Last Saturday, the ETSU Department of Music showcased vocal talent in a production of “Stone Soup” in an opera theater show at the International Storytelling Center. The production starred Mark Shelton as the Soldier, Jacob Bullock and Cody Shivers as the Butchers, with Hannah Lawson, Olivia Phillips, Shelby Ribblett and Rachel Gardner as the Vegetable Ladies.
“This is a beloved children’s story that, combined with some pretty challenging singing, makes for a really engaging opera for children,” Director Karen Smith said, who is also a faculty member within the ETSU Department of Music. “The repeated chorus, ‘It takes all kinds of people to make up a happy town,’ summarizes the message of this story.”
Daniel Dorff’s “Stone Soup” is an opera designed for a younger audience and was the first of three opera shows put on by the department for the school year.
“We usually perform two productions per year,” Smith said. “But this year we will also be performing with the Johnson City Symphony in February as well as our spring opera, “Gianni Schicchi,” on March 28 and 29.”
Opera theater is a class that vocal music majors and minors can elect to take. Smith also clarified what the difference is between normal theater and opera theater.
“Everything is sung,” she said. “Well, almost everything, because unlike musical theater, there is no amplification,” Smith said. “The operatic style of singing requires singers to train the voice for optimum resonance, making it unnecessary to amplify the singers.”
ETSU’s Department of Music works closely with the Department of Theatre on their performances for opera theater for certain things, but Smith implies that their theater performances and the performances in the theater department are individual identities.
“The theater department assists us in costume and props,” Smith said. “Sometimes we have a theater professor come over and work with our students in regards to their characters, but opera theater is a separate entity and we rehearse, recruit and produce within the music department.”
Smith conveyed that the International Storytelling Center was ideal for the a production like “Stone Soup.”
“It is the perfect size for an opera for children, where every seat is a good one and the children can actually feel a part of the story, but not removed like they might imagine opera being,” Smith said. “We are story tellers after all; we just do it with melody, so what better place to introduce a new audience to opera?”
