Conservatory students tackle Mozart’s Figaro
What: The VCM Opera Studio presents Le Nozze di Figaro When: Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. (doors at 7) Where: Metro Studio, 1411 Quadra St. Tickets: $12.25 (students) and $24.85 (adults) at Ticketfly.com, the VCM Front Desk (900 Johnson St.), or by phone at (250) 386-5311
For an opera that made its debut in 1786, Le Nozze di Figaro has not lost a step.
It remains an important production, and not simply because of its status as one of the best-known operas in the world. Rather, the opera otherwise known as The Marriage of Figaro has endured because of its timely nature.
“It’s a very topical work because it was considered extremely subversive, politically,” said Robert Holliston, head of the keyboard department at the Victoria Conservatory of Music.
“It has a role to play in the history of the French Revolution, so it always has that cachet.”
Holliston, who for a quarter century has given pre-performance lectures at Pacific Opera Victoria events, was instrumental in helping the senior students in the conservatory’s Opera Studio work Le Nozze di Figaro into a full production.
For this performance, students in their late teens and early twenties will be under the tutelage of conductor Timothy Vernon, director Julie McIsaac and pianist Csinszka Redai. Holliston, who is also a founding director of the VCM Opera Studio, will play harpsichord.
For amateurs taking on an operatic behemoth, the students are not as nervous as one might expect, Holliston said.
“The roles are actually quite difficult and you need to be a very advanced student to think of tackling them. But this is one of the ones that can benefit from a student production. They have been very well prepared. It is an excellent experience for everybody involved.”
The conservatory has not tackled Le Nozze di Figaro since 2003, and for good reason. One of the cornerstones of Mozart’s career, Le Nozze di Figaro is a big piece to digest. “A full-scale opera [for the conservatory] is less common,” Holliston said. “Very often an opera studio such as ours will do a series of excerpts or scenes from a variety of different pieces.”
Holliston and his fellow instructors have been working with the students since September. While there is no full orchestra for the performance and the students lack extensive opera experience, they are willing participants in the process.
That’s part of the appeal for everyone involved, Holliston said. “We spend a great deal of time helping and coaching the students to develop a sense of the Mozartian style. They’ve had significant Italian-diction coaching as well, and those things aren’t available when you’re involved with a professional production of an opera. You have a couple of weeks and that’s it.”