{"id":5406,"date":"2015-11-20T07:30:34","date_gmt":"2015-11-20T13:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/?p=5406"},"modified":"2015-11-20T10:56:23","modified_gmt":"2015-11-20T16:56:23","slug":"cmu-opera-workshop-class-presents-the-aria-a-study-of-the-staged-solo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/2015\/cmu-opera-workshop-class-presents-the-aria-a-study-of-the-staged-solo\/","title":{"rendered":"CMU Opera Workshop class presents The Aria: A Study of the Staged Solo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Course, concert allow students to learn the art of stagecraft<\/em><\/h3>\n

Canadian Mennonite University\u2019s Opera and Musical Theatre Workshop is proud to present The Aria: A Study of the Staged Solo<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The concerts features more than 15 striking solo performances from more than 10 different opera and musical theatre productions.<\/p>\n

Directed by CMU Instructor of Music David Klassen, the production runs for two shows: Thursday, December 3 at 7:30 PM and Friday, December 4 at 7:30 PM.<\/p>\n

\"aria\"<\/a>The performances will take place in the Laudamus Auditorium (500 Shaftesbury Blvd.). Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for students, and available at the door. Tickets may also be reserved by calling 204-487-3300.<\/p>\n

The show includes performances of \u201cDalla sua pace\u201d from Mozart\u2019s Don Giovanni<\/em>, \u201cCaro nome\u201d from Verdi\u2019s Rigoletto<\/em>, \u201cJuliette\u2019s Waltz\u201d from Gounod\u2019s Romeo and Juliette<\/em>, a handful of hits by Gilbert and Sullivan, and more.<\/p>\n

Klassen is looking forward to seeing his 10 students perform.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always really, really proud of what it is they produce,\u201d Klassen says. \u201cMy hope is that the audience comes along on the journey and can see their hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Opera and Musical Theatre Workshop course is made available to students of all skill levels and gives them an understanding of the energy and effort required to communicate when performing operatic works.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year I try to build something that fits the skill level and make up of the student body in the class,\u201d says Klassen, who has taught the course for the past 10 years. \u201cWhat I decided to do this year was take a stagecraft approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

That meant teaching the students stage skills such as directing and blocking. Each student is involved in at least three pieces: one they star in, one they direct, and one in which they portray a secondary character.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I really hope my students take with them is the confidence in their ability to understand and stage musical pieces on their own,\u201d Klassen says.<\/p>\n

The course is valuable because it empowers students to think for themselves about the pieces they are performing, says Nolan Kehler, a fourth-year Music student who has participated in the Opera and Musical Theatre Workshop each year he\u2019s been at CMU.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid asks questions like, \u2018How is your character feeling in this scene?\u2019 and \u2018Why is your character moving the way he is?\u2019\u201d Kehler says. \u201cAll the questions make you think about what you\u2019re doing on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

CMU\u2019s small student body gives students wishing to participate in Opera and Musical Theatre Workshop an advantage.<\/p>\n

Larger universities typically draw from their graduate programs when staging productions like The Aria: A Study of the Staged Solo<\/em>. At CMU, even non-music students are able to take the course.<\/p>\n

Students in the course mount a full-scale production every second year, and present scenes from a variety of different works in the years in between.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlternating between a full production and scenes means more people get a chance to be a leading character and get into a leading character\u2019s mindset,\u201d Kehler says. \u201cThat kind of opportunity is pretty huge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Course, concert allow students to learn the art of stagecraft Canadian Mennonite University\u2019s Opera and Musical Theatre Workshop is proud to present The Aria: A Study of the Staged Solo. The concerts features more than 15 striking solo performances from more than 10 different opera and musical theatre productions. Directed by CMU Instructor of Music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,25,5],"tags":[701,613,614,463],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5406"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5406"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5414,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5406\/revisions\/5414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}