Opera Saratoga brings a children’s tale to life
CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. » A live production of the 18th-century fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk was made all the more special last week when four performers from Opera Saratoga brought the play to life with vocal numbers courtesy of Gilbert and Sullivan.
The company’s Opera to Go program was a 40-minute adaptation of the childhood favorite. As performed at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library on March 7, it featured operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan as adapted by John Davies. The performance entranced a roomful of young children and their parents numbering nearly 100.
Though the story of the lackadaisical lad named Jack trading away the family cow for a few beans is well known to adults, it was all new to the younger set. Seeing it performed live, just a few feet away, and done as an opera with the quick and nimble Gilbert and Sullivan vocal styling made it all the more fun.
This was opera for kids. From the play’s selection, with its childlike backdrop, to the costumes, the actor’s portrayals, and the message at the end about bullying, this play was for children and they loved it.
The opera company bills the play as an opportunity for students to be exposed to operatic music and classical singing while exploring important themes of embracing differences and working together. This performance did all that and more.
“Jack lives with his mother right here on the ground in a small cottage not far from the town,” said the play’s narrator, accompanist and musical director Nicholas Pothier. “There, an old cow is sickly, so sadly she mooed, for not even old cows could find any food.”
To make a point early in the play of how hungry he is, tenor Andrew McGowan,
as Jack B. Nimble, sang about his hunger and how he’d waste away if he didn’t find some food.
“I have gathered in the
broccoli and pumpkins and potatoes, the radishes, asparagus, some carrots, and tomatoes. So if you’re very hungry there’s no need for you to worry, I’ve told my magic beans that we’re kind of in a hurry,” he sings.
“For I’ve haven’t had a bite to eat in seven and a day and if I do not find some food I’m sure to waste away for I’m hungry Jack,” he sang.
“He’s hungry Jack,” replied his mother, Mrs. Nimble, performed by soprano Tessa McQueen in a perfect Gilbert and Sullivan style.
McGowan and McQueen were joined by bass-baritone Christopher Seefeldt who performed dual roles of the Troubled Man with the magic beans as well as the giant. McQueen doubled her roles also playing the giant’s wife.
Once the beans had sprouted up to the clouds and Jack was in the home of the giant the fun really took off with some theatrical hide and seek, a faux ghost, pointed quips from a frustrated wife, and angry threats from the giant.
“I’ll catch that boy and put him in a jar,” Seefeldt, as the giant sang. “I’ll eat you for my lunch with bread and jam”.
While escaping the giant’s clutches Jack learned how the giant stole a golden hen from his father, Squire B. Nimble years earlier. The revelation led the three performers to sing separate lyrics to the same melody from three perspectives. It was a sight to behold close-up.
The play concludes with the giant falling to earth after the beanstalk is cut. When he lands on his head the fall transforms him from an angry giant to a large gentleman who sees the error of his ways.
“You must treat others as you’d have them treat you; that’s the golden rule,” the trio sang at the play’s conclusion. During the question and answer period that followed the actors discussed their vocal ranges, how much they rehearse, and the proper way to use one’s body to sing opera.
“I’m a bass-baritone,” Seefeldt said. “My singing voice is deep, so I play all the bad guys.”
Opera Saratoga’s children’s programming, Opera-to-Go, performs in more than fifty public and private schools throughout the greater Capital Region, lower Adirondacks, western Massachusetts, and southern Vermont during a five-week period each spring. These are paid actors from around the country who have auditioned for the parts.
“We get paid for this,” Seefeldt told the youthful audience seated on the carpet at his feet. “That’s why you go to college. We do it because we love it and try to pay our bills at the same time.”