A Very Merry Birthday

The spirit of Falstaff has descended upon the Harvard campus to celebrate the golden anniversary of the Lowell House Opera.

Shakespeare's famous character is one of the main players in this year's opera, Otto Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor which opened Wednesday night and will play through next weekend. The libretto is based on Shakepeare's play of the same name.

Founded in 1938 by the Lowell House Music Society, the Lowell House Opera has put on a show every year since then except for seven years during World War II. Most of the past shows have been in English, and other performances have included The Threepenny Opera, The Golden Apple and The Conversion of Saint Pelagia the Harlot, an original piece written by two Harvard undergraduates.

Musical Director Alan T. Gilbert '89 says that this year's production executives chose The Merry lives of Windsor because "We like to have undergraduates be the singers so it's important for he play to have a chorus."

"I wanted this year's production to be in the spirit of the 50th anniversary [so] I wanted it to be fun." he says.

The Lowell House production works on a $10,000 budget and includes a cast of 14, an orchestra of about 40 and close to 50 technical workers, says Producer David E. Carney '89. "Ticket sales and patron donations are our primary sources of income," he says.

The show is produced and directed by Harvard students, and most of the people in the orchestra and crew are undergraduates. But the cast only contains four Harvard students. The remainder of the cast is made up of semi-professionals from local music schools except for Falstaff who is played by William Beeman, a professor of anthropology at Brown University.

The opera was cast in December and began rehearsing in January. The casting process usually includes several stages of auditions, says Director Adam J. Fratto '90. "In the first round, they sing something prepared, and some roles get cast right there. Others we need to hear again. For instance when I heard Bill Beeman we knew he was the only one who could played the part of Falstaff," he says.

During the callbacks the singers display their acting ability in front of the producer, musical director and the director, Fratto says. Although the second round is important, Fratto says that singing ability was the key factor in choosing cast members.

"In a certain sense acting is subordinate to singing. Acting can be worked with. Singing can't," the Quincy House resident says.

Fratto has directed pop operas before such as The March of the Falsettos here on campus, but this is his first attempt at a traditional opera.

Working with the staging was one of the tougher parts of putting The Merry Wives of Windsor together, he says.

"In a quartet you have four people sing the same lines over and over. There is no dramatic impact," he says. "You [as the director] have to work with the scene in order to suspend the audience's disbelief that there are only four people on stage singing."

Fratto says he also found that the show's large size forced him to combine his creative talents with others, which is a new experience for him. "This show is the first large scale production that I've done, and it was interesting being involved in the give-and-take between me and the musical director," he says.

As the producer, Carney says he was responsible for "finding the 100 person staff." He says that he looked for experienced people to fill his technical crew, but that enthusiasm sometimes made up for training when he made the final selections.

"Our lighting designers have never designed a show before but they were extremely willing to learn how," Carney says. "We didn't need someone who knew how to light a show, we needed someone who was willing," he added.

"The most rewarding part about working on the show was watching the cast enjoying performing, and the crew enjoying putting the show together," Carney says.

Carney, who recently produced a Gilbert and Sullivan production, The Gondoliers, on campus, says that although he likes producing shows, he doesn't intend to make the stage his career. "It's something I really enjoy, but I don't intend to use it as a career or go to Broadway recruiting."

While many members of the crew are from Lowell House and therefore are working close to home, some of the graduate students are from the New England Conservatory of Music. Some of these visitors say they find the time commitment and the setting of the show difficult to handle.

David Williams who portrays Mr. Ford says, "It took a lot time away from my work and school commitments."

And Frank Timmerman, who plays the role of Slender, says, "Gearing myself up to perform in a dining hall situation and getting used to the acoustics was difficult."

During its long history, the opera has become more than just another house show. "The opera acts as a kind of reunion for alums. Especially this year because the producers were very active in inviting alums," says Lowell House Master William H. Bossert '59.

Says one returning alumnus, Leonard Clark '59, who attended opening night, "I've been to the show a couple of times. I think they do a good job with the show because you feel you can relate to the show. It's almost like an Off-Broadway show."

The masters of Lowell House work hard to make the opera enjoyable for the returning alumni and other patrons of the show by hosting a traditional Patrons' Night reception following the opening night's performance. Cast and crew members also attend the black-tie event.

The opera also unifies the current undergraduates at Lowell House and provides them something in which they can take pride, says Bossert, who is also Arnold Professor of Science. "Every house has something, and the opera is something that has been a tradition. A lot of the students in the house take part in the show whether they're interested in music or not. It draws the house together."

Clark agrees, saying, the opera "acts as a symbol that people feel good about. It shows that students are interested in something beyond the daily class routine."

Although most of the opera's five-member chorus is made up of Lowell House people, Bossert says he wishes opera's cast had more students because it would bring the house together even more. "I would like to have more undergrads but I want to leave that to the musical society and the musical director," he says.