Opera Learner’s Permit:! The Journey to Reims ! Training ! Manual! u 3 01 25 JUNE 2 u WARSAW, POLAND POLAND WARSAW, Summer 2013! TABLE OF CONTENTS! Page! ! 3-4 !Meet the Characters on the Journey! ! 5-6 !Meet the Composer: Gioacchino Rossini! ! 7 ! !Meet the Filene Young Artists! ! 8 ! !About the Barns! ! 9 ! !What to Expect at the Opera! ! 10-11 !Voice Types! ! 12 ! !Other Opera People! ! 13 ! !Opera Terms! ! 14 ! !Opera Mad Libs! ! 15-16 !Think Like a Critic! ! 17 ! !Opera Learner’s Permit Crossword! ! 18 ! !Credits! Meet the Characters on the Journey!! The opera takes place at the exclusive GIGLI D’ORO (GOLDEN LILY) INN & SPA, which is expertly run by MADAMA CORTESE The welfare of the guests is aended to by DR. PRUDENZIO, the spa physician. Nine internaonal travelers are staying at the spa, on their way to the coronaon of a king at the Reims Cathedral. There’s a love quadrangle: LA CONTESSA DI FOLLEVILLE, a ditsy, fashion-obsessed French Countess, is in a relaonship with IL CAVALIERE BELFIORE, a French knight Unfortunately, Belfiore is also interested in… … the beau?ful Italian Poetess CORINNA… … who is in turn being pursued by the very proper and reserved English LORD SIDNEY. There’s also a love triangle: Both the hot-blooded Russian General CONTE LIBENSKOF and the dashing Spanish Officer DON ALVARO desire the exo?c Polish widow MARCHESA MELIBEA. Watching all of this with amusement are DON PROFONDO, the Italian an?ques collector… …and the treasurer and “cruise director” of the group, the German BARONE DI TROMBONOK. Things are pre9y complicated to begin with, and they get a li9le worse when complicaons develop. Let’s just say that in spite of the ?tle of the opera, none of these people ever actually make the journey to Reims. No maer, for they have plenty of fun anyway, and they sing some pre9y spectacular music! Meet the Composer:! Gioacchino Rossini! A Musical Family! Gioacchino Rossini was born on February 29, 1792. (Since he was born on Leap Day, he’s really only 55 years old!) His first music teacher was his father, a trumpet player. His mother was also a musician, and she earned the family extra money by appearing in local opera performances. Lile Gioacchino made his opera stage debut when he was only seven (playing the horn), and he was a featured soloist at his church when he was ten. By the ?me he was fi`een, Rossini was studying music seriously, and he wrote his first symphony at 17. Shortly aerward, he started wri?ng operas. When he was 23, he married Isabelle Colbran, a famous singer. They traveled and performed together all over Italy. (She was such a successful and popular performer that Rossini o`en complained that he made more money as a piano accompanist for his wife than he did wri?ng operas!) Rossini at age 23! Speed Demon! Rossini wrote extremely quickly, and between the ages of 23 and 30 he wrote twenty operas. He boasted that he wrote The Barber of Seville in only thirteen days. He was a bit of a procras?nator, so when he finally started to compose, there was no ?me to waste! The overtures were the last parts of the operas to be wri9en, and Rossini said this about his procedure: “Wait un?l the evening before opening night. Nothing primes inspiraon more than necessity.” When he was composing, he barely took ?me to eat and sleep. He worked in his bedroom, o`en not changing out of his pajamas. A friend remarked that it was funny that Rossini composed Barber without shaving for days on end, and Rossini replied that if he had le` the house to get a shave, he never would have finished the opera. Rossini in Paris! In 1824, Rossini moved to Paris to run the Italian theatre there, and one of his first assignments was to write an opera to celebrate the coronaon of the new King, Charles X. That opera was The Journey to Reims. It was very successful, but aer only four performances, the composer forbid it to be performed again. Why? He was a shrewd businessman, and he had a plan. The Journey to Reims is a really difficult opera to perform because of the number of talented singers it requires. The typical opera house of the ?me only had about six featured singers on contract, and Journey requires seventeen. Rossini was afraid that the great music in this opera would disappear because no one would have the resources to put it on their schedule. So he stopped the performances so that he could recycle the music in another opera. (He borrowed from himself pre9y frequently, pung bits and pieces of operas into later composi?ons.) He did just that, and about half of Journey appeared a couple of years later in a French opera called Le Comte Ory. The cathedral in ! Reims, France! The Rossini Mystery! One of the great mysteries of Rossini’s career is why he quit wri?ng operas so early. He was wildly popular and successful when he re?red from opera composi?on at age 37. He lived un?l he was 76, and although he wrote a few other pieces, he never again wrote another opera. Rossini at age 73 ! Meet the Filene Young Artists “I was born in Thailand and lived “My major interests include reading, overseas (Nepal, Bolivia) unDl I was cooKing, playing tennis, watching six. I am a Disney enthusiast and anime and spending Dme with my have almost every classic on VHS in friends and two adorable dogs. From the big white plasDc chunKy boxes.” 2nd grade through 8th grade I was a compeDDve jump roper.” Andrea Carroll Juan José de Léon “I was born in Ningbo, a coastal city in “I’ve played the game of golf since age southern part of China. I love travelling eight. I am an American history nerd, I and being in nature and am very love cooKing, and I never give up an interested in photography. I’m also opportunity for the perfect pun.” obsessed with Shiba Inu dogs.” Ying Fang Brenton Ryan “I love animals, especially horses. “I’m a naDve of Prairie Village, Kansas. I love travelling, languages, yoga, During my sophomore year of college sKydiving, scrapbooKing, and sKiing. my voice teacher threatened to flunK I’m always in the mood for an me if I didn't audiDon for the opera – adventure and maKing new friends. “ and here I am.” Kiri Deonarine Benjamin Bliss “My childhood in Israel was full of I liKe spending Dme with friends, roller days by the beach, cats and dogs, blading, finding new restaurants, and biKe rides and soccer games, ballet swimming. My main focus was on classes and singing. I was in the trumpet unDl I got braces... (which did Israeli army for 2 years where I sang not enhance my trumpet playing) so I for the soldiers.” started voice lessons.” Maya Lahyani Brandon Cedel “I was born and raised in Dallas, “My heart has always been in Texas. My first language was performing and baKing- there is nothing Spanish. When I was in high school more thrilling to me than being on I made money singing with a stage or in a Kitchen. I’m also a bit of a Mariachi band.” nature freaK and love hiKing.” Stephen LaBrie Aaron Sorensen I was strictly into track and field, “I am an avid lover of all things sci-fi basKetball, science and and fantasy. Everyone who Knows mathemaDcs. I began college with me calls me Speedo - I was born on dreams of becoming an aerospace April Fools Day, so my father decided engineer, but I started as a music to have some fun and name me a]er major just for the scholarship. his favorite underwear!” Norman Garre9 Ryan Speedo Green About the Barns! While our Barns might be casual, they s?ll have an awful lot of history behind them. When Wolf Trap’s Founder, Catherine Filene Shouse, wanted to build a small theater, she sent a historian – Richard W. Babcock - to search for the perfect barn. He found these two in upstate New York The German BArn serves as the theater. It was built in the German style – a cart and horses could enter into the main space and have room to turn around – no posts on the floor to get tangled around. It was originally built around 1730. (It’s been around longer than the United States of America has! That’s OLD!) The English Barn is a li9le smaller, and it is where the tables and eang area are located. It was built around 1791. The barns were disassembled and the pieces were put into trucks and sent to Virginia in 1981. They were reassembled by hand, in the same style in which they were built. When you come to Opera Learner’s Permit you can see pictures of the process in the hallway between the German and English Barns! A`er the Barns were reassembled, a housing was built over them, to protect them from the elements and to hide the electrical and heang/cooling systems. If you’re sing in the balcony, you’re actually sing in the old haylo`! There are about 350 seats in the theater. Regardless of where you’re sing, you should have an excellent view of the singers onstage. What to Expect at the Opera! You’re going to see an opera in a Barn! No need for tuxedos and ball gowns here! But we don’t allow animal behavior in, either, so good manners are expected.
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