opera. Four voice categories make their appearance in most operas: soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and bass or bass-baritone. The easy way to think about this is that typically, the soprano is the heroine of the story. She has the highest notes and often has to sing loudly and strongly enough for her voice to carry over the whole orchestra. Famous sopranos whose names might be familiar to you include Leontyne Price, Maria Callas, and more currently, Renee Fleming who is often affectionately called the People’s Diva.

Tenors, often in shorter supply than sopranos, are the higher of the male voices and most typically, they are the heroes of the story. They have to be able to sing both softly and tenderly but heroically as well. In most operas, the tenor’s character is also a young man so as tenors age, they find not as many roles open to them unless they move to a different repertoire. Famous tenors you might have heard about include Enrico Caruso, Luciano Pavarotti, and Jonas Kaufmann.

Mezzo-sopranos are the lower voice range for women. They are generally the “bad girls” of opera and tend to have a lot more fun than the sopranos. Mezzos as they are generally called, sing roles like Carmen, the naughty girl at the cigarette factory who tempts men to forsake all in exchange for her love. Mezzos also sing what are called “trouser roles”, that is young men where the role was actually written for a female to sing. Mozart was one composer who wrote several trouser roles. Probably the greatest mezzo in living memory is Marilyn Horne, now retired but still teaching voice students.

In the category of lower male sound, there are actually three distinct types. Baritones have a velvety sound and often play complex but sympathetic characters, even if they don’t wind up with the girl at the end. Probably the most famous role for baritone is the court jester, Rigoletto, who ends sadly indeed. In the comedic operas, the baritones are often the leaders of the funny business.

Basses are able to produce incredibly deep, rich sound but generally speaking they play the bad guys. Bass-baritones combine aspects of both those voice categories and have a very wide range of sound they can produce. Russia has produced many of the most famous singers in these voice categories, including Feodor Chaliapin, and more recently, Dmitri Hvorostovsky.

Until recently, opera singers could simply come on stage and do what we would now call “park and bark”. That is, they didn’t need to worry about acting or even looking the part beyond the costume provided to them. But modern opera is no longer simply singing. These days, singers must be good actors and complete musicians. In addition, with opera being filmed and broadcast all over the world, physique matters now as well. Today’s most successful opera singers need to be real athletes, keeping both their vocal chords and their bodies in great shape. No wonder there are so few who ever really make it to the top of the heap!

OK so now you have just a little bit of background so we will close with a few words from our diva, Angela Brown.

“….opera is storytelling through song. These stories are about peoples of the world. Opera is about every- body — rich, poor, people in love, people mad about people in love —It might be a different setting in a different time, but it’s still reflective of people from all places and walks of life.”

And now, let’s go to the opera.