This week the BYU School of Music will perform The Elixir of Love (L’eliisr d’amore),a comedic Italian opera portraying and exploring the light-hearted side of love and romance. Lawrence Vincent, professor of voice, along with the cast of students, have been preparing for months to make the opera as powerful as possible.
Vincent serves as the director of the opera, and coordinates the casts’ duties of singing and acting with the crews’ responsibilities of lighting, stage set-up and other tasks. Vincent said the singers spend hours outside rehearsal every week getting ready.
“The students are assigned a coach and meet with them regularly as well as their own private voice teachers,” Vincent said. “We also have them translate the opera into English. Then they can look for a word’s connotation and match their body language to what they’re saying.”
Singing in an opera is different than singing in a choir or as part of any other musical ensemble. Vincent emphasized the difficulty of being a well-trained opera performer.
“It’s a very complicated procedure. Students learn how to breathe correctly and sing loudly without damaging their voices,” Vincent shared. “People have no idea how much work goes into this for each individual.”
But the cast isn’t alone in their preparation. A full orchestra conducted by Abe Mylerwill accompany them and technical and backstage crewmembers havespent weeks getting lighting and other important aspects ready. Vincent expressed gratitude for all involved, and hopes that even opera-newcomers will attend.
“If you’ve never been to an opera, look forward to an experience unlike anything you’ve ever had before. You’ll hear live music that isn’t reinforced with microphones,” Vincent said. “The best thing you can do to prepare to attend an opera is to become acquainted with it. Go online and read about it or listen to some of the music on YouTube.”
The opera will be performed in Italian with English subtitles.
Tickets and Schedule:Wednesday and Thursday, June 11 and 12: $6Friday and Saturday, June 13 and 14: $10
To purchase tickets for The Elixir of Love, click here.