Opera Fayetteville

Opera Fayetteville Opera Fayetteville is a young, vibrant opera company located in the heart of Northwest Arkansas.

05/07/2022

Second Nature is TONIGHT! We can't wait to see you at the Walton Arts Center at 8 to share this beautiful opera with you.

Milena Gligic joins Opera Fayetteville this season for the first time as Assistant Music Director and as pianist! Origin...
05/05/2022

Milena Gligic joins Opera Fayetteville this season for the first time as Assistant Music Director and as pianist! Originally from Serbia, Milena is now based in Los Angeles, where she teaches at CalArts and and is an alum of the LA Opera's Young Artist Program.

OF: What should audiences expect from the score of Second Nature?
MG: Second Nature brings up relevant themes of our world in a story told through the innocence of two young children led by the natural human curiosity. The story explores a possibility of where the future of humanity might be headed if we keep taking nature for granted and forgetting where we came from. This is all masterfully expressed through Aucoin’s musical language which is incredibly complex and difficult for all the performers, but in the end worth the hard work, because it perfectly reflects the fragmented, synthetic and virtual world we are all creating and becoming a part of.

OF: Can you describe what it means to be a collaborative pianist and vocal coach to someone who doesn't work in opera?
MG: A collaborative pianist is a pianist that focuses on collaborating with other musicians rather than playing solo repertoire. There are so many opportunities to perform and work as a collaborative pianist—from solo musicians and chamber ensembles, to theaters, operas, choirs, orchestras, dance companies, etc.

A vocal coach is a more specific branch of a collaborative pianist, meaning that this person specializes in vocal repertoire - art song, opera, musical theater or other genres. Vocal coaches are usually proficient in several languages, meaning that they know very well how to pronounce the text in a foreign language or how to guide the singer towards producing the correct sound. They also know basics of the singing technique and can tell when something sounds off in the voice. They are problem solvers with a good ear and they have a bag of tricks that can help a singer resolve multiple issues. That is because they are exposed to so many singers and voice teachers through their work and they learn from many different sources. Oftentimes they are singers themselves. They are also able to help a singer build a bigger picture in terms of interpreting the music and their own character within it. Vocal coaches also perform with singers a lot and through mutual trust, they are able to develop close musical and personal relationships that can last for a very long time.

OF: How did you end up in this particular niche?
MG: I was always naturally good at and interested in foreign languages, I sing a lot myself and obviously I had developed solid pianistic and musicianship skills to be able to learn a lot of different repertoire very quickly (not to mention sight-reading almost on a daily basis!). It all blended naturally and came together. I wasn’t even aware until it happened to me. It wasn’t the field that I’d chosen. It chose me.

OF: What do you like about new opera in particular?
MG: New opera is an experiment in itself. It could be anything. It can explore old traditions in new ways or create new frames of theatrical and musical expression. It is always a fun experience to immerse yourself in a world of creating something that never existed before. You really feel like you get to put your own mark on it as well, especially if it’s something that is done for the very first time.

OF: What else do you have coming up?
MG: Right after this I will be doing a very fun show with the Opera in the Heights in Houston—Scalia/Ginsburg by Derrick Wang, directed by the extremely talented Josh Shaw who simply can’t put on a boring show, and conducted by the wonderful Eiki Isomura. I can’t wait!

Mezzo-soprano Heather Jones (they/them) rejoins Opera Fayetteville this season as Lydia in Second Nature. You may rememb...
05/04/2022

Mezzo-soprano Heather Jones (they/them) rejoins Opera Fayetteville this season as Lydia in Second Nature. You may remember them from 2018's Opera in Bloom at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks. Heather has also appeared as Hannah After in Laura Kaminsky's As One and wrote and starred in an all-queer production of Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella.

OF: Can you describe the journey which led you to a career in opera?
HJ: My family is very artistic and I've always loved music and performing so I was around theatre, musicals, and classical music a lot as a kid. But I found my way to opera later on, after going to college for music education and working as a choir teacher for several years. I met an amazing voice teacher who suggested I try out mezzo operatic repertoire and encouraged me to pursue it professionally. A couple years later I went to grad school for voice performance and I've been lucky enough to work as a freelance singer in NYC ever since.

OF: What do you like most about performing live?
HJ: I love the way that live performance can facilitate really intimate and profound connections while also maintaining a certain level of autonomy. As an audience member you can have huge realizations about yourself and society in the privacy of your own seat, and as a performer you can immerse yourself in another world knowing that you'll be able to return to being you at the end of the performance. I particularly love when pieces of art provide commentary about society and Second Nature is such a great example of a somewhat absurdist but very poignant take on how humans will cope with the ongoing climate crisis.

OF: What is your character in Second Nature like?
HJ: Lydia is a confident, brave, decisive, and outspoken 12 year old. She also knows what she wants and knows what to say to get it. She's basically the opposite of me when I was a shy pre-teen! But you also get to see her mature and gain humility as she starts to see the world (literally) as a much larger place than what she previously thought it was. It's been so fun to embody this character and I love the ways that Matthew's music conveys Lydia's emotions from sly to exasperated to feeling a sense of wonder at the unknown.

OF: What do you do when you aren’t singing?
HJ: When I'm not singing I'm usually riding my bike around NYC, visiting the amazing vintage stores in Brooklyn, hanging out and cooking at home with my cat Blue Barry, or getting out of the city to go hiking and camping. I also love to upcycle old clothing to make new garments and my summer project is to try to build a suit out of a shower curtain.

OF: What else do you have coming up?
HJ: This spring I sang solos in Verdi's Requiem and Bach's St. John Passion and after leaving Fayetteville I'll head to Charleston, SC for the Spoleto Festival where I'll be in Puccini's la Boheme, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, and several choral concerts. And later this year I'll join Thompson Street Opera in Chicago for the premiere of an opera called Would You Eat Me that explores the human mind, family relationships, and learning to forgive yourself.

If you've been to an Opera Fayetteville performance, you've likely seen the work of Fayetteville costume designer Staci ...
05/03/2022

If you've been to an Opera Fayetteville performance, you've likely seen the work of Fayetteville costume designer Staci Bell. She's back for Second Nature and we caught up with her about this performance, pandemic costumes, and what's special about opera.

OF: Can you describe the setting of Second Nature?
SB: The setting is a scary projection of what the actual future of the earth and our communities and governances could look like in 100 years. It’s in a human, climate change caused dystopian future somewhere in mid-America, furthest from the encroachment of the ever rising waters. This seemingly autocratic society of humans that were left have built a sealed habitation from an old zoo complex and have lived there for the last 20 years. They are living in this weird space where they are in an isolated limbo. Even though their basic needs are met in this place, I think most of the characters know in their heart of hearts nothing they can simulate will ever amount to the beauty and awe of the natural world they took for granted.

OF: What were your inspirations for the costumes?
SB: The director and I talked about how being sequestered in a makeshift habitat for 20 years surely made the folks inside have to get creative about the types of garments they wore or repurposed. I looked a lot at dystopian and technology influenced fashion and culture within the restraint of that idea, including various shows and books, an example being Station 11. For characters like these, we have no “history” of costume as visual restraints that need to be researched. It’s very open, so I created aesthetic pin boards to represent the ideas of characters that I had. I looked a lot into features that would still give a human but strange future society feel without going too sci-fi. I was especially interested in alternative or synthetic types of materials, texturing, repurposing , and what embedded technology or circuitry could possibly look like.

OF: You've collaborated with Opera Fayetteville many times. What is special about working on an opera?
SB: I have since their inaugural season! I had never designed costumes for an opera prior to doing Little Women in 2012. In fact, I didn’t know much about opera at all. Now that I have several shows under my belt I’ve experienced, I can say that I think it’s special because it’s a very unique method of presenting a story and characters than what most people are used to. The emotion of opera feels especially all encompassing to me. Even working as a costumer with the singers feels different that of working with play actors - their voices are their tools in an even greater capacity and we have to be mindful to make sure they aren’t constricted in a way that would affect that performance or ability. I feel so very lucky to have been allowed to be a part of this adventure!

OF: What other kinds of costumes do you make?
SB: Though I got my BFA in Costume Design and Construction for Film and Theatre, my heart is in historical costuming for individuals. I have been designing and sewing for about 20 years now and I got my start with medieval and Renaissance reenactment and cosplay clothing for myself! There was a great discrepancy in the availability of size inclusive costumes at the time. I now do that for others along with independent commissions for specific characters from film, tv, or stories. I love the transformative nature of what a costume can do for a person to bring out a whole new side of them to engage with!

Tenor Brian Skoog is joining Opera Fayetteville for the first time as Jake in Second Nature. His credits include perfor...
05/02/2022

Tenor Brian Skoog is joining Opera Fayetteville for the first time as Jake in Second Nature. His credits include performances with The Cleveland Opera, Toledo Opera, Nashville Opera, and Utah Festival Opera, including operas like Il Trovatore, Mozart and Salieri (by Rimsky-Korsakov), Manon Lescaut, and The Fall of the House of Usher.

OF: Can you describe the journey which led you to a career in opera?
BS: My mother is a ballet teacher, and my paternal grandfather was a career musician, so I have musical genes on both sides. As a child, I was always around music and theatre in one form or another; I took piano lessons from a young age with an incredible teacher, Gail Elkins, and in high school became quite dedicated to studying the trumpet. I was also fortunate that my parents took me to see many musicals when their national tours passed through town. My first obsessions were Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables, and I performed in some community children’s theatre and eventually, in my high school musicals. It wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I began taking voice lessons with the amazing mezzo-soprano Sandra Walker, who really introduced me to the world of opera. I quickly realized that opera combines all of the various things I love about classical music, vocal music, and theatre.

OF: What do you like most about performing live?
BS: I can be a bit of a perfectionist, and in the last several years where much of the work I have done has been recorded projects where it is so tempting to go back and re-record or agonize after the fact over how something could be better, it is incredibly freeing to be able to live in the moment again on stage with colleagues and an audience. I feed off the energy of my colleagues and the audience, and that energy cannot be fully replicated in a recording studio. Especially after the past few years, I do not anticipate that anyone on stage or in the audience will be taking the experience of live opera for granted for a long time.

OF: What is your character in Second Nature like?
BS: I play Jake, a ten-year-old boy, who I think we can all relate to in one way or another. He fully embraces the technology of the day, which includes spending a lot of time exploring things in virtual reality. He can’t see how anything would be better than being able to view virtual versions of the world, and do “risky” activities, without really risking anything or going anywhere. Despite his obsession with doing things in this virtual way, I think he has an adventurous spirit within him that he is just trying to figure out how to channel.

OF: What do you do when you aren’t singing?
BS: I love exploring nature, especially in all the new places that this career has taken me. When not hiking or kayaking, I am also quite tech-obsessed, and enjoy playing video games and reading up on the newest advances in technology. And I love to cook!

OF: What else do you have coming up?
BS: This summer, I will make my debut with Opera NEO in San Diego as Lurcanio in Handel’s Ariodante. I recently had a recording of a piece entitled “The Lake” by Margaret Brouwer released on a new album on the Naxos Label, and later this year, a recording of a new song cycle for tenor and three bassoons by Ryan Charles Ramer will be released as well.

Mezzo-soprano Imara Miles joins Opera Fayetteville for the first time in Second Nature! Originally from Washington D.C.,...
05/01/2022

Mezzo-soprano Imara Miles joins Opera Fayetteville for the first time in Second Nature! Originally from Washington D.C., her busy schedule of upcoming performances includes productions with the Des Moines Metro Opera, Toledo Opera, Pensacola Opera, and Knoxville Opera.

OF: Can you describe the journey which led you to a career in opera?
IM: I got into opera through my family's love of old musicals. We used to watch movies like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and I knew from an early age that I wanted to become a musician. Fast forward to high school where I heard "Una voce poco fa" and fell head over heels with Rossini. A former teacher told me it was important to know the notable great, Black singers (Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle, and Leontyne Price to name a very few) and I've been pursuing the genre ever since.

OF: What do you like most about performing live?
IM: What I like most about performing live is seeing my colleagues and audiences react to the art; It's such a beautiful process that's difficult to experience in the bubble of solitude that we all faced during the pandemic.

OF: What is your character in Second Nature like?
IM: My character, Elizabeth, is a mother trying her best to protect and shield her son from the dangers of the world they are living in. She's careful not to upset the balance of the powers that be (Elder Constance) but knows that her child and the continuation of humankind are more important than social order.

OF: What do you do when you aren’t singing?
IM: When I'm not singing I enjoy cooking, playing video games, watching movies, and spending time with friends and family. I also enjoy traveling and going on new adventures so I'm happy that's becoming more and more possible.

OF: What else do you have coming up?
IM: Coming up, I will be a featured artist at the Operazzi Ball with Pensacola Opera, an Apprentice Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera where I'll be performing Lily in Porgy & Bess, and later I will be a resident artist with Toledo Opera.

Clarinetist Nophachai Cholthitchanta is familiar to Opera Fayetteville audiences from many previous productions, most re...
04/29/2022

Clarinetist Nophachai Cholthitchanta is familiar to Opera Fayetteville audiences from many previous productions, most recently Glory Denied (2020). We're thrilled to have him back for Second Nature, and the small orchestra of this piece means he'll be playing an even more prominent role. A professor at the University of Arkansas, Nophachai plays in many local ensembles (including the APO) and is an avid collector of antique clarinets. We chatted with him about this piece.

OF: What do you think is special about playing in an opera?
NC: We, instrumentalists always aim to make our sound as close as possible to the human voice, so I enjoy playing repertoires with voice. With the opera, it’s the most complete artforms that required the precise collaborations between artists. That is what I most enjoy about playing in an opera.

OF: What do you like most about live performance?
NC: As a musician nothing compares with sharing the work you love doing live!

OF: How would you describe the music of Second Nature?
NC: It’s quite soloistic as only three instruments. The rhythms are very complex, and I am looking forward to the rehearsals to bring all together.

OF: What do you like about being an artist in Fayetteville?
NC: We are very lucky because Fayetteville is considered an artistic town. We have great supported the city and many private sectors.

OF: What else do you have coming up?
NC: In the next few weeks, I will be finalizing a 15-month collaborative research paper on an esteemed 19th century clarinet maker in Lyon for The Galpin Society Journal. After that I will be spending my summer in Thailand doing field research for the best reed canes (Arundo donax) to make the first clarinet reed from Thai reed cane!

Meet bass Michael Colman, who is joining Opera Fayetteville for the first time in Second Nature! His roles include canon...
04/28/2022

Meet bass Michael Colman, who is joining Opera Fayetteville for the first time in Second Nature! His roles include canonic repertory like Basilio in The Barber of Seville and Leporello in Don Giovanni as well as roles in new opera like the Commentator (Scalia/Ginsburg).

OF: Can you describe the journey which led you to a career in opera?
MC: My mom had a significant and unexpected influence on starting me down the path to opera. Every cleaning day of my childhood, she would put on an Amy Grant CD and I would attempt to out-sing the vacuum cleaner. Fast forward through piano lessons and music theater shows until I finally sang a role in my first opera in undergrad: Superintendent Budd in Albert Herring. I based the character on my miniature schnauzer, Lando. Not exactly Stanislavsky method acting, but it was a solid start.

MC: What do you like most about live performance?
OF: My favorite part of performing live is the exchange of energy with the audience. Live opera is similar to an olympic sport, in a way. We are frequently performing at the edges of human ability and that makes it technically exciting for the performers and the audience. Throw in meaningful stories and emotional portrayals and there is nothing else like it.

OF: What is your character in Second Nature like?
MC: I play two roles in Second Nature: the father, David, and The Bonobo. David is trapped in a failing system that he helped create and that he actively props up. However, he has the opportunity to support his daughter as she makes the decision to begin righting his wrongs. The Bonobo is something of an anti-serpent in a retelling of Adam and Eve and the garden of Eden. He provides the two children with the knowledge of nature that has been denied them which allows them to decide their own path.

OF: What do do when not singing?
MC: When I'm not singing, I love a good strategy board game with friends or family, spending time in the sun (be it hiking or beach reading), and making sangria for movie nights! (The secret ingredient is cran-raspberry juice! Don't tell anyone I told you...)

OF: What else do you have coming up?
MC: Next up for me is a summer season with Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre singing Grandpa Moss in The Tender Land and Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. After that, I head to St. Petersburg Opera to sing Angelotti in their production of Tosca.

OF: Thank you, Michael!

Today, we're bringing you an interview with Laura Shatkus, stage director of Second Nature! Opera Fayetteville audiences...
04/27/2022

Today, we're bringing you an interview with Laura Shatkus, stage director of Second Nature! Opera Fayetteville audiences may remember Laura from 2018's Opera in Bloom, or from her many performances as an actor and director around Northwest Arkansas.

OF: Can you describe the journey which led you to stage direction?
LS: I think I came to stage direction via grad school, when so many times we were called upon to be actor, director, writer, and producer. The first real director/producer-y thing I did was to form an all-girl (ish) improv team (5 months pregnant, RIP) that met at 10:30 pm once a week for two hours and performed once a month with a special guest. In 2015, I started producing staged readings and happenings at 21C, Crystal Bridges, and in Fayetteville at places like Fenix and eventually started directing some of those readings. Opera Fayetteville was my first actual directing gig back in 2018 with two short pieces for Opera in Bloom and I have Shana Gold to thank for that. I had recently put into the universe that I wanted to start to direct and Shana mentioned my name to Tamara. And here we are!

OF: What do you like most about live theater?
LS: I love the living, breathing, organism of live theatre. Unlike film and television, a performance of live theatre is not complete without the audience. I also love how no matter how much you rehearse and plan you can't predict what will actually happen on the night.

OF: What is special about Second Nature?
LS: Second Nature at its heart is about children: their curiosity, their bravery, their vulnerability, and most importantly, their ability to speak the truth when adults would prefer to stay in denial about reality. In addition, the story has so many recognizable fairy story archetypes--the magical garden where the animals are more like humans, the wicked queen, and the misbehaving children running away from home. It has a morality tale at its heart. I will be curious to see how the audience interprets it.

OF: What do you like about being an artist in Fayetteville?
LS: Right now, my cost of living is low, and I am able to eke out a meagre living as a freelance actor, writer, director, and producer (for both stage and the camera) without having to work a day job. I make my own schedule and enjoy the mild weather and beautiful nature all around me.

OF: What else do you have coming up?
LS: I just shot a scene with Sylvester Stallone for a new Paramount Plus TV show that is currently shooting in in Tulsa at the moment (Tulsa King) and that will be released at some point in the next year. A few films I worked on are in post-production and hopefully will be completed soon. In addition, you can hear my voice narrating a documentary called First River, which was just released by The Ozark Society in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Buffalo National River. Other than that, I don't know. I still might have to get a day job. But I have been saying that for 10 years and it hasn't happened yet!

We're continuing our series of artist profiles leading up to our performance of Second Nature on May 7. For many Northwe...
04/26/2022

We're continuing our series of artist profiles leading up to our performance of Second Nature on May 7. For many Northwest Arkansans, violinist Er-Gene Kahng needs no introduction! A professor at the University of Arkansas, she is concertmaster of the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra and the Fort Smith Symphony Orchestra and her recording of Florence Price's two violin concertos have received international acclaim. She will be playing a prominent role in Second Nature's small orchestra.

OF: What do you think is special about playing in an opera?
EK: I enjoy knowing that I am playing an important role in shaping the drama from behind the scenes.

OF:What do you like most about live performance?
EK: I enjoy the feeling of sculpting something slowly, in real time. On the other hand, there is always that 1% that escapes our control, so I enjoy how the slightly slippery nature of a live performance sometimes necessitates quick improvisations and reactions in the moment.

OF: How would you describe the music of Second Nature?
EK: With only 3 instruments, it's the most pared down score I have worked with. The part feels extremely soloistic. The writing is complex - it features tricky rhythms, angular writing and is freely tonal. I am excited to be learning it!

OF: What do you like about being an artist in Fayetteville?
EK: There is a lot of community support and space for experimentation, new collaborations, and development.

OF: What else do you have coming up?
EK: I have two upcoming projects: In honor of AAPI / Jewish Heritage Month, I'll be performing a recital at Crystal Bridges, May 11; a few days later, I'll be traveling to NY to perform Price's Violin Concerto No. 1 with Catskill Symphony!

Our production of Second Nature is less than two weeks away! The cast is beginning to gather in Fayetteville in preparat...
04/25/2022

Our production of Second Nature is less than two weeks away! The cast is beginning to gather in Fayetteville in preparation for our May 7 performance. We'll be introducing them to you here and we're starting today with contralto Emily Geller (Emily Geller, Contralto), who will sing the role of Elder Constance.

Opera Fayetteville: Can you describe the journey which led you to a career in opera?
Emily Geller: Looking back, there were signs I would go into performing. As a child, I would "direct" all my cousins in skits we would perform for the family. In elementary school, I would skip recess to hang out with the music teacher and help her hole-punch music. As I got older, I got involved in theater, performing in straight plays, musicals, scenes programs, improv nights, Shakespeare festivals; you name it. No one in my family was a musician. I didn't play any instruments. Objectively, I wasn't a very good singer. But I wanted to get better parts in the school musicals, so I started taking voice lessons. My teacher happened to be an opera singer, and I was quickly hooked. I worked hard and got noticeably better. I landed Lois Lane in Cole Porter's Kiss, Me Kate. The next year, I got Mrs. Lovett in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. I went to Boston University's Tanglewood Institute and went on to get a large scholarship to New England Conservatory. After that, I was lucky enough to get a full scholarship and stipend to Binghamton University while being a Resident Artist with Tri-Cities Opera. I participated in several Young Artist Programs that gave me invaluable experience. I wasn't born a singer, but I made myself into one. I believe that grit helps me continue to grow and learn.

OF: What is your character in Second Nature like?
EG: Elder Constance is a fun role, especially the way Matthew Aucoin composed her and the orchestration under her. I get some Mommie Dearest vibes from her. She is stern and in control. I believe she truly wants what's best for humanity and is trying to keep everyone alive, at least for a hundred years. That's long enough for her. After that, who cares?

OF: What do you do when you aren’t singing?
EG: I have an almost one-year-old daughter and a three and a half year old son who always keep me laughing and on my toes. Every week, my husband and I order Coldstone delivery and watch RuPaul's Drag Race. I also just started taking tennis lessons!

OF: What else do you have coming up?
EG: For a contralto, strangely a lot of Puccini! This summer, I have the pleasure of performing Benoit/Alcindoro in La bohème with Newport Classical in Newport, Rhode Island. These roles are typically (perhaps always) sung by a male. I'm thrilled to put my own spin on these characters and weave myself into this classic opera. For the fall, I'm making my role debut as Zita in Gianni Schicchi with Salt Marsh Opera in Stonington, Connecticut. I enjoy ensemble pieces in operas, versus "stand and sing alone arias." Pieces like Gianni Schicchi and roles like Zita hit on all my favorite things: comedy, ensemble, and low notes.

Thanks, Emily! Check out her singing on her page, Emily Geller, Contralto.

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