Oberlin

The Piano bench, that is. Earlier this week I sat down with Marika Yasuda and Chelsea DeSouza. Both of these women are pursuing vocal accompanying majors in addition to piano performance majors in the Conservatory. Marika studies with Professor Alvin Chow, and Chelsea with Professor Peter Takács. They both work very closely with Professor of vocal accompanying, Philip Highfill.

On May 10, 2015, Marika and Chelsea will venture with Oberlin singers into what is for them, a relatively new musical wilderness: Opera. They have been learning and rehearsing scenes with the Opera Theatre 200 class all semester. I asked them to answer a few questions about their experiences in collaborating with voice students in this musical context.

What draws you to vocal accompanying? Can you describe the experience, especially your experience working with Oberlin opera theater?

M: Vocal accompanying is colorful. It's inspirational. I feel like a better musician when I play vocal music.

C: It's emotionally satisfying, because there's always a very involved story. I would also say creatively challenging, because you're always trying to make it your own, with your own voice and ideas.

What is it like collaborating with students in the classes? What is the preparation process like for you?

C: It's very interesting collaborating with the students, because I'm always struck by how creative they can be with staging and interpretation - especially with the 200 class when they all had to stage the same song, Caro Mio Ben, and they all did it so differently and wonderfully. The preparation process for me mostly involves figuring out the context of the scene or aria, so that the instrumental introduction and postlude fit into the greater structure of the opera. Something we also focus on is trying to mimic the sound of an orchestra or harpsichord as much as possible, especially for recitative.

M: We have to make sure that we run through the pieces so the students know their entrances well. I have to make sure that people know their parts in the larger ensembles. We keep things together; It's important that they know where they are and what dynamics are appropriate. We help with pacing and figuring out when to sing out or when/how to save their voices. It's nice because it's so peer to peer. Because it's so informal, we are able to talk about interpretation and how I can better support what the singers want to do musically as well.

What kind of music do you enjoy playing for the scenes? What are you working on this semester?

M: I play a lot of different things. I'm doing English and Italian this semester, but the periods are all over. I'm working on a scene from Il matrimonio segreto by Cimarosa, and I'm also doing a scene from Portman's The Little Prince.

C: I've played mostly Mozart for the extended scenes we've done with the upper level classes, but I really enjoyed a few of the more serious arias that the 200 level students did. This semester is actually very interesting - I'm involved in two completely student-run productions. The first is a two-woman show of Jake Heggie songs (with Madeline Raube and Margaret Langhorne, directed by Jason Goldberg). The second is a rather unique opera for a soprano and baritone by Stephen Oliver, "A Man of Feeling" (with Madeline and Jason, directed by Maggie). It's proved to be quite challenging, because there aren't really any recordings of it out there, and it's quite modern in terms of the rhythms and harmonies! But it's very fun working through it with the singers, and trying to sort through the musical ideas and shape the piece ourselves.

Do you have a favorite scene that you have music directed? Or a genre of opera that you love to work?

C: I think out of the big scenes I did last year the one I enjoyed the most was the Flower Duet from Lakmé, which I did with Christine Jay and Ann Sauter. I also particularly enjoyed one of the arias I accompanied in the 200 class, "Oh! Quante Volte" from Capuleti e i Montecchi, which Juliana Zara sang. I guess you could say I prefer the later styles of opera!

M: It's so hard to say! If anything, I want to do more French operas because they're so colorful. I find Italian ones really difficult. The music is so fun. No matter what genre, we work hard trying to learn how the accompaniment is supposed to sound-how to mimic the orchestra. I'm really enjoying that process because it's not pianistic at all. That's something I'm learning. Because this semester's scenes are in Finney Chapel, I think the experience will be more exciting too. I've only ever played with one vocalist there, so it will be interesting with scenes.

Check out these two shining stars performing with the vocalists of the Opera Theater 200 classes in this semester's round of Opera Scenes @ 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 10, 2015! The upper level classes will also be performing scenes later in the day @ 8:00 p.m. in Finney Chapel.

Post by: Katherine Skayhan