The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

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The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

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Meadows does Mozart: ‘La Finta Giardiniera’

By Cassie Mlynarek

Befuddled romance, secret identities, vicious murder plots and acts of deceit created quite the scene in Bob Hope Theatre as the SMU Meadows Opera Theatre debuted its spring show, “La Finta Giardiniera” (The Pretend Garden Girl) Thursday night. The opera was written by an 18-year-old Mozart and was entirely sung and performed in Italian by the opera students. The Meadows Opera Theatre performed the two and a half hour show four times from Thursday to Sunday in the language of love while acting out a chaotic love story, but don’t worry, subtitles were provided.

The Meadow’s students and directors have been working tirelessly for months to put on this challenging project.

“We started back in September when we first got our scores,” said Alex Vollmer, an SMU student who plays leading role Count Belfiore. “The first thing we had to do was go through the 700 page score and translate everything… Once we got done with that we came back in January and started rehearsing.”

The love story features a young noble woman, named Violente, who disguises herself as a gardener for the city’s governor. Violente is searching for her former lover, Count Belfiore, who stabbed her in a jealous rage and left her to die. In the meantime, the greatly sought after Belfiore has promised himself to the governor’s niece, who quickly establishes her dominance over the submitting Belfiore. The opera features several other love triangles that show heartache, true love and comical scenes and situations.

“It’s kind of a crazy thing about love and how extreme it can be and how it affects our day-to-day life,” Vollmer said. “It’s a lot of fun and it has a happy ending.” The opera takes place in a rural countryside and the stage featured a rolling green landscape with an impressively large daisy that lit up, moved and grew to reflect the overall mood of what the characters were feeling. A large screen projected the translations above the scenes so the audience could remain informed with the characters’ lives.

Award-winning performer, Hank Hammett directed the show. Hammett has worked with some of the world’s most prestigious opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Opera. The production also featured a live orchestra and harpsichord. “It’s a great opportunity to play a new style of music,” violinist Melissa Priller said. “It’s a lot of work getting through Mozart and there’s a lot of notes.

It’s worth it because the show has been going really well.” Dr. Paul Phillips, another well-known music director in the Dallas community, conducted the pit orchestra.

With large amounts of rehearsal time, it’s no wonder the cast developed a close relationship to one another both on and off stage. Jennie Lee, an ensemble member and vocal performance major, has one word to describe the cast: family. “In spending all this time together, everyone’s developed a more open, honest, genuine relationship with one another,” Lee said. “The polishing never ends, and that’s what makes SMU Meadows Opera Theatre such a high quality program.”

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