Problems of Producing an Opera

Within the space of two short years theatre has become an increasingly important part of undergraduate life at Harvard. Up until this season drama has played a key role in the stepped-up stage activity. A new Eliot House Drama Group enjoyed overwhelming success in all its productions and HDC's major performance, Death of a Salesman, drew rave reviews. At the same time, however, the local music groups did not stand by idly.

Gilbert and Sullivan groups greatly increased their output and Lowell House presented The Golden Apple in true Broadway-spectacle fashion.

But never at the University had grand opera been tried. And so it was that many skeptical heads shook last spring when a group of students formed The Harvard Opera Guild and planned their first production.

This month The Barber of Seville, the results of their labors, will be presented on the Agassiz stage.

Early Enthusiasm

Robert A. Cortright '58, a Glee Club tenor, thought it could be done. So did Lewis M. Steel '58, the production's producer, while most of the University's best voices were extremely enthusiastic.

While other theatrical groups were planning their future with well-lined pockets after a season of success, the Guild was capitalized at $00.00. And whereas most organizations had trained directors, producers, and technical staffs, the new group had to scout around for people capable of more than just the good college try.

Peter Neumann '54, a graduate student in math who knew Boston musical circles by heart, came up with many of the solutions. He found musical director Hewitt Pantaleoni, a graduate student in the Music Department, out of thin air, and led the search for a stage director.

Language Requirement

When Arthur Schoep, a seasoned campaigner at the New England Opera Theatre took the job, The Harvard Opera Guild began to feel respectable for the first time.

Schoep ended the Italian-English language dispute, deciding for the latter. As he put it, singing in a language all could understand was the only way that a meaningful "marriage of stage and voice" could be attained.

By the end of the term almost all of the cast had been assembled and issued scores to learn over the summer. Through patronage a bank account developed--to the producer's profound relief.

In the beginning of September, Steel called for pre-registration voice rehearsals and a willing cast drifted into Cambridge a week before the term began. Neumann began to attend every student orchestra concert in the area, collecting the best talent he could find for The Barber of Seville's own 25-piece orchestra which must fill Agassiz's non-existent pit.

But the most important task fell to the singers themselves. The great majority had never had major roles before and few of those who had stage experience had sung in grand opera. Still fewer were familiar with Boris Goldovsky's directing techniques as presented by Schoep.

Basically this technique forces the performer to become an accomplished actor. Those on the stage are not allowed to look at the conductor. Instead they must set the pace of the music and provide cues for the conductor. The adherents of this method of presenting opera claim it is the only way to create a living performance. Other techniques, they assert, lead only to operatic concerts wherein the singers are puppets dressed in magnificent costumes and playing on elaborately decorated stages.

Goldovsky followers may well see how successful the technique is in training excellent but comparatively inexperienced talent, for Schoep has done an amazing job readying the cast for opening night in a limited period of time.

But success would mean much more than just proving relatively new ideas. It would establish The Harvard Opera Guild and its theory that opera has a place at the University. A well-done performance would also establish new faces in the local theatre. It might soon need them.