More than 400 leaders from opera companies across the US are descending on Wilmington this week for a conference hosted by OperaDelaware.
Opera America is an organization that promotes and expands opera in America. In operation for more than half a century, it counts more than 40,000 members in its ranks, representing more than 600 opera companies, educational institutions, and other organizations.
At its annual conference, held in Wilmington this year, attendees will get a chance to network and learn more about the pressing issues affecting their craft, like shrinking audiences, programming in the current political climate, and how to weather funding cuts.
They will also get a chance to hear from Wilmington’s opera companies, OperaDelaware and the Wilmington Concert Opera. Both companies will present performances for their colleagues and the general public during the conferences.
Their programs are a study in contrast. OperaDelaware will present Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chenier, a grand historical drama about the French Revolution penned in the 1890s, while the Wilmington Concert Opera will perform a concert version of a work written just a few years ago and based on an ancient tale from the Chickasaw People, Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate’s Loksi’ Shaali or Shell Shaker.
Kirstin Kunkle, the Wilmington Concert Opera’s artistic director, says the diversity in those offerings showcases the artistic diversity on offer in the First State’s largest city.
“OperaDelaware is actually hosting the conference and they have been lovely with trying to embrace the fact that they are doing Andrea Chenier and we are doing something totally different,” she says. “And I think that that's really exciting - because we're very different companies - that we can showcase something very different in the small city of Wilmington.”
One thing the two performances have in common however, is that the performers hope they will be an introduction, or a re-introduction, to opera leaders and an encouragement for those leaders to present the works when they return home. Loksi’ Shaali is still a very new work, Kunkle says.
“This will absolutely be new music for almost everyone,” she says. “People are very excited about this.”
Andrea Chenier, on the other hand, was once a staple of the operatic repertoire that has seen fewer and fewer performances in recent years, says Dane Suarez, who sings the title role in OperaDelaware’s production.
“It used to be in the canon. It was produced all the time and was the vehicle for great tenors and sopranos and great tenor and soprano duos and kind of fell away because it's such an expensive opera to produce,” Suarez says. “So the opportunity that we have to present this with such a huge platform is really, really exciting.”
Kunkle remembers that when Wilmington Concert Opera got its Opera American membership, it was “a big deal” for the up-and-coming company, which was founded to create more opportunities for diversity and representation in opera. Ten years after its creation, Kunkle is proud of their rapid progress.
“I think that the fact that we are doing this, we are doing such a profound work, the fact that Opera America has embraced that, I've been consulted multiple times, and I'm going to be on a panel to discuss indigeneity within the context of opera - it's overwhelmingly positive and exciting, and I wake up every day excited by it,” she says.
The conference also represents a chance for performers who call Delaware home to showcase their talents in full force, OperaDelaware’s Suarez says.
“So often when we're meeting people in the opera world, we're meeting them in an audition room, which is a small room with a piano,” he explains. “So the opportunity to get to say, this is actually what we do - you can see me on stage with my colleagues in costume and with a full orchestra.”
Opera America’s conference runs through Friday.
Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
