KRISITE MOSS / Scroll
Zina Hemingway, a senior from Menomonie, Wis., Tara Wardle, a senior from Brigham City, Utah, and Katie Roberts, a sophomore from Hanford, Calif., perform in the French opera Iphigènie en Tauride.

BYU-Idaho presents first full opera production

Neva Ward WAR05009@BYUI.EDU Scroll Staff

BYU-Idaho students have been working since January to produce the French opera Iphigènie en Tauride by Christoff Willibald von Gluck, which they performed March 21, 22, 24 and 25.

The play is based on a Greek tragedy and tells the story of Iphigènie, the daughter of Agamemnon, who led the Greeks in the Trojan War. Throughout the opera Iphigènia is beset by the horrors of her past, yet struggles to rescue her brother from a terrible fate.

Even more significant than the storyline were the performers chosen to sing and act it out.

The cast was made up of BYU-I students and was directed by Linford with Kris Ciesinki as vocal coach. The BYU-I Collegiate Singers, conducted by Kevin Brower, made up the chorus, and the orchestra was the BYU-I Baroque Ensemble, conducted by Robert Tueller.

Zina Hemingway, a senior from Menomonie, Wis., and Brenda Moore, a senior from Issaquah, Wash., who switched off playing the female lead, Iphigenie, each night. Andrew Peck, a senior from Rexburg, played the male lead.

Jon Linford, BYU-I music faculty and director of the opera, looked for voices that would project over the orchestra and didn’t need microphones.

Technology isn’t used very much in operas. “Go to the opera while at BYU-I, because they have subtitles,” said Katie Roberts, a sophomore from Tremonton, Utah. Lighting and the projected subtitles were the only technologies used.

Maturity is advantageous when auditioning for a role in an opera because the voice doesn’t mature until 30, said Debra McKinney, a senior from Lynnwood, Wash., who played a Greek woman in the play. “[That is why] professionals are normally in their 30s,” Linford said. “This is as young a group as you will see.”

Most of the student singers have been training for years to develop their skills. There is a certain amount of God-given talent, Linford said, but hard work is necessary to be a good opera singer. “What is natural is nowhere near enough,” Linford said.

Linford specializes in opera in the Music Department and hopes to develop an opera program where at least one opera will be produced every year.

Ashley Shaw, a freshman from Payson, Utah, said, “I recommend seeing an opera to experience culture.”

“Opera is expensive [to produce], and that is why it isn’t done as often,” Linford said. He went on to explain that it is less popular because people aren’t exposed to it as often as other forms of theater.