Auditions are this weekend for Opera Orlando’s Youth Company.
The opera’s Education Director Sarah Purser says kids from age 8 to 18 get to perform in “mainstage” productions like “Tosca.” The Italian classic opens the opera’s upcoming season in Steinmetz Hall, and features a youth choir.
Purser joined me along with 16-year-old Youth Company member Elsa Mejeur.
Elsa says she’s been singing opera since the age of eight, and she’s looking forward to performing at the Steinmetz -in a foreign language - again.
Elsa Mejeur:
We did Magic Flute last fall, which was another opportunity for the youth company to reform with the adult company, and it's a really great experience to perform in Steinmetz Hall. It's a really great theater, and it's been really fun.
Nicole Darden Creston:
So I understand Tosca is going to be performed in its original Italian with English supertitles. What is it like for you to sing in another language, Elsa?
Elsa Mejeur:
It's a learning experience. Because I don't naturally speak Italian. I only speak English. So last year in Magic Flute, it was definitely a learning opportunity to learn German. And this year, it'll be interesting to learn Italian. I've sung in Italian before, but never quite to this level, I don't think.
Sarah Purser:
I think one of the benefits of our youth company is that depending on the season, our singers are involved in different productions that require them to stretch their language skills. So depending on what's programmed, like Elsa mentioned, last year, since our youth company was involved in the Magic Flute, they had a chance to stretch their German language skills, and this year will be focused on Italian. So if they're with the company for a certain number of years, they'll really cycle through many different languages. It's something that we do focus on in our youth company, is the breadth of the languages that are involved in opera.
Nicole Darden Creston:
Elsa, how did you become interested in opera, in classical music?
Elsa Mejeur:
When I was eight, I first joined the company because my mom had brought to me the idea and I thought it sounded like a really great time. And it has been a really great time. I really enjoyed it.
Nicole Darden Creston:
So what has been your favorite so far that you've done?
Elsa Mejeur:
Probably "Lizbeth." I really liked Lizbeth because...[laughter] okay, we got to use hatchets, that was a lot of fun.
Sarah Purser:
[laughter] Lizbeth was the opera that we did a year ago, this past spring. And it's the story of Lizzie Borden. So it was a little dark, a little gory. But there was an opportunity for a youth chorus in that. It's a contemporary opera, definitely different than what one would typically expect when you think of opera. But we do all kinds of opera here! Actually, this spring our youth company will also be involved in another production in May. It's called Juniper Tree. And it's an opera by [contemporary American minimalist composer] Philip Glass. So yeah, our singers are going to definitely stretch their tonal skills. And they're definitely going to have to count, because there's a lot of repetition in the Philip Glass score. But yeah, it'll be definitely different. It's a little bit dark. It's a Grimm's fairy tale story, and it's very grim, and definitely different than Tosca.
Nicole Darden Creston:
Do you choose what the youth organization gets involved in?
Sarah Purser:
We're really lucky. Our artistic director Grant Preisser is committed to incorporating our youth company every season in at least one production. And so, looking ahead at what's coming up in the next few seasons, he has programmed it in such a way that our youth company will be able to sing in many of the upcoming productions. So as part of our curriculum, the singers learn music for the mainstage productions, but they also learn music for recitals on their own. The youth company does their own productions and performances as their own company, and they will also be involved this year, as they were the past few years, with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. They sing with their "Home for the Holidays" concert, which is right after the Thanksgiving weekend. It's a big holiday performance in Steinmetz Hall. They will also have a chance to do two recitals this year, one will be at the end of our fall semester, we call it "Soup Opera." And it's a chance for our young singers to perform solos and ensembles and it's a celebration so everybody brings soup and yummy cookies and we celebrate the holidays. And then in the spring, they will do a spring showcase, an end-of-year showcase where they'll sort of show off what they've learned this season.
Nicole Darden Creston:
Elsa, do you have to audition every year or did you just have to audition one time? How does that work?
Elsa Mejeur:
We do have to audition every year. It creates a good opportunity for if we're going to audition for other things, it helps us get practice getting comfortable in front of judges, that sort of thing - getting used to auditioning for things.
Sarah Purser:
Voices change, too, you know, especially at this age. Young singers' voices are in flux. So we like to hear every singer, every season. We're really excited because this year, we have auditions coming up this Saturday, August 26. And we have a lot of singers signed up to audition, Almost 50 singers are signed up to audition for about 24 spots. So it's become a very competitive ensemble, which we're really proud of and excited for.
Nicole Darden Creston:
If someone wants to come audition or try to get an audition time, can they still do that? Or is it too late this time around?
Sarah Purser:
Oh, they can absolutely still sign up if they go to operaorlando.org/youth. There's a form on the website that they can fill out and I will respond quickly with more information.
Nicole Darden Creston:
Elsa, overall, what are your thoughts about being part of this?
Elsa Mejeur:
I've really enjoyed the experience. It's really enlightening to perform in Steinmetz Hall and with these great opera singers. And it's really a new perspective on this type of music. Because with the youth company, we will do some musical theater, but mostly opera pieces, so Italian, other languages. And it's really just great to learn these new things.
Nicole Darden Creston:
Do you see yourself continuing with opera?
Elsa Mejeur:
I don't see me continuing it with being my main job. But I would love to participate in choruses, because I really do love singing. But I want to go into physics. I would like to be an astrophysicist. I really love space. I really love math. And I would just like to apply that to my life. The youth company is also, I think, a really great life skills builder. Because I can speak in front of people and not die [laughter], usually, because I've grown up with the stage. I've grown up doing this. And I think it's really helped me with self-confidence and being able to talk in front of people.
Sarah Purser:
I feel very proud of this youth company. I think that it's a unique program, and that these young singers have an opportunity to learn as a cohort, they learn from each other as a cohort. We divide the youth company into two groups - there's a younger ensemble for eight to 13 year olds, and then an older ensemble for the high-schoolers 14 to 18 year olds, but then they all come together for the productions and so they have a chance to learn from each other. And then they also have a chance to learn from the professionals. And I think that is what makes this program unique is that these young singers are on a professional stage with professional singers really learning from the people who are doing this all over the world. And so it's fun, and it's inspiring. And I just think we learn so much from doing and so that's really what this program is all about - jumping in and learning how to be a professional at 16 or even eight years old. We have eight-year-olds on the mainstage. So it's fun to watch them experience a professional opera for the first time. There's really nothing like opera, you know, there's no microphones, nothing is amplified, just these pure, gorgeous, big voices in the glorious music. There's really nothing like it. So I'm grateful for the opportunity to be involved and to get to work with such incredible young singers.
