By Jeremiah Yonemura
The Master’s University’s opera class performed “Gianni Schicchi” last Friday and Saturday evenings for school community to watch. The concert took place in the college’s Music Recital Hall.
“Gianni Schicchi” is a comedic opera, in which the Donati family scheme to get, through fraud, their names into a family member’s will from which they were omitted. The music was written by Giacomo Puccini, the libretto was written by Giovacchino Forzano, and the translation from Italian into English was by Amanda Holden.
Don Hedges, Dean of the Paul T. Plew School of Music, directed the performance, and professor Benjamin Mason conducted the accompanying orchestra. The cast consisted of students that took the opera class last fall.
Cast members practiced once per week as a group and met with Hedges individually outside of class. Eunmee Lee played the music on the piano during rehearsals before the orchestra was ready.
“I think [the opera] was absolutely amazing! It exceeded more than I expected. It was just awesome,” said Hannah Choo, a student attendee.
Chase Baxter, another student attendee, thought that the “whole production” was good.
“I think they each put in their own emotion into the character, and you can tell all of their chemistry was really good, and their singing was awesome,” Baxter said.
According to Hedges, “Gianni Schicchi” was chosen based on what best fit the students in the class.
This opera is different from many because it is under an hour whereas others are an hour-an-a-half or longer with an intermission.
“Other[s]… are multi-hour, and those [are] an endurance. But this one has a lot of technical things that are pretty tricky, but [the musicians] did … marvelous on it,” Mason said. “And I just love their attitude … because even on this, they say they want God to get glory… What else can you ask for that they’re using their gifts to glorify God?”
Learn about upcoming music events at https://www.masters.edu/arts-and-events/music/.
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