Southeastern NEWS
Southeastern Louisiana University
Public Information Office
SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
publicinfo@selu.edu
www.selu.edu/NewsEvents
Date: 3/13/98
Contact: Christina Chapple
Editors: Photos accompany release -- Please note local interest
SLU PROVIDES IDEAL EVENING FOR OPERA LOVERS AND NOVICES
HAMMOND -- Scharmal Schrock and Larry Grey have packaged two comic one act
operas into a short and sweet evening of music sure to please opera fans and opera novices alike.
Mozart s French farce The Impresario and 20th century composer Pasatieri's Moliere-
inspired comedy Signor Deluso were selected to show off the Southeastern Louisiana
University Music Department s outrageous pool of undergraduate talent, Schrock said.
The pair of operas is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., March 25-27, in Southeastern Louisiana
University s Pottle Music Building Auditorium. Admission is free.
With a wealth of gifted young singers on hand, Schrock, director of the university s
Opera-Music Theatre Program, wanted to stage a production that would give all of the music
students a chance to bask in the spotlight.
In The Impresario and Signor Deluso, said Gray, the director, There is no herd of people
who just walk on stage, sing, and go off. Everyone has to act as well as sing.
It s not fun to try to learn to act if you have no material, Schrock said. I had the voices
to fit the parts and the parts were rich in character. The two operas give all 10 students in the
two casts wonderful juicy things to sing and say. Every role is a gem, she said.
The Impresario also gives the sole non-student, Hammond resident Blair Zeigler, his first
opportunity to appear in an opera. The former New Orleanian, known to Hammond audiences for
his roles in Southeastern Theatre s Dancing at Lughnasa and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, was
roped in to playing The Impresario s title role -- a non-singing part -- by Gray.
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SLU OPERAS -- Add One
I love the idea of having Mozart opera on my resume. I m just doing this so I can flash
my resume in front of people, joked Zeigler.
But he admits that because of his experience in The Impresario, I ve learned to really
love the music. I m really pleased for a chance to watch an opera come together. I think it s
amazing that the singers know what all those little black notes mean!
The casts have learned about little black notes through big time work. With the
exception of Signor Deluso s Ted Butler, a non-traditional freshman music major who has plenty
of dramatic, but no musical, stage experience, the juniors and seniors in the two operas
collectively have dozens of stage appearances to their credit.
Signor Deluso, a comic opera about a young girl and her father who disagree on who she
should marry, will star Butler and George Montalbano of Hammond, Rita Dottor of Ontario,
Canada, David Louviere and Hallie Sisson of Baton Rouge, and Amber Klein of Gonzales.
The cast for The Impresario, which is about an opera producer who has difficulty with a
dueling aging prima donna and an aspiring ingenue, includes Zeigler, Jennifer Odom of Moselle,
Miss., Susan Buller of Jeanerette, and Tyler Smith and Keith James of Baton Rouge.
One of the main reasons I came to Southeastern, said Odom, a junior who plays The
Impresario s prima donna Madame Silverklang, is that I knew I could get some really good
experience as an undergraduate. So many school have big graduate programs and the graduate
students get all the roles.
Smith, a senior who has the lead in The Impresario, has been in at least one opera a year
during his five years at Southeastern. You get better and better at it every year. It s a long
process, he said, but it s neat when you see the result.
When I first came here as an undergraduate, remembers James, another senior, I was
one of those silly people who thought that all you really needed to sing was creativity and
imagination. But I ve learned that discipline is the number one thing.
When we go off somewhere with all these shows on our resumes, he said, that s going
to be something that directors keep in mind. When their lead gets laryngitis two days before the
opening, they aren t going to call around looking for someone who had the best grades. They
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SLU OPERAS -- Add Two
want someone who has done the show before, can come in and take over.
Like Smith, Montalbano has had plenty of stage experience at Southeastern, not just in
costume, but behind the scenes as well. His proficiency has won him an exciting opportunity. He
was chosen by the Zweigroschen Oper, a Germany opera company which held auditions at
Southeastern in January, to participate in their summer program. Montalbano will spend the
summer in Germany, working as a stage manager and singing in a special fund-raising gala.
I m really, really excited, he said.
While The Impresario and Signor Deluso are great learning tools for the singers, Schrock
thinks the evening of one-acts is also a wonderful opportunity to recruit new opera fans. It will
be a wonderful introduction for people who ve never seen an opera, she said.
The operas are just 30-35 minutes each, Schrock said, and the action is fast, the plots are
fun and easy to follow, the music is melodic, and the lyrics are in English.
Nationally, opera is celebrating an incredible increase in attendance, Schrock said, in
part because of the major companies aggressive outreach programs for children. Children s
opera has been a staple of Southeastern s program as well. Recently, Schrock staged the
children s show Sid the Serpent Who Wanted to Sing exclusively at local schools. She plans
to see that area high schools have plenty of tickets to The Impresario and Signor Deluso.
I m glad that it s free and I hope to have enormous bunches of people come and fill up
the house, she said.
For information about the evening of one-act operas, call the Southeastern Music
Department, 504-549-2184.
-SLU-
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