Boston Singers' Resource News Bulletin October 28, 2004

The North Cambridge Family Opera Company has been getting children and their families excited about opera since 1999. Founder, Music Director and composer, Dr. David Bass, talks about what opera is and what it can be for children. He discusses the personal impetus for starting this company and its mission.

By his own admission Dr. David Bass was 'a prolific composer of pretentious music' as a teenager. As an undergraduate at Yale, where he was a member of the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus, and then as a graduate student at MIT, where he was a founding member of the all-male acapella chorus, The Chorallaries, he arranged dozens of songs and conducted both groups. But his passion for music was off-set by a distaste for the business of music; 'a very cut-throat business', he feels. A career as a chemical engineer was more to his liking and he has had a twenty-five career at MIT and in industry.

His interest and abilities as a composer began to re-assert themselves in the mid-1990s following the birth of, Robert, his first child. Robert showed early on that he had an excellent ear, able to recall melodies at the age of two, and had the kind of a voice you would find in an English Cathedral choir. But he also had developmental disabilities and had difficulty working in groups and playing with other children. David's response to this situation, as he explains, was both accidental and fortuitous.


Joe Stroup of BSR: First, what do you mean by 'family opera'?

David Bass: A family opera is written to be performed, for an audience of adults and children, by a cast of adults and children. Now that word, 'opera', has, for many, such a stigma attached to it; that it's just very loud singing with a story that people can't relate to. At North Cambridge Family Opera we want to try to remove that stigma. A definition of opera is that it is a continuous piece of music that tells a story entirely through singing and acting, without spoken dialog; It's just a sung-through show.


JS: What gave you the idea for establishing North Cambridge Family Opera Company?

DB: Well actually, it was never my initial intention to develop something like this. But I had seen a production of 'Dracula' that was put on by the Boston Children's Opera in 1997 and was very impressed with what David Budgell (BCO's Artistic Director) was accomplishing. The children were having such fun with it. I wanted to do something similar that Robert could enjoy with us and with his friends. At the time, I didn't really recognize what Robert's issues were, but I kind of accidentally did the 'right thing'. My only goal was to help him learn how to sing, to help him learn to express himself and for us to have fun together. He was about 8 at the time. I began to write, for instance, a recitative in a series of couplets. We discussed how to emotionally express the music. Robert became so enthusiastic that he actually helped me write a few of the couplets himself. Over a two-year period, in 1997 and 1998, a full story was developed and set to music. It became my 'Space Opera'.

The suggestion to perform it came from my wife. Friends of mine from MIT were interested or had children who were interested in doing this thing as were some of Robert's friends and their parents. Altogether we had about 25 people. We put on a concert version in 1999.

The interesting thing to me, that I wasn't expecting when we did that first show, was how much benefit this experience was giving the adults and children aside from the musical aspects. For instance, there were parents going through a divorce and the relationship with their child was deteriorating. But being involved in this kind of project gave them something to bond with. Also, we had kids who had trouble participating in normal activities, some like Robert and some even more severely challenged, but who became very interested in our project. It was almost a form of therapy for them and their parents. I realized that we had stumbled onto something special. That's why I continue to do it. We've done one every year since.


JS: How would you characterize the music? Do you aim for a particular style of music?

DB: Our only criterion is that the music be accessible to children, yet sophisticated enough to hold the interest of adults as well. "Accessible to children" generally means lyrical and tonal, but it does not mean simplistic or condescending. We aim to expose children and their parents to musical styles from many cultures and eras, and to present each of these styles with equal deference and respect. We teach that no musical style is inherently `better' than any other.

Our operas so far have drawn from baroque, classical, romantic, and 20th century classical traditions, from Middle Eastern modalities, and from jazz, blues, rock, honky-tonk, ragtime, and pop styles. We've done tarantellas, sea shanties, marches, minuets, ballads, Londonderry airs, tangos, even lounge music.


JS: You spoke earlier about the work done at the Boston Children's Opera. How does North Cambridge Family Opera differ?

DB: We decided that we would approach this differently in three specific ways. First, we would always have adults and children participating together. It is our mission to provide adults and children with the opportunity to experience and enjoy the telling of a story through song. Both children and adults are cast in solo roles. Participation by multiple family members is encouraged. We particularly urge parents to be in the show with their children so they can share the experience, although we have never turned anyone away who wanted to participate without other family members. Second, we want to be sure to have music for mixed chorus, for those who are too shy or inexperienced to take on a solo role. We realize that some people won't (ever) be ready to deal with the attention that comes with doing solos and we want to create a situation that is enjoyable. And third, we want to make the experience the best possible artistically, not just 'good enough', for the cast as well as the audience. To the best of our ability we use high-quality sets, lighting and costumes in addition to the best musical presentations we can find.


JS: Who provides you with your music? Do you commission works?

DB: After the first showm 'Space Opera' (which is being reprised in March), I wrote two other operas; 'Coronation of Esther' for our 2001 production and 'Springtime for Haman' for 2004. We're always looking for composers. We've found two on the Internet, both from England, whose scores were used in 2002 and 2003. We've never commissioned a work but we were able to pay a fair-market licensing fee to those two composers.

It's difficult, actually, to find the right type of scores because we're looking for something very specific. We truly want to present the operatic, sung-through, form and, as I said before, it needs to be both musically sophisticated enough to interest adults and accessible to children. It should be based on a story that's likely to be interesting and/or familiar to children and adults and, of course, it needs a variety of roles for many different age groups and abilities.

One other thing that we have to insist on is that we only use a synthesized accompaniment. From the standpoint of cost alone, a pit orchestra would be prohibitive. And, with a cast of 150, like in last year's show, it would be adding an extra layer of difficulty to manage all that. Then, too, the children need the assurance of having consistent support from the music. Synthesized accompaniment also allows for a variety of orchestrations, consistent with our desire to expose children to a wide range of musical styles.

We're continually looking for this type of family opera, and we'd be very happy to talk with any BSR composers who might be interested in this type of thing. Incidentally, we do use trained singers when they're needed and have found several in the past through BSR. Three that I can name are Elaine Chow, Paul Shafer and Rachel Cooper.


JS: The concept of Family Opera is intriguing and you've had a great success with it. But, do you think it could be as successfully developed in other communities?

DB: You're right. We've been very successful with the idea. And the talent we've found, besides the children and adults on stage, is really exceptional. We've had the good luck to be helped with the sound system by a distinguished Berklee Music School professor, our props designer is a world-renowned expert on origami and our costume designer has been designing costumes since college for the Society for Creative Anachronism.

But I think that this kind of thing can easily be developed in other towns. Everyone knows many people with latent talents and these are the people who want to help. You can always find people with skills like this to make it happen in a unique way. We keep notes on everything we do, on every step or misstep. We make practice CDs and publish the scores. So there's that kind of documentation that could help to transfer this to another community that's interested. You use your own creativity to expand on it.

It's a very big commitment for everyone. We can only really do one production a year at this point. But it's certainly something that has many rewards on many levels for everyone that is involved.

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SPACE OPERA, written in 1998 by Cambridge Massachusetts composer David Bass, is based on a familiar science fiction tale of heroes and villains, robots and aliens, unlikely adventures and supernatural nonsense. This light-hearted, musically sophisticated opera draws on a variety of popular and classical styles and will appeal to audiences of all ages. Performances are scheduled for March 12, 13, 19 and 20 2005, in Cambridge.

For additional information about the North Cambridge Family Opera Company go to www.familyopera.com.