Dido and Aeneas meet Mean Girls

Jillian Bonner and Katrina Westin in Dido and Aeneas. (Nick Pearce Photo)

Opera may be a traditional art form, but Dalhousie’s Department of Music keeps it fresh with their annual Opera Workshop.

“There’s a stereotype that opera means a big lady with horns - screaming,” jokes Owen McCausland, a third-year vocal performance major who scored the lead role of Aeneas this year, “That’s not actually what it is.”

This year’s Opera Workshop is a double bill consisting of the Baroque classic Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell and the 20th century one-act Comedy on the Bridge (by Bohuslav Martinu). Don’t worry about not understanding a foreign language - they’re both in English.

Double bill

Dido and Aeneas is a tragic love story based on the epic poem The Aeneid by Virgil. In the operatic version Aeneas, a Trojan hero, falls in love with Dido, Queen of Carthage. However through the treachery of a wicked sorceress, Aeneas is tricked into believing that the gods have ordered him to leave Carthage. Though Aeneas says he will defy the gods to stay with Dido, she rejects him for having contemplated abandoning her. Heartbroken after forcing his departure, Dido kills herself.

SEE MORE PHOTOS: Two casts, two operas (Nick Pearce Photos)

Comedy on the Bridge, meanwhile, is exactly what it sounds. Five characters find themselves stuck on a bridge between two warring areas, and while in limbo they are forced to sort through dishonesty, relationships, and a riddle.

This year, the Opera Workshop welcomes Brent Krysa as guest director. Mr. Krysa has worked as a director and designer across the country, including productions with the prestigious Canadian Opera Company. The cast all agree that working with Mr. Krysa, as well as guest conductor Adam Burnette, has been the favourite part of the experience.

Hearing Mr. Krysa’s re-imagination of Dido and Aeneas was like “being thrown a curve ball,” says Geordie Brown, a second-year student majoring in music and theatre, who also plays Aeneas. (The role is double cast.) The setting is modern day, and Queen Dido’s palace is now the dormitory of a girls' boarding school. Aeneas is the captain of the lacrosse team at the
neighbouring boys' school, and his army now his teammates.

Mean Girls inspiration

But the biggest curve ball of all was Mr. Krysa’s idea to combine the characters of Belinda (Dido’s sister and handmaid) and the Sorceress, transforming the show into a tale of back-stabbing besties. Anyone feeling nostalgic for high school?

“We were actually told to watch Mean Girls as research,” says Jillian Bonner, a fourth-year student who took inspiration from the film’s villain - ‘Queen Bee’ Regina George - for her combo role of Belinda / Sorceress.

Although the setting is modern day, the cast were still required to read the actual Aeneid.

“Knowing the original context really helped me,” Megan Quick says of building her character, “Dido still has to be a queen.”

It was back in September that the students auditioned for parts. The main roles of both shows are double cast, and on their ‘off nights’ the leads join the chorus.

When asked about the challenges of being double cast in a role, the two Didos - Megan Quick and Katrina Westin - respond very positively. “The characters turn out so differently with each person, it’s really interesting to see,” says Ms. Quick.

Physical and vocal freedom

“It challenges you to become flexible in rehearsal, because you are always changing who you’re working with,” adds Ms. Westin.

The Opera Workshop gives undergraduate students the rare opportunity to participate in a fully staged opera.

Professor Marcia Swanston, who produces the workshop each year, explains the benefit to students of getting to perform in a staged production, saying, “When you move while you sing you discover a physical freedom which then gives vocal freedom. It also helps you find the intent behind your words.”

The student performers are not the only ones to benefit, though. At the end of their long rehearsal period comes curtain time, when they get to share the melodic fruits of their labour with the local community.

Dal News writer Ellen Denny is a third-year Dal student studying towards a BA combined honours in Music and Theatre.