The theatre’s main stage was lit up with silk patterns and corsets at Longwood University as “L’Amour: An Opera Theatre Workshop” took the stage. Set in an unspecified French town, the story of the play revolves around several performers and their romances among each other.
The opening night of “L’Amour” seemed to be less than packed in the main stage auditorium with barely three-fourths of the seats filled with viewers. No matter though, the students sang their hearts out with the crowd they had. The set was arranged with one revolving stage that portrayed the inside and outside of an apartment and adjacent to it was the small orchestra including a cello, violin, viola, clarinet, fluteandpiano.TheensemblewasledbyMusic Director Chrisopher Swanson.
“L’Amour” began with sophomore soloist, Shea McCuller, entering in a lavish dress of mod colors trimmed with lace and marked the start of the opera with “Habernera” sung originally in the performance “Carmen.” The rest of the cast joined in with her and sang the choir portions. This would be the first time audiences got a view of the cast’s costumes which seem to be exquisite and excellently put together for the roles.
Throughout the rest of the opera there are small revelations as to which character is connected with whom, and in the end, it seems everyone is connected to each other in some way. Though married, the couple trifle in their own affairs on the side and from those come separate relations between, for example, a mistress and married man, and also a patron and the younger poet she sponsors.
The opening piece “Habernera,” composed by Georges Bizet, is repeated throughout the opera as McCuller sits with the orchestra during the play acting as an observer along with fellow soloist Kathleen Lilly.
“I am not an opera singer,” said McCuller. “[I found it] most difficult to act and sing opera when it really doesn’t come naturally.” McCuller confessed to having taken seven years of Spanish and found learning the French language to be somewhat trying in preparing for the opera.
Between two scenes, performers Maggie Williams and Trent Williams took center stage to dance the “Die Fledermaus Waltz” which was originally composed by Johann Strauss II. The duo pulled off the waltz exceptionally and impressively, especially given Maggie’s somewhat constricting dress. When commenting on the complexity of the dance, the sophomore theatre major said that one of the most difficult tasks for her during preparation for the performance was learning to move and sing in a corset. “I will practice [that] more [for future performances],” said Maggie.
The first act ended prior to intermission with a duet between Abbie Swanson and Maggie performing the “L’incoronazione di Poppea” piece “Pur ti miro,” written by Claudio Monteverdi. The duet was beautifully completed with the two girls’ voices harmonizing nicely.
Most of the second act focused on the relations between the previously mentioned young poet and his infatuation with another man’s mistress. The scene they act in together portrays them in his patron’s loft alone together. Later in the act, it is the affair between the poet and patron that is touched on. During these scenes, the songs “La ci darem la mano” and “Batti, batti o bel Masetto” were sung, originally performed in Wolfgang Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.”
The final song is that of Victor Herbert’s conspicuous “Live for Today” from “Naughty Marietta.” The piece ends with the choir of cast surrounding singers Lilly and Jacob Lief.
“L’Amour” is based off of an idea from Arthur Schnitzler’s “La Ronde.” The performed adaption was created from selected compositions chosen by Swanson and the dialogue was written by the opera’s director, Professor of Theatre Gene Muto.
