This week, the William Jewell Opera and Jewell Theatre Company are putting on a production of Orpheus in the Underworld. While you probably know the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice from more modern shows like Hadestown, this 1858 comedic opera by Jacques Offenbach spins Greek Mythology into an utter farce. The story loosely follows Orpheus and Eurydice, a young couple in a loveless marriage. Both have found other lovers. Eurydice has unknowingly fallen for Pluto, God of the Underworld. Pluto takes Eurydice away, and Orpheus is overjoyed until Public Opinion finds out what has occurred. Public Opinion demands that he travel to Olympus to ask the King of Gods, Jupiter, for Eurydice’s return from the underworld; if he does not, Orpheus will lose his career. Meanwhile, Eurydice has been trapped in the underworld, and her fate balances in the hands of the many gods who see her as a distraction from their otherwise boring lives.

The cast consists of 14 students, who study a variety of majors but all share a common interest in the performing arts. The production has been led by Music and Stage Director Dr. Laura Lowry, Collaborative Pianist and Assistant Music Director Leslie Bunch, and Technical Designer Nathan Wyman. The student leadership of this production stands out, as they went above and beyond to support their colleagues and present a quality show. The instrumental section is completed by Violinist Bryson Gates. Choreography was done by Lauren Taylor, Technical Direction by Lianna Morelli, Costumes, Hair, and Makeup were designed by Kai Robbins, Poster and Program Design by E.E. Naber and Bryson Gates. The Tech Crew includes Milo Johnson, Zachary Muñoz and Molly Touzinsky.

I was able to speak with Choreographer Lauren Taylor and Costume Designer Kai Robbins about their involvement and experience with putting together the opera. Lauren Taylor is a Senior majoring in Education and Psychology. Lauren choreographed several shows while in high school, but this is her first time choreographing a show in college. When asked about her favorite part of the production, Lauren said it was “making up choreography, which I’m like, ‘I don’t know if this is gonna work’. And then the first time that everyone did it together and it finally worked out I was like, ‘woah, it actually looks so good’.”

Kai Robbins is a first-year majoring in Political Science. Kai has previously worked on costumes, hair, wigs and makeup both in high school and earlier this fall for the Jewell Theater Company’s Production of Two Rooms. Kai said that their favorite part of this production was “Getting to piece it all together in these last couple of days. The lights coming together, and everyone’s vocals coming together. I’m finally getting costumes ready and everything, and watching everyone try them all on. Just like, every puzzle piece finally fitting together.”

There are only three chances to see this incredible opera. The show starts at 7pm on Thursday, April 23^rd and Saturday, 25^th, as well as 3pm on Sunday the 26^th. The show will be on campus in Peters Theater. There are no tickets for this show, rather a suggested donation of $10 at the door. We hope to see you there!

With the loosening of COVID-19 regulations, performing arts are making a comeback with an increase in in-person performances. William Jewell College and its Department of Performing Arts are following along with this trend and recently announced an upcoming opera performance of “Elizabeth Cree.”

“Elizabeth Cree” is a 90-minute Victorian murder mystery opera written by Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell that features singers from the Artist Diploma in Voice program, undergraduate students in theatre and voice and faculty members of the Department of Performing Arts. 

“Elizabeth Cree” will be conducted by Dr. Anthony Maglione, Director of Choral Studies and associate professor at Jewell, and directed by Kathleen Smith Belcher, an adjunct instructor in the Performing Arts department. The performance was designed by Professors Nathan Wyman and Julianne Donovan with guest artists Scotty Wiggins, Kris Kirkwood and Zoe Spangler.

The cast, crew and faculty have all spent time rehearsing and preparing for their performances – they are excited to share their work with the Jewell community.

“There are so many beautifully written and sung moments in this show that I’m looking forward to seeing the audience react to,” Sa’Von Hayes, a sophomore music education major, said.

Two performances will be held: one on Sept. 30 and one on Oct. 3; both at 7:30 p.m. in the Trotter Arts Plaza between Pillsbury Music Center and Brown Hall. These performances are free and open to the William Jewell Community with no ticket purchase necessary, but donations will be accepted. 

With the performance outside, the audience should bring blankets and lawn chairs to sit on during the show. If there is inclement weather, the performance will be moved into Gano Chapel and masks will be required.

William Jewell College is in its inaugural year of the Artist Diploma in Voice Program – a two-year program designed for post-baccalaureate students dedicated to a career in classical vocal performance. Students will be performing the opera Cosi Fan Tutte at the Trotter Arts Plaza Oct. 2 and 4.

Danny Belcher, ‘92, is the program director and a distinguished faculty artist. He described the motivation for the program and its goals.

“My wife and I have had extensive careers in opera. She’s the director for the Metropolitan opera and this is her 20th year, and I’ve been fortunate enough to perform all over the world… We based our lives in Liberty and a number of years ago…  Dr. Ian Coleman [professor of music] said ‘You know, we’d love to find a way to utilize you. What would that look like?’

“And I knew that what I could do was really connect dots for artists into the career path. And so, the role of working with undergrads would be different because they needed a little more really steady scheduling in terms of their training. Whereas if we created something like an artist diploma, I could still perform some and be gone some and then be able to front-load and backload work with students.

“And so we just started talking and brainstorming what that would look like. Dr. MacLeod Walls [president of the College], Dr. Dema [provost] and Coleman just said put down on paper what is missing in this industry. We started asking people running artist programs, general directors and artistic directors of companies, and stage directors, conductors what was missing – and also young artists. And literally the entire curriculum is based on those conversations,” Belcher said.

Jewell started advertising the Artist Diploma in Voice Program in March and has a full inaugural class with six students. The program will have a maximum of 12 students with two cohorts. Three of the students just completed their bachelor’s degrees and three of the students have also completed higher graduate degrees.

“[The program is] designed strictly…  with one goal in mind, and that is that every single person that comes and does the artist diploma [will] go into a young arts program within an opera company [when they leave], and we [will] help launch their careers. That’s the one goal, period… The program is tailored to each individual artist’s own needs,” Belcher said. “It is geared to the artist that is serious about pursuing a career in performing, particularly classical vocal music.”

The program consists of five components. First, each student has two voice lessons a week. Second, each student works with Ellen Summers, a coach collaborator who specializes in working with students musically – on vocal technique, interpretation of their language and the musical aspects. The third component is called the singer-actor, wherein each student works one-on-one with Dr. Chris McCoy [professor of theater] and Kathleen Belcher to take their vocal product and turn it into a theatrical product. Fourth, the students have performance opportunities. Fifth is a performance seminar.

“What this is, what we felt was missing, the young artists were having problems, one, getting auditions [and two,] if they did get auditions for young artists programs, they were one of 700 singing for 24 spots. So what could we do to make it different?

“We started calling in favors to friends within the industry, some of these people we spoke to about what kind of curriculum we should look at. We have ten artists per year that will come in for three days each, [and] they’ll work with each artist in an audition, going over their publicity materials, a career Q&A and [will give] a masterclass.

“[Then] when each artist leaves, they will have made 20 connections with people that hire, and that run companies – both young artist programs, general directors, stage directors, conductors, composers [and] librettists in every aspect of the business. That’s that last component where we bring the auditions to the [students]. In particular this year, where there are zero auditions happening…  we give them this help too where [experts are] all coming to campus,” Belcher said.

Belcher was enthusiastic about the program’s start.

“[The program has gone] really well [so far]. We asked a lot of these artists – not knowing them…  All of their preparation [for the opera] was done on their own. And that actually taught us a lot about them because they each came well prepared and ready to work. Literally…  not a single one of them have been one minute late to anything. So their excitement, their passion for their art form, their excitement to be a part of this – a part of this team –  and knowing that hopefully the product we can give them will help launch their careers has been really instrumental,” Belcher said.

At 7 p.m. Oct. 2 and 4, the artist diploma in voice program will be performing Mozart and Da Ponte’s Cosi Fan Tutte outside at the Trotter Arts Plaza. The six participants in the program, in addition to several undergraduate students, will perform the opera. Tickets must be reserved beforehand in the seated areas due to an extremely limited audience of 100 people per show.

The opera will be performed in Italian with English subtitles on personal devices. The program will include instrumental accompaniment by members of the Liberty Symphony Orchestra and is being supported by Jewell Theatre.

Reservations for Oct. 2 can be made here and reservations for Oct. 4 can be made here. When reservations are made, each member of a party must submit a form. The system will automatically cut off when the attendance limit is reached. The rain delay date for the Oct. 2 performance is Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. and the rain delay date for the Oct. 4 performance is Oct. 5 at 7 p.m.

The opera will be one of the first live operatic performances in the U.S. since the outbreak of COVID-19. Social distancing restrictions will be strictly enforced during the performance.

Baker explained the audition process as “dual-step.” First, a student must apply and be accepted to the university itself, and then he or she may apply to the music department. Baker said this supplemental application was the difficult part, due to the varying requirements among schools. What every school did require was a formal video submission of Baker, and her accompanist, performing about 20 minutes of music.

“It’s super hard, because you can’t edit your recording, so they have to be nearly perfect in one take,” said Baker.

The specific requirements for the repertoire sung in these videos varied among schools, but in general, Baker said that within 20 minutes of singing, her music had to represent four languages, three musical eras and specific types of song requirements, meaning arts songs and arias.

After Baker submitted her videos, she was accepted to five schools for live auditions, which consisted of 15 minutes of singing. This acted as an audition both for the school and for scholarships.

“You get no feedback about any of the music. You just either get accepted or declined. It’s pretty cutthroat,” said Baker.

Baker has not decided which school she will attend next year but has until April 15th to do so. She knows she will be continuing her study of vocal performance and emphasizing in opera studies. Baker says she plans audition for professional opera companies after receiving her graduate degree.

“My future goals don’t involve settling down; in fact, just the opposite. My dream is to travel the world singing opera,” said Baker.