HOW TO GO:
What: Dayton Opera’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Aida.” A DPAA Signature Event also featuring the Dayton Ballet and Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. Aida is performed in Italian with English surtitles.
When: 8 p.m. on Friday, May 2, and 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 4.
Where: Mead Theatre of the Schuster Center, 1 West Second St., Dayton
Tickets: Prices range from $23 to $92 and are available at Ticket Center Stage (937) 228-3630 or online at www.daytonperformingarts.org. Senior, military and student discounts are available at the box office.
Also: One hour prior to both performances talks will be presented by UD music professor, Dr. Sam Dorf. “Opera bites” are also available in the Wintergarden before the performance and at the first intermission.
VIDEO: To hear Kathleen Clawson talk about “Aida,” see MyDaytonDailyNews.com
MORE ABOUT AIDA
• Aida was the first opera and the first major performance after the Opening Gala to be performed in the Schuster Center after its grand opening in 2003. Aida returns to Dayton Opera and to the Schuster Center over a decade later, now with different cast, set and production, but with the same fantastic tragic love story.
• For this Dayton Opera production of Aida, the number of Dayton Opera cast and chorus members, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and chorus members, Dayton Ballet company dancers, supernumeraries, directors, backstage crew, and support totals a staggering 200-plus people. Plus two horses.
• A large assembly of the Dayton Opera Chorus, under chorus master Jeffrey Powell, will be augmented by members of the Dayton Philharmonic Chorus.
• Thirteen Airmen from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base will join this production of Aida on stage as supernumeraries in the role of soldiers in the Egyptian Army. Supernumeraries, or “supers,” are non-singing, non-speaking roles (similar to “extras” in movies) that aid in propelling the storyline of an opera.
• Two live horses will appear on stage in the Triumphal scene as mounted horses in the Egyptian army. They will be ridden by Mounted Patrol from the local Dayton area. There will be two onstage safety men and five backstage handlers to ensure their appearance goes smoothly. One of these beautiful horses makes its Dayton Opera debut, while the other returns once again to the Mead Stage, having made its first appearance in this very role in Dayton Opera’s 2003 production of Aida.
• The cast includes soprano Indira Mahajan, a Marian Anderson Award-winner, who is returning to Dayton Opera for the fifth time and will play the role of Aida. Debuting in the role of Amneris is mezzo-soprano Layna Chianakas who will be in Dayton for the sixth time. Tenor John Pickle will portray Radamès, baritone Grant Youngblood sings the role of Aida’s father the Ethiopian King Amonasro.
Bass Harold Wilson makes his Dayton Opera debut as Ramfis, the high priest of Egypt. Kenneth Shaw, bass, sings the role of the King of Egypt. Artist-in-Residence Tenor Logan Rucker will sing the role of Messenger. Soprano Andrea Chenoweth takes the role of the High Priestess.
When we paid a visit to Kathleen Clawson at the Schuster Center’s Mathile Theatre last week she was surrounded by platters heaped with gold, giant spears and a huge throne.
“It’s so great to have rehearsal space that’s the same size as our stage and to have real props for our rehearsals,” said Clawson, who will be directing next weekend’s lavish Dayton Opera productio of “Aida.”
Coordinating hundreds of folks for a grand opera is quite a challenge, but it’s one that Clawson has happily accepted.
This opera, she says, is the “holy grail” of operas and thrilling to direct.
“It’s like painting pictures, but this time I have the giant box of crayons,” she explains.
Clawson, who lives in Albuquerque with her husband and 16-year-old son, has made frequent trips to Dayton over the years, first as a classical singer with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, later as a stage director for the Dayton Opera where she’s directed eight previous operas including “Lucia di Lammermoor” and “The Glory of Wagner.”
Her career also includes education — she’s served on the faculty of the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of New Mexico since 1997 — teaching musical theatre and directing shows like “Rent,” “Urinetown the Musical,” and “West Side Story.”
Clawson has performed over 2o operatic roles, including productions with The Santa Fe and Dallas Opera companies and also appeared in musical theater, touring nationally and internationally in “The Sound of Music.”
We chatted with Clawson about her passion for music and her fascinating multi-faceted career:
Q. Why is "Aida" known as a Grand Opera, what makes it so grand?
A. When they say "grand opera," they mean all of the spectacle. I do a lot of teaching about opera and when I lecture to children I tell them that opera is a story (she pretends to open a book) told with music (she places her hand on her mouth) and spectacle (she stretches out her arms in what she calls a "Hello, Dolly" gesture.)
Q. Tell us a little about the opera and why it continues to be so popular?
A. "Aida" premiered in Cairo in 1871 and it represented a transition for opera. Up until then, the stories were typically about kings and queens, and Verdi was one of the composers who worked to make opera dramatically more real. All the forces make it grand — a big orchestra, ballet, a huge chorus.
I think it’s popular for a lot of reasons: all of the elements are really compelling and that’s not always the case with opera. Sometimes the music is great but there’s something lacking in the story. What I love about this opera is that at its core it’s a love story, a love triangle. Two women love the same man and we all know that can’t end well. Everyone has some experience with that — either personally or peripherally.
In addition to being a love story, it’s a story about two warring countries and Aida is torn between her devotion to her father and her country and the man she loves. I think that’s a story everyone can relate to and understand. And it’s told with the most glorious music you will ever hear.
Q. What is the role of the director?
A. My role is really the nuts and bolts — I tell people where to stand on the stage, I work with the creative team which includes the Dayton Ballet's artistic director Karen Russo Burke, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra's conductor Neal Gittleman and the Dayton Opera's artistic director, Tom Bankston. And I'm involved with the costumes, sets, lights, props.
In opera, the conductor and the director are partners; he’s in charge of what happens musically, I’m in charge of what happens theatrically.
Last night, we staged the scene called the triumphal scene and we had 132 people on the stage. It’s a special production because of the collaboration with the ballet and symphony and we have amazing principals from all over the country.
About her background
Q. How did you become interested in the arts?
A. We did musical theater as a family when I was growing up, so I grew up working backstage — ushering, helping my Mom with costumes, singing in the chorus. My father was an amateur performer and I helped him learn his lines.
I studied at the University of New Mexico, and also the University of Southern California and the Curtis Institute of Music. When I started college I took classes in languages — another passion, and very necessary for a singer — as well as trying to double major in music and theatre. Eventually, music won out.
I traveled the world as a soloist with orchestras but 16 years ago my husband and I — who married very young — asked ourselves what was missing in our lives and we decided we wanted a baby. I decided to wanted to travel less and be a mom and at the same time I was offered a job teaching.
I taught musical theater and opera, and realized my students needed to do a musical and that’s how I began directing. Now it seems clear to me that in opera direction all my passions: theater, music and languages meet in a “perfect storm” as though this is where I was always headed.
Q. What do you enjoy about directing?
A. As a director you're never bored. You're totally engaged the whole time. Although my degrees are in music and I performed as a singer in opera, concert repertoire and musical theater, I have always loved theatre as well.
Q. What do you advise parents and grandparents about introducing their children to the arts?
A. My child has been going to see opera since he was five years old and the only reason I didn't take him before that was that I was afraid he'd see me performing on stage and shout "Hi, Mommy!" from the audience.
I would expose children to everything. My experience is that if people would just try live opera once, they’ll love it and want to come back. One of the barriers is that an opera can be in a foreign language, but we have titles projected close to the screen and in opera the music tells the story, you almost don’t need the translations.
It’s really the complete theatrical experience, truly spectacular.
Q. What it is about Dayton that makes you want to keep coming back?
A. My first trip to Dayton was as mezzo soloist with the Dayton Philharmonic in Mendelssohn's "Die Erste Walpurgisnacht," about 12 years ago. I was so impressed by the quality of the orchestra, with Neal's conducting, and by the clear passion for the arts evidenced in everyone I met in Dayton. I remember thinking, "I could live here."
This will be my eighth production for Dayton Opera and this company feels like “family” to me. Each time we come together to collaborate on a production, the warmth and camaraderie is electric: from the chorus, to the orchestra, to the crew at the Schuster, to the Opera Administration — there is a passion and commitment to excellence that inspires me.
I love working with people who strive to be their best, without losing the joy that drew most of us to the arts in the first place. That is why I keep coming back.
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