Actors labor through challenging operetta
Before composer/lyricist collaborations like those of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, there were the 19th century operettas of William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.
This week, the UA Opera Theater will present "The Gondoliers", an operetta, or light opera, set in the fictitious kingdom of Barataria in the late 18th century.
With convoluted subplots, two gondoliers hoping to be king of Barataria, and a twist ending, the operetta will incorporate acting, singing and dancing - three disparate theater elements. The combination has some performers standing fidgety and self-conscious outside of their comfort zones.
"For me, as a musical theater major and wanting to be an actor in musicals and whatnot, it's interesting," said Ethan Goldman, a senior, who plays Luiz. "This is my first Gilbert and Sullivan show and its sort of interesting to do an operetta like this because it's the roots of musical theater. It's interesting to be in something like this and see the commonalities and the differences. It's also interesting to work with people who come at it from a different angle."
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People, that is, like Karina Cole Casilda, a vocal performance senior playing the daughter of the Duke of Plaza-Toro. She is also Luiz's secret lover.
Casilda is used to singing in more stationary poses, but her role in "The Gondoliers" requires her to dance and act as well.
"If you're hardcore opera, it's all about the singing," said Casilda. "It doesn't matter what they look like or how they're acting. It's just how they vocally produce the character. But it's different when it comes to operetta because you have to know how to act, which sucks."
Casilda said the combination of theatrical elements is hard for her because she's never taken acting classes and she wonders about both saying her lines correctly and about characterization.
Goldman said that while musicals usually employ acting, singing and dancing, the dated material of Gilbert and Sullivan's work has still been an educational experience for him.
Dan Check, a music education senior playing Giuseppo, one of the gondoliers, rested during a rehearsal break last week with co-gondolier Joshua Hanna, a performance senior, and with their role-play wives.
"Acting and singing is the only thing that involves both parts of the brain at the same time," said Rachel Kuhn, a music education senior playing the wife of gondolier Hanna.
"It crosses the corpus colossus," said Check of acting and singing. Then after a moment, he offered an explanation: "My mom got me an anatomy book when I was little."
When it comes to perspectives on rehearsals, "wives" and "husbands" will often differ.
"They're like three hours a day," said Lezlee Benninger, musical theater senior and wife of gondolier Check. "It's nothing. It's really laid back."
Check said the gondoliers sometimes put additional time into rehearsal. And singing the entire time is wearisome.
Whether rehearsal is tiring or not, most performers have certain traditions before going on stage.
"I usually steam for about a half hour before I sing," Hanna said. "Because I have a really heavy voice and it kind of just brings it up."
Other people grab their cups.
"I drink a lot of apple juice," said Kuhn. "Lots and lots of apple juice. I don't eat a couple of hours before. I eat something, but not right away, not right before. And coffee. I'm a coffee addict."
Hanna said most performances begin with a pre-show prayer that everything will go well.
"I pace and talk a lot," said Kuhn.
Inside the rehearsal room last week, director/professor/actor Charles Roe sat on a stool and made notes into voice recorder as he watched his students performing a few feet in front of him.
Roe plays the Duke of Plaza in 'The Gondoliers".
"This show has beautiful music," said Roe. "It's funny. It has a lot of comedy in it. It also has a lot of spoken dialogue in it. That why it's 'operetta' not 'opera.' Opera is sung all the time. Operetta is sung and then it's spoken too. It's a sung play."
Roe said attendees can expect the performance to be two and a half hours long, including a fifteen minute intermission.