Picoplat makes new magic

Artistic director and cast member Natalia Dopwell sat with Sunday Newsday to discuss the flexibility of opera and the process of bringing Mozart’s timeless work to life in the heart of Port of Spain.

Ferocious beasts in a mysterious forest, a prince - with a quirky sidekick to boot - who’s fallen in love with a princess at first sight, and a cold-hearted queen. Sounds like the stuff of Disney movies, doesn’t it? With its simple storyline, relatable, stocklike characters and memorable music, The Magic Flute is Mozart’s most-performed opera and currently the seventh most-performed opera worldwide.

Dopwell, who has sung the role of the Queen a number of times, both locally and abroad, agrees that the classic is perfect for an introduction to opera.

“Most people, when exposed to opera, come out thinking that it’s all dark and heavy,” the soprano admitted. The opera falls into a sub-classification known as singspiel, literally “sing-play”, which refers to operas containing spoken dialogue, similar to the structure of modern musicals.

This makes them a little easier to follow than other operas, which are sung all the way through. Dopwell and the team did some editing of their own, in an attempt to make the work more relatable to contemporary audiences.

Mozart was a staunch freemason, and the virtues of honour and brotherhood that shine through the “good” characters are actually extracted from the basic tenets of freemasonry. In this production, some of the heavier aspects related to this have been removed, not, of course, to be disloyal to the intent but for the mere purpose of simplification.

“There is a lot of symbolism in there that you could write a thesis on. If you’re not privy to it, some of the dialogue isn’t as entertaining, so we cut out quite a bit of it,” Dopwell explained. “We also cut out some of the music that didn’t assist with the storyline and shifted where events occur in the opera.” But isn’t this artistic sacrilege? Dopwell gives her take on the moderate edits.

“The way that I approach classical music, I try not to be too reverent,” the Manhattan School of Music-trained soprano admitted, explaining that approaching the centuries- old music with too much reverence can bring about a stringent staleness.

“(One must) think about it like a young person and not like a historian.

I don’t think that Mozart was terribly reverent himself; he had a really dirty sense of humour,” she laughed. True story: Mozart actually composed a six-part vocal work as a party piece for his musician friends, entitled, Leck Mich im Arsch, which is roughly translated into “kiss my arse”. So perhaps a little editing isn’t such a cardinal sin after all.

This type of editing isn’t unheard of in the theatrical world.

More often than not, the adaptations of musicals that make it to the big screen are somewhere between mildly to severely butchered, with plot lines, songs and even characters changed or missing. Opera companies also sometimes do some plot-tweaking of their own, if only for the sake of keeping the work relatable and the artform relevant.

The Cast Tenor Raguel Gabriel, previously seen in Picoplat Foundation’s operas, reprises his role as the prince, Tamino; he returns from his studies at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York.

Tamino will also be played by tenor Rory Wallace, who is currently pursuing a doctorate in music at Ball State University in Ohio.

In her first full operatic role as the princess, Pamina, is soprano Tamika-Diandra Joseph, who is graduating from the artist diploma in music at UTT’s Academy for the Performing Arts later this year.

The bird catcher, Papageno, will be played by UTT faculty member and NYU music business graduate, baritone Krisson Joseph.

Also stepping into this role is UTT artist diploma student, baritone Jason Lawrence, who will also be playing his first full operatic role.

Soprano Shannon Navarro, in the role of the First Lady, was seen in last year’s production of Tales of Hoffmann and is a graduate of the master of arts in musical theatre at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

Soprano Sabrina Marks, a student of June Nathaniel’s Key Academy of Music, reprises her role as the Second Lady from the 2013 production and has been seen in a number of other Picolat operas.

Mezzo-soprano Maegan Pollonais, in the role of the Third Lady, also seen in Tales of Hoffmann last year, is a doctoral candidate in music at Ball State University.

Key Academy of Music student, bass Shellon Antoine, seen in many of Picoplat’s operas, will be reprising his role as the wise Sarastro.

Tenor Richard Taylor, also of the Key Academy of Music, was seen in the cast of Picoplat’s Broadway Revue and will be taking the role of Monostatos.

Dopwell steps into the familiar role of the wicked Queen of the Night.

With Dr Helmer Hilwig at the helm as director, musical direction by June Nathaniel and accompaniment by pianist, Byron Burford-Phearse and flautist, Martina Chow, the Picoplat Foundation’s production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute promises to be an an enchanting musical adventure.

The show, to be held at the brand-new Government Campus Plaza, corner of Richmond and Queen Streets, runs from June 30 to July 9 on Fridays and Sundays. The school show, further edited to run for only an hour on July 4 at 1 pm is free for school children, tertiary students with ID and senior citizens.

Picoplat is also continuing its commitment to give young classical singers the opportunity to perform and to promote the art of unamplified classical singing.

A workshop for singers will be held on July 1 at 1 pm, the showcase for which will be held the following Saturday. Information regarding workshop participation can be found via ttoperafest@ gmail.com. Further information can be found on the Picoplat Music Development Foundation’s Facebook page.