Boston Singers' Resource News Bulletin May 25, 2005

Now in it’s 50th year, the Lowell Opera Company will be presenting a fully staged and costumed production of Donizetti’s comic opera ‘Elixir of Love’ (L'elisir d'amore), sung in English, in late June. The cast includes local favorites and BSR subscribers Lauren Sprague as Adina, Graham Wright as Belcore and Tom Weber as Dr. Dulcamara. As the Company’s Publicity Director and a performer in her own right, Christina Puntoni is very involved in both its day-to-day and long-term successes.

Joe Stroup: It might seem unlikely to some people that an opera company based in Lowell could thrive. How have you managed to be so successful there?

Christina Puntoni: The city of Lowell is extra-ordinarily supportive in terms of the small businesses. They are very willing to offer what they can afford to support the Opera Company. And we’re getting some new people from the artistic groups in Lowell because the city is highly committed to artistic endeavors and supports the arts.

(We) develop programming across the arch of the season with enough things that are interesting and appealing to people. We want it to be something that people will find accessible (so we) stick with the ones that people have heard of. We’ve gone round and round with the English versus original language issue. I’m not convinced that the English language bandwagon is necessarily the way to go. People are frequently intimidated by the language factor. But then, we’ve tried all English seasons and had really no better success. People come to opera because they love opera.

We’re also reaching out to other towns in the area and trying to find at least small performance venues. We have had very long-standing venues that were free to us in Lowell which made staying in Lowell very attractive. But it’s hard to get funding from outside sources if you don’t ever perform there. So we’re trying to reach out to other communities and have done some performing in Chelmsford and Andover.

JS: You’ve been affiliated with the Lowell Opera Company for 6 years. What changes have you seen in that time?

CP: For about 15 years, up until about five years ago, the company had had someone affiliated with UMass Lowell who was both Director and Music Director. The company had grown increasingly elderly and had stopped doing full productions. Then five years ago, when Ronald and Judith Lemoine came in (as President and Secretary/Treasurer, respectively) and made some changes, we were re-energized.

Four years ago the Artistic Direction Committee was created. The Board decided that they really needed people to take responsibility for artistic direction, to spice up the programming and try and create a programming package that would draw people in and build the audience membership. At about that time there were quite a few more middle aged people who came into the company looking for a group to participate in. We saw a big jump forward. We thought that that was a trend that we could keep rolling on. So we tried to have a season where we reached out to a lot of soloists that we had heard auditioning. That’s why we had planned ‘Il Tritico’ (for the 2003-2004 season), because there’s a zillion roles in it. (But) we were really over-extended on production people. So this year we’ve scaled back to a level that we think we probably can maintain. We do a fall program of mixed scenes and arias and we do one big fully staged and costumed opera in the spring.

JS: In addition to your production of ‘Elixir’ there are some other upcoming events on the Lowell Opera Company website. Tell us a little about them.

CP: We have been invited to perform in June at Andover's Arts Festival in the Park. It lines up so nicely two weeks before our big show and gives us an opportunity to give a sampling of Elixir and to sell tickets.

We’ve also been given featured time this year at the Lowell Folk Festival which is held in the last week of July. We’ve been street singers (at the Festival) for several years and now we’re on one of the stages. That’s a huge venue for us. Even with the street singing, people planted themselves on benches nearby and sat there for two hours listening.

Throughout the season we also do a Cabaret series; three or four scened Cabaret nights. And we do Christmas outreach caroling for nursing homes and senior centers.

JS: LOC has both a Board of Directors and an Artistic Decision Board. What is the decision-making process like?

CP: The ADC presents a proposed slate to the Board and the Board ‘yeas or nays’ it for the whole season. The feeling is that with a committee it’s more enriching and allows for exposure to different people’s taste. More heads are better than one. In terms of the actual programming choices there are certain logical things that guide what we select. We try to stick with the top 20 shows, the big majors, something that’s not impossibly demanding to do sets for. I will admit that people on the ADC all have a strong preference for ‘gutty’ Italian opera. But we try to balance that with something light and comedic. Last year (in addition to ‘Il Tritico’) we did ‘Die Fledermaus’ and we did ‘Marriage of Figaro’ (Act IV) with the Lowell Philharmonic. Next year would tend toward something more gutty and dramatic.

JS: Where does the LOC membership come from and how are roles assigned?

CP: There’s always a general open invitation for chorus member just to come sing with us. That’s always open although, obviously at this point in the year, if someone showed up and was interested we’d invite them to come and hear a rehearsal and join us again in September when we’re up and going with something new.

Three years ago we had four days of open auditions and last year Judy Lemoine and I went as auditors for the BSR Select auditions. I may be doing that in November depending on what my schedule is then. Sometimes you get talent from the chorus. We actually have someone who’s going to sing in ‘Elixir’ who came for the first time three weeks ago.

We try and give everybody a little something to do throughout the year, to keep everybody happy so they’ll come back. It’s a balancing act between using soloists, who are looking for solo work, and getting people who will be committed to the opera company itself rather than being committed just to a role. You need to bring in talent that’s going to make your production of a really high caliber. But you also need to maintain a membership that is going to be happy working on each production: raising the money, making the costumes, building the sets.

The November production is an opportunity, if the big show in the spring doesn’t have roles for them, to showcase people who have been committed to the group for several years who like to do solo work and are good performers.

JS: You also seek ways to bring children into your productions.

CP: I am always searching for children who have the big voices that are always being told to hush and blend in. Because I’ve been in Lowell for a decade and have children going up through the school system I know the kids here very well. I’ve been drawing on them for the passed several seasons. We’ve had youth from Andover singing in ‘Cavalleria,’ in ‘Pagliacci’ (in the 2002-2003 season) and (last year) in ‘Die Fledermaus.’ For ‘Elixir’ we have four girls singing in the chorus that are middle school and elementary school students and we have six boys from the high school performing as the soldiery.

We’re trying, in the long run of things, to develop an ongoing base for support of opera as an art. By bringing in the kids and giving them an opportunity to sing more interesting and serious music, you also draw in the family in terms of your audience. And we give the kids an opportunity to work in something that’s beyond a kid’s production. I try to post on the website that we have a youth chorus whenever there is one.

(Other resources for young people include cast-members) Lauren Sprague, who runs the Merrimack Valley Youth Theatre, and Jennifer D’Onofrio, who has a music studio and teaches voice to young people. Laura Green, one of our board members and a choral conductor at UMass Lowell, has access to the college students.

JS: It’s been a pleasure to talk with you and I wish you a lot of success with ‘Elixir.’ It sounds like it’s going to be a great evening of opera.

CP: Thanks. We’re excited to be presenting this at the Sullivan Middle School. It’s a new venue for us. It’s modern with good lighting and very comfortable seating for about 300. We hope we can have a sell-out. The cast is wonderful, too. Lauren Sprague is absolutely outstanding. She’s a perfect Adina. And I think people are going to be completely blown away by Tom Weber (as Dr. Dulcamara). He’s just terrific.

Upcoming performances by the Lowell Opera Company:

Donizetti: Elixir of Love
Sullivan Middle School, 150 Draper Street, Lowell, MA.
Friday June 24, 2005 at 8:00 PM
Sunday June 26, 2005 at 2:00 PM
A fully staged and costumed presentation of the delightfully comic opera sung entirely in English. Featuring Lauren Sprague* as Adina, Gregorio Rangel as Nemorino, Laura Green as Giannetta, Graham Wright* as Belcore and Tom Weber* as Dr. Dulcamara.
$20 / $15 for seniors and students / $10 children 12 and under.

Andover's Arts Festival in the Park.
Saturday June 11, 2005 at 2:00 PM. (raindate June 12th)
Featuring the Lowell Opera Company performing a variety of opera and Broadway music along with a sneak preview of their upcoming production of ‘Elixir of Love’

For more information about the Lowell Opera Company please go to their website, www.operalowell.org.

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Christina Puntoni studied voice with Charles Quigley of Hartt School of Music, Patricia Craig of New England Conservatory, and Anna Gabrieli of Longy School of Music and New England Conservatory. During the six years she has been with the Lowell Opera Company, she has sung such roles as Santuzza in Mascagni's ‘Cavalleria Rusticana,’ Giorgetta in the ‘Il Tabarro’ portion of Puccini's ‘Il Trittico,’ Rosalinde in Strauss’ ‘Die Fledermaus’ and Violetta in Verdi’s ‘La Traviata.’

Also on the Lowell Opera Company roster are BSR subscribers Holly Ahearn, Penny Rubenfield and Lauren Sprague, sopranos; mezzo Rebekah Skirball; tenors Evan Denmark and Stanley Wilson; and baritones Daniel Kamalic, Gary Thies and Thomas Weber.