opera at UNM

The opera program at the University of New Mexico has existed in its present form since 1983, the year in which internationally acclaimed opera star and stage director Marilyn Tyler joined the faculty. Professor Tyler was asked to teach voice and to enhance and develop the opera studies program. Since then, Opera Theatre has become known nationally and internationally as a training ground for singers, pianists, coaches, conductors, stage directors and arts administrators. UNM Opera Theatre has been the recipient of many prestigious awards, including two first place awards from the National Opera Association. The program has produced fifteen full-length works, from Purcell to Puccini, and a host of smaller chamber operas.

Opera Theatre performs contemporary works, a number of which were specifically written for the program, as well as the traditional repertoire essential for the vocal, dramatic and musical enrichment of the student as artist, singer and actor. An innovative teaching structure encourages even the inexperienced singer to perform in full productions. Alumni of the UNM opera program grace the major international stages, including the Metropolitan and San Francisco Opera. Others are active in musical theater, in managerial positions, and as vocal educators in public schools and universities.

spring 2008 PRODUCTION:

The highlight of the UNM 2008 opera season will be Eugene Onegin, seven lyric scenes in three acts, music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, text adapted from Alexander Pushkin’s novel in verse by Konstantin Schilowski and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

During the gestation period of Onegin the paths of art and life crossed for Tchaikovsky.
Music history offers few more romantic instances of love at first sight than that between the composer Tchaikovsky and Tatyana the heroine of Pushkin’s novel. She became a living actuality instead of an imagined illusion. The opera was no longer art for the composer, but a strange crucible of his own existence, exacting a debt of self-denial and atonement. After finishing the orchestration he entrusted Onegin to the Moscow conservatory for a series of student performances, to avoid the deadening effects of a conventional production with priming prima donnas in a professional opera house. The composer hoped that an unspoiled student cast could achieve the intimacy and unaffected performance style he had in mind. At first audiences and critics were tepid and perplexed by Onegin’s unorthodoxy. Nearly two years past before Onegin was on its way, propelled by music full of anguish, warmth and drama that touched the secret places in the hearts and minds of the listener.

The UNM Opera Theatre production will be directed by Professor Marilyn Tyler, who will be celebrating her twenty-fifth year as director of opera studies. The Opera Orchestra will be conducted by Maestro David Felberg in his first opera at UNM debut. A stellar cast of emerging artists will create the vibrant young characters Tchaikovsky loved so passionately.

PERFORMANCES:

Thursday 24th, Friday 25th, Keller Hall, $15/12/10
Saturday 26th, 7:30 p.m., Keller Hall, $15/12/10
Sunday 27th 2 p.m., Keller Hall, $15/12/10