By Jessie Hethcoat
Entering through the backstage door to the Keller Auditorium with University of Portland alumna Claudie Fisher can make anyone feel like a VIP. She is one of many people from the UP community working with the Portland Opera, which is now performing "La Bohéme."
Fisher, class of 2002, has been working for the Portland Opera since a year after she graduated. Fisher's degree is in theater management, and she also has costume design experience. Fisher enrolled at UP because it was one of the few places that had a theatre management program.
She was hired as a temporary overhire for the first couple years working backstage. Today, Fisher is a Public Relations and Marketing Coordinator.
"I naturally found my place here," Fisher said. "I love writing, creativity and marketing."
Even with her theatre background, Claudie had never seen an opera before she started working for the Portland Opera.
"One of my major goals is to get rid of that image that opera is stuffy and elitist," Fisher said. "It really is an incredible art form, and I feel lucky to work in this area."
Current UP senior Lauren Brennenan is a stage management intern for the Portland Opera's production of "La Bohéme." While finishing up her double major in drama and political science, Brennenan has been working behind the scenes at the opera every night and all day on weekends since the opera began rehearsals a month ago.
"I was thrown into the process," Brennenan said. " It just breaks all expectations that I had about opera, having never been familiar with it before."
Her duties include working with the union crew, coordinating sets and costumes and wrangling the children in the ensemble. "La Bohéme" has 16 children in its cast.
"Being able to be a part of a company that has such camaraderie has been the best part of this experience," Brennenan said. "They're all such good friends. It makes the experience much more intimate."
UP's own Administrative program assistant for the Student Activities office, Eva Hortsch, is a member of the Portland Opera chorus. She has a master's of music in vocal performance from UP, and it is currently her fourth year in the chorus.
"I was kind of lucky," Hortsch said. "Most of the time, singers have to wait for an opening in the chorus; but when I auditioned, there was a regular place open."
Like Fisher and Brennenan, Hortsch appreciates the community aspect of the opera. According to Hortsch, some members of the chorus have been members for over 20 years.
"It's nice to get to know people outside my immediate circle here at UP," Hortsch said. "When there's an opera going on, my social life definitely benefits from it."
Hortsch's administrative job works well with her opera gigs. Because she is usually done at UP around 4:30 p.m., she is able to get to both jobs without conflict.
Wade Baker, a music teacher at UP, is also in the chorus along with Eva Wolff, Audrey Voon, and Sarah Norton are UP alumni.
Noelle Guest is another UP alumna. With degrees in both theatre and theatre management, Guest graduated UP in 1997 and now works as the executive assistant to the general director of the Portland Opera.
Guest describes that a job like hers demands a lot of flexibility. She also explains how having the ability to work on and complete several things at once has benefitted her in her work.
"My advice is to have a diverse skill-set, and to cultivate a tolerant,long-fused personality in yourself, one that can accept this complex hierarchical relationship," Guest said.
Like the other UP students, Guest had very little exposure to opera before taking her job at the Portland Opera. Like the others, she has enjoyed learning about the theatre company and its inner workings.
As for the opera itself, it'd be difficult to justify saying anything that isn't enormous praise. Puccini's "La Bohéme" is undoubtedly a classic; and there is incredible talent in the cast, especially among the lead performers. According to Opera America, La Bohéme is the second most performed opera in the United States after "Madame Butterfly."
It's clear why.
Though set around 1830, the opera's themes are just as relevant as they were when the opera began. The opera is about Rodelpho, a starving poet, who falls in love with a seamstress, Mimi. His roommate, Marcello, struggles with his romance with Musetta, a singer and heartthrob extraordinaire. Each is struggling to enrich the world with his art, and neither can pay his rent. Sound familiar? Most likely, if you're a musical theatre buff. The Broadway musical "RENT" is based on the opera. Rodelpho became our Roger, and Marcello is the character we know as Mark.
La Bohéme, because of its "bohemian" nature (young love, Paris, starving artists, elusive dreams), inspired much of today's popular culture. Baz Luhrmann, director of alternative historically oriented love stories such as "Romeo + Juliet" and "Moulin Rouge" developed his own production of the opera. In his Australian revival, the "L'amour" sign is outside of Rodelpho and Marcello's apartment. For those familiar with "Moulin Rouge," this is the same sign seen outside Christian's (Ewan McGregor's) apartment. [PLEAASE - don't say the sign came from Moulin Rouge, I don't know which came first, I'm guessing the one in Boheme]
The set of the Portland Opera's production is no less spectacular. Marcello and Rodelpho's apartment is flooded with detail. Its dreary, melancholy tone can either contrast with its joyful tenants' singing and dancing or add to the tragedy that later ensues. In the scenes with the entire chorus, classic, but larger than life French Toulouse Lautrec-style posters decorate the background.
The story of "La Bohéme" shows the characters always in the height of emotions. No time is ever wasted because in opera, the rules are different. Rodelpho and Mimi can fall in love within 10 minutes of meeting each other, and it can be the most beautiful and true love ever witnessed. The spectacle and artistic value of the opera are unmatched by most of what's out there.
The leads, having all mostly been familiar with "La Bohéme," were all incredible singers and actresses. Kelly Kaduce, who played the role of Mimi, showed some enormous talent. Her character in particular goes through spikes of emotion, which was so convincing, it was almost tangible. Another clear standout was Marcello, played by Michael Todd Simpson, who was humorous and bold (and also good-looking). Arturo Chacon-Cruz, Rodolfo, had a fantastically powerful voice that complemented every other performer he sung with.
Let's put it this way: You can go to Lloyd Center and watch Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart frustratingly dance around the fact that they're eventually going to get together, or you can see three hours filled with passion, heartbreak and romance. It's some of the most beautiful music that can be found in the world.
Student rush tickets are available an hour before the show begins for $10. These tickets are for any seats that are not already sold out. According to Fisher, students can luck out with very expensive seats this way.
Opening weekend was last weekend, but tonight and Saturday are the last showings of "La Bohéme" and begin at 7:30 p.m. It's not too late!
This opera season's theme is "love & marriage" at the Portland Opera. The operas also include "Orphée," "Cosî Fan Tutte," "Trouble in Tahiti" and "The Barber of Seville." Each opera, according to the season's informational pamphlet, "examines a facet of love."
The Portland Opera provides opportunities for college students to see opera that are extremely affordable and, frankly, much more worth their while than most everything they'll see in the movie theater.
Chances are, when the curtain closes, you'll find yourself thinking that you would much prefer if the actors just started it over again.
