A larger-than-life opera is taking shape in Normal.
MIOpera will be back on stage Saturday after a hosting a series of concerts that featured Black stories and voices earlier this year. For its next show, Semele by 17th century German-British composer George Frideric Handel, the Twin Cities-based opera company is collaborating with the Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana [BACH] for the first time.
Artistic Director Tracy Koch said Semele is a fun fairy tale that audiences will really enjoy. The show runs once at 7 p.m. Nov. 7 at the Normal First United Methodist Church, with an additional performance at 4 p.m. Nov. 8 at Urbana's Wesley United Methodist Church.
Koch told WGLT Semele is about a princess of the same name. Her father wants her to marry a prince, but she’s in love with the god Jupiter. Just as she’s about to get married, Koch said, Jupiter comes and takes Princess Semele off to the heavens. She said Semele is enjoying herself so much in heaven that she asks Jupiter to turn her into a god and allow her to see Jupiter in his ultimate form. But Jupiter warns her that if she does see a god in their god form, she may not survive.
Jupiter eventually gives in to Semele’s request, and that ends up being her downfall.
“Semele is very human — a lot like us,” said Koch. “I’m very attracted to strong female characters, and she is a strong female character in that she knows what she wants, and she doesn't care about the ramifications of going and following what she really wants. So, she ends up getting what she deserves.”
Cast and chorus
There are about 50 people who are part of the show. Koch said their performers are professionals who start the two-week rehearsal period with their music already prepared, but the piece has been discussed since last summer.
“We move very quickly, like any other professional organization, because of the cuts in the arts funding ... especially opera companies and musical theater companies,” Koch said.
Koch said what makes Semele interesting is that the prince is played by a countertenor. That’s a man who sings in a mezzo-soprano range.
“It's really cool to hear the beauty of that kind of voice, which we normally would not get to hear here in Central Illinois,” said Koch.
Playing the part of Prince Athamas is Bryce Zimmerman, who studies at Indiana University. Koch said he has performed in this role before in other productions, but this is his first Semele with MIOpera. Paige Calvert is performing as the lead character, Princess Semele.
Other musical elements of the production include a harpsichord, orchestra and chorus. Koch said BACH is bringing a high level of chorus power to the show.
Sarah Riskind, is the music director of BACH, and an adjunct assistant professor at Illinois Wesleyan University who conducts the university treble choir and teaches conducting. She’s also serving as conductor of the chorus in Semele.
Riskind said BACH is an advanced community choir that’s celebrating its 30th anniversary. She said they focus on performing Baroque-era music, but they also do other related choral music.
While their group’s nickname is a nod to J.S. Bach, Riskind said they perform music from other Baroque composers.
“Everyone knows the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah,” said Riskind, who added that BACH hosts a Messiah sing-along every year at First Baptist Church of Savoy.
As for MIOpera’s run of Semele, Riskind said the BACH choruses will be much more musically complex than a standard musical ensemble. She said as each part sings more independent, with techniques like fugues. The singing is also more recitative, which Riskind described as speech-like singing.
“The effect is that the music really expresses the emotions of the play,” Riskind said. Whether the text, or libretto, is from the 1700s or the 20th or 21st century, she said it speaks to the human emotions and experiences.
That could range from attending a wedding and feeling happiness for the couple — which Riskind noted in Semele does not continue on because other emotions evoked after the lead character’s death in the song Oh, Terror and Astonishment!
“Those emotions are all portrayed with the really full sound of the chorus,” said Riskind.
Overall, Riskind said the show is a fun and playful drama that she doesn’t get to experience as much with other music. She said her favorite part of the show is the song, Now Love That Everlasting Boy.
“I'm just picturing those Cupids and elephants in Fantasia just dancing around, and that image always comes to my head because that music is just like a party," Riskind said. “It's really exciting and full of this Greek mythology that is inherent in this particular story."
‘A place for everybody’
Koch said there’s something for everybody in opera. She said what makes opera so cool is that it combines dance, acting, musical voices and a symphony.
This production of Semele is being hosted at First United Methodist Church of Normal. Koch said the show is using the church’s beautiful sanctuary as its performance space.
“You get a really personal connection with the production because you’re right there, and people will be coming through the audience. The orchestra is very close to the audience, the performers are [close], so you’re gonna get total immersion in the opera. The way that we use the space, you forget that you’re in a church and it becomes more like a theater,” Koch said.
Koch said people may think of opera as a highbrow artform that’s only for the affluent.
“It’s really not. It’s for everyone,” said Koch. She encouraged people to have an open mind about opera, come out and enjoy a night of beautiful music and acting.
Additionally, Koch said people should realize that everyone can make music.
“Everybody has a voice, and there's a place for everybody. And so, don't be afraid to get out there and join a musical, community group or pursue things in a musical vein,” Koch said, “because if you enjoy it and you love it, there's a spot for you.”
Semele opens in Normal at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7 at Normal First United Methodist Church, 211 N. School St., Normal. You can also see a matinee showing at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8 at Wesley United Methodist Church, 1203 W. Green St., Urbana. Tickets are $10-$25 at miopera.net.
