Students find opera interesting
By Frances Borsodi Zajac Most of these Marshall Elementary School students had never seen an opera singer performing live before, so the trio of performers from West Virginia University who visited their school recently introduced something new with their program “An Afternoon of Opera.’
“I think it’s important to do this,’ said Paul Workman, a 1998 graduate of Uniontown Area High School who is a senior vocal performance major at WVU. “There’s very little opera in America. A town the size of Uniontown in Europe would have one or two opera houses. I’m considering going to Europe after I graduate.’
Workman, who plans to pursue a career as a professional opera singer, returned to Fayette County to share his interest in opera after receiving a nudge from his father, Rick Workman, who is Laurel Highlands’ elementary vocal music teacher.
Rick Workman was preparing his students to visit the Pittsburgh Opera for a performance of “Madama Butterfly’ and enlisted his son’s help.
Keeping good company, the young Workman brought along WVU graduate assistant John Tiranno, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., who is studying vocal performance, and WVU musical arts doctoral student Pei Sien Lim, a native of Malaysia who is the accompanist for the university’s opera program.
Tiranno sang tenor to Workman’s baritone while Lim accompanied the two on the piano.
The trio demonstrated for the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade Marshall students the beauty and depth of opera while offering selections in Italian, French, German and English. They performed selections from Gaetano Donizetti’s “L’Elisir D’Amore,’ Giacomo Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,’ Wolfgang Mozart’s “Die Zauberflote’ and Georges Bizet’s “Les Pecheurs de Perles.’
The students responded, paying attention to the music and asking questions: “Is it hard to learn songs in another language?” “How many languages can you sing in?’ “How long does it take you to learn an opera?’ “How long can you hold a note?’ “How do you remember all that stuff?’ and “Why do you sing opera?’
“Because I love it,’ answered Tiranno. “I think it’s beautiful and I love to sing in a foreign language.’
Marshall principal William Raho was thrilled with the performance and the students’ response.
“I thought it was fantastic,’ Raho said. “They had the students’ undivided attention and they enjoyed it as well as the staff.’
The WVU students also appreciated the good experience the program offered. It was a new experience for them as well.
“I did a very small version of this last summer with probably 20 kids. It was very informal. This was much bigger,’ said Workman.
Tiranno commented, “I think it’s wonderful at a young age to be exposed to opera. And they wanted to know a lot. It was a very interactive crowd.’
Lim said, “I was amazed these kids were so young and yet they were interested in opera.’
All three of these WVU students were also exposed to music at a young age, deciding to make music their career choice during or just after graduation from high school.
Workman’s interest in singing grew while he was a student at Uniontown Area High School.
“I started doing musicals at Uniontown High School. I started singing and taking voice lessons and my love of opera grew,’ he said.
Workman already has experience working in Europe. He and Tiranno participated last summer in the Austrian-American Mozart Music Festival and performed with the West Virginia University choir in 2000 in Spain.
Why does he enjoy opera so much?
“In my opinion, singing opera is so much more vocally demanding,’ said Workman.
“I was attracted to how much of themselves they had to put into making the sounds.’
Workman noted that opera is a universal language and can be found in almost every country. He also said skills used in learning music are extremely beneficial in other areas of life.
“It’s a shame that opera is viewed as an aristocratic art form instead of for the people, as it should be,’ Workman said.
Tiranno, who has a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from State University of New York, College at Fredonia, began playing the violin when he was four and joined what he called “a wonderful choral program’ in high school.
“In high school, I decided I liked to sing and went to college as a singer. I found my voice was more suited for classical music,’ Tiranno explained how he became interested in opera.
The men also praised Lim’s talents as an accompanist, noting she is sensitive to singers.
“It’s different from playing by myself,’ agreed Lim, who started playing the piano when she was seven and decided to pursue piano as a career after high school.
Asked how music can enhance a child’s life – besides the obvious, Lim noted, “It certainly develops your reading skills. You learn to be patient. It gets kids to think: are you playing the right notes? What do you choose to play? What about the tempo? What does the music say to you?’
Besides having an opportunity to work with his son, Rick Workman offered the program to his students, hoping to open their eyes to opera.
“When many people think of opera, they think of a larger person wearing horns and carrying a spear,’ he told the students. “That’s one opera by Wagner. There are hundreds of characters in opera.’