Music On Site brings more than 100 singers to Kansas for ‘opera camp’
Though it has a growing reputation in the opera world, the winter festival remains a hidden gem in its home state. Over the next week, the organization offers free performances of classic and new works in Wichita, Hesston, Newton and McPherson.
The Riney Fine Arts Center at Friends University has lately been full to bursting with opera performers — 150 of them. On Sunday, I found singers, pianists, coaches and stage directors wherever I looked: rehearsing in the auditorium, choir room and band room; camped out in the hallways with scores and earbuds; and practicing solo in eight tiny practice rooms or wherever else they could find an empty space.
During a Wichita Chamber Chorale rehearsal I participated in last Friday, overlapping snatches of Italian and French-language arias were faintly audible through the walls of the new Fine Arts Chapel. At one point, Friends professor and WCC conductor Rayvon Moore paused to shoo away a tenor who, looking for a place to vocalize, had fetched up right outside the chapel’s side door.
The cause of all this melodious din is Music On Site, Inc., which is in the midst of its fifth festival season in Wichita.
After wrapping a week’s worth of marathon, nine-hour rehearsal days, the company will spread out across Wichita, Hesston, Newton and McPherson to present nine performances of three different operas, plus two opera scenes showcases, today through Sunday.
The festival, which draws in singers, pianists, coaches and stage directors from all over the U.S. and the world, has flown a bit under the radar in Wichita. But it has captured the attention of the opera industry, steadily gaining momentum each year.
“Last year, we had application numbers in the upper 200s. Then, this year, we had 350. That number has jumped up every year,” said J. Bradley Baker, Music On Site’s executive director. “It’s been pretty dramatic.”
Left: Music On Site Executive Director J. Bradley Baker coaches singer Virginia Moretti. Right: On Sunday, MOSI artistic director Jen Stephenson led a discussion on the ins and outs of opera resume formatting. The married couple founded the opera festival while both were faculty members at Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kansas. Photos by Sam Jack for the SHOUT.
Baker, a concert pianist and vocal coach, co-founded the company with his wife Jen Stephenson, a stage director, producer and singer who serves as its artistic director. When they launched Music On Site in 2017, they were both teaching at Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kansas. Fortunately for Wichita, the company stayed put when the couple relocated to Texas, where they now hold faculty posts at Tarleton State University and Baylor University, respectively.
Music On Site has carved out a niche for itself by providing performance opportunities during the short window between the end of the fall academic semester and Christmas. Not only college and graduate students, but a considerable number of mid-career performers are here this year — attracted by Music On Site’s supportive “opera camp” atmosphere and by the opportunity to sing new roles and add lines to their resumes.
“It’s really fun, and really fast,” said Alan Hollinger, a bass-baritone from Waco who is in his first year of a master’s program at Baylor. “It’s great to come and work on a show where everyone is well-prepared and able to start staging on the first day.”
From left: Members of the “Notes on Viardot” ensemble rehearse a scene. Gage Campos, pictured at right, portrays Manuel García, Viardot's brother and the inventor of the laryngoscope. Middle: Tyler Warwas rehearses the role of Manuel Garcia in “Notes on Viardot.” To give more singers opportunities, Music On Site roles are often double- or triple-cast. Right: Erik DeMario and Tina O'Malley rehearse a scene from “Notes on Viardot.” Photos by Sam Jack for the SHOUT.
Like many performance-based professions, opera can be expensive for aspirants looking to break into the field’s top ranks. Once a singer has completed his or her university education, the next step is usually applying to “young artist programs,” or YAPs. Some YAPs are affiliated with major companies like San Francisco, Glimmerglass and Santa Fe. Others, like Music On Site, are independent.
Music On Site is a “no pay, no fee” opportunity, occupying a middle ground between programs that charge singers for participation and those that offer stipends and housing.
“It’s hard to find a place where you can do a role, and you also don’t have to pay to do a role,” Hollinger said. “That is such a blessing. For people starting out, you want to do roles, but you don’t necessarily have a ton of money to keep dishing out every summer. But how do you start getting paid if you don’t have roles on your resume? How do you get roles on your resume if you don’t have money to do pay-to-sings? Music On Site is really great for filling in that gap.”
Roles at Music On Site are double- or triple-cast, which gives opportunities to more singers. Hollinger is one of two Leporellos in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” which will be performed at 7 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Riney Fine Arts Center on the Friends campus.
The other Leporello is Spencer McIntire, who grew up in Wichita and now lives in Kansas City. McIntire has been part of three previous Music On Site festivals, performing roles in “Die Fledermaus,” “Cosi Fan Tutte” and “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” In addition to being free for participants, he appreciates that Music On Site performances are free to audiences.
“I always fear that we think of opera as an upper-class, hoity-toity kind of thing. It doesn’t feel approachable for new listeners, and that’s a tragedy,” McIntire said. “I think that MOSI does a really good job of allowing people to approach it. If you’ve never been to an opera, you maybe don’t want to spend 40 or 50 bucks to try it out.”
Along with wealth, opera is popularly associated with bigness: big sounds, big gestures, big emotions. Yet, in preparing, singers spend hours honing in on the smallest details. Pianist-coach Lorenzo Magi likened the process to “building a big wall.” Magi is from Italy and met Stephenson during a summer program in Arezzo.
“Every day, we add a few little bricks. Two bricks, three bricks,” Magi said. “If I am in a coaching session with a singer, I have to work on, for example, just one breath, to try to have the result I want from the singer.”
Breath was a primary topic during a master class that Baker led in the arts center’s choir room on Sunday morning. He spent about 10 minutes working on the breaths threaded through a short passage in an aria from Tom Cipullo’s 2007 opera “Glory Denied.”
“We never breathe just because we need air,” Baker told soprano Grace Walker. “Our breaths are related to our affect. If you can establish a reason for a breath, you can make it work dramatically. And then, as a result of that, it works vocally.”
I stepped out of the choir room and into the auditorium, where director Alex Paul Sheerin was staging “Don Giovanni” at a rapid clip, telling singers where to go and what to do, mixing in some dryly humorous remarks.
“The thing about mistaken identities in opera is, they’re stupid,” he commented at one point. “What’s going to help is that it’s going to be very dark.”
Sheerin directed MOSI’s 2023 production of “Die Fledermaus,” a screwball comedy set on New Year’s Eve in Vienna. He turned the original’s high-society ball into a country-and-western hoedown, and he altered the lyrics of the opera’s paean to champagne — “the monarch of drinks” — making it into a hymn in praise of whiskey.
Left: Christopher Markgraf, left, and Pete Wesoloski rehearse the Commendatore scene from “Don Giovanni.” In the finale, the murdered Commendatore returns to life and demands that Giovanni repent. Right: In the final bars of Mozart's opera, members of the ensemble drag Don Giovanni (Pete Wesoloski) down to hell. Photos by Sam Jack for the SHOUT.
I didn’t catch all the details of Sheerin’s concept for “Don Giovanni,” but the action has been transposed to rough-and-tumble Alaska. “So, at this point, you’ve been drinking for three hours,” he told the ensemble during staging of the Act 1 party scene.
“It’s very quick, and we’re rotating through three sets of casts,” Sheerin said in an interview. “It changes my process, to where we’re just trying to get it done. The beauty is that Brad and Jen have done a great job of bringing mature singers and actors. It’s really more me giving them this idea of how we’re setting the show, and they’re able to run with their own ideas.”
Hayley Lipke McBrayer and Joseph McBrayer drove in from Wisconsin to essay the roles of Donna Anna and Don Ottavio, respectively. They are married in real life, and on stage, their characters are engaged. But Donna Anna’s relationship status makes no difference to the titular antihero, who tries to seduce her and ends up killing her father.
“This was the first role I ever saw Hayley perform, before I even knew her,” Joseph said. “I saw it, and I said, ‘Wow, wow, wow.’ That’s always had a special place in our hearts, and in our home as a couple.”
The pair sent in a joint audition video, performing a scene as the two characters, then got the call that they had been cast together.
“The days are full,” Joseph said. “It feels like we’ve been here for a couple of months, but I think we got here three days ago.”
The Details
“Don Giovanni”
7 p.m. December 20-22 at the Riney Fine Arts Center on the Friends University campus, 2100 W. University Ave. in Wichita
Free, but registration is required.
“Notes on Viardot”
7 p.m. December 20-21 at Wesley Black Fine Arts Center on the Central Christian College campus, 1200 S. Main St. in McPherson, Kansas
Sunday evening, I sat in on a rehearsal of “Notes on Viardot,” the new opera by Michael Ching. It’s a zesty, brisk piece that pays homage to one of the 19th century’s legendary divas.
Ching describes it as a “jukebox opera.” The first act, which depicts Pauline Viardot’s rise to fame, pastiches Rossini, Mozart, Bellini and Donizetti, as well as lesser-known compositions by Viardot and her brother, Manuel Garcia.
At a run-through of the first act, I was struck by the cleverness of the libretto and by the dynamic fluidity of director Tracelyn Gesteland’s staging.
To see acts two and three, I plan to drive up to McPherson’s Central Christian College this Friday evening. “Notes on Viardot” has no fewer than 28 named roles, and I’m looking forward to Viardot’s encounters with Charles Dickens, Georges Sand, and Ivan Turgenev.
Free, but registration is required.
“Amahl and the Night Visitors”
- 7 p.m. December 19 at McPherson Opera House, 219 S. Main St. in McPherson, Kansas
- 7 p.m. Dec. 20 at Whitestone Mennonite Church, 629 Crescent Dr. in Hesston, Kansas
- 2 p.m. Dec. 21 at Kidron Bethel Village, 3001 Ivy Dr. in North Newton, Kansas
- 2 p.m. Dec. 22 at Westwood Presbyterian Church, 8007 W. Maple St. in Wichita
A one-act depicting the Three Wise Men on their way to Bethlehem, “Amahl and the Night Visitors” has become something of a tradition in Wichita. Opera Kansas used to perform it regularly, the Wichita State opera program has staged it, and Music On Site has been presenting it annually since 2019.
NBC commissioned Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti to write the opera for television. It was a hit when it first aired in 1951, and it returned as a Christmas TV special every year for more than a decade.
“The harmonic language is so palatable; it’s so catchy. It’s an hour long,” said Sarah Thune, the music director for this year’s production. “It puts you in a good mood, honestly. Around this time of year, you want to see ‘The Nutcracker.’ But ‘Amahl’ puts you in the Christmas spirit as well.”
The cast of “Amahl” is hitting the road this week, starting at the McPherson Opera House on Thursday evening, then heading to Hesston and North Newton. On Sunday, they will wind up in Wichita for a 2 p.m. performance at Westwood Presbyterian Church.
Free, but registration is required.
Opera Scenes Showcases
- 7 p.m. Tuesday, December 17, at Riney Fine Arts Center on the Friends University campus, 2100 W. University Ave. in Wichita
- 7 p.m. Wednesday, December 18 at Larksfield Place, 7373 E. 29th St. N. in Wichita
More than three dozen singers are involved in these showcases. The two performances will feature entirely different programs.
Free, but registration is required.
Sam Jack is a poet, classical tenor, and the adult services librarian at Newton Public Library. He performs with several local groups, including Wichita Chamber Chorale, Wichita Grand Opera and Opera Kansas. He received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Montana.
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