Experience Europe through song
Vocal instructors present a taste of French, Italian, Spanish, German opera
Bennett Mohler
Issue date: 11/13/08 Section: Arts
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"We're drawing from a lot of European influence," Vik said. "It's a good chance to show how holistic operatic singing can be."
The performance will include not only selections from European opera, but also art songs, cabaret songs and contemporary vocal pop songs, including a Celine Dion tune.
"What we're showcasing is a wide variety of styles," Vik said.
Art songs are tunes that were written before recorded music and were performed for entertainment. "It's pop music for the romantic period," Gustafson explained.
Most of the performance will showcase European operas in the original languages.
The faculty agrees that for voice students, opera is the best medium for expanding one's ability.
"If you study voice seriously in any university, you're going to perform opera," Vik said. "It's the best. Everything is designed to sound right at the right time," Gustafson said.
One objective of the performance, like most music performances at LCC, is to raise money for scholarships for LCC music students.
The performance will also give people an idea of what it's like to experience European opera. Audience members may be surprised by the vast differences between French and Italian opera or German and Spanish opera.
"The French songs and the Italian songs have a totally different feel," Gustafson said. Although the styles are different, the faculty hopes to illustrate the common human emotions that bridge the songs.
"We all feel the same things … is what this program is about," Gustafson said. "It's about human emotion. People are people."
While Gustafson has expressed interest in presenting all forms of world music to the campus community, he thought that starting with European forms would be a better starting point, as they are the closest relatives to American forms.
"This is something that should be more accessible to everyone. I think they'll get this. It's just Europe; it's not much of a stretch," Gustafson said.
The performance will also have something to offer for those not interested in opera. "There's a wide variety," Fortin said. "There's opera songs, there's art songs, there's cabaret songs. You'll certainly hear a lot of different styles."
The voice faculty concert will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 18, at 7:30 p.m. in the LCC Performance Hall. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $6 for students.
"We have something for everyone at this thing. Some people coming will be classical vocal students, and some just want to sing better karaoke," Vik said.
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