Opera Workshop
Vassar Opera Workshop is a semester-long project of a staged opera or scenes performed at the end of the second semester. Auditions are held in the fall, and notices are given out to all the voice teachers in advance of the auditions. Others who are interested should inform themselves at the music office or with the chair of the voice department, so that anyone can audition. Particularly sought are voices of a certain size and accomplishment, and those who desire more stage experience in opera. Projects over the past several years have included the following: "Houses that Jacques Built," a pastiche of the works of Jacques Offenbach; "The Marriages of Mozart," scenes from Mozart's three collaborations with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte; Pauline Viardot's Cendrillon (complete opera); "Brush Up Your Shakespeare," a review of scenes of operas by Gounod, Bellini, Britten, Purcell, Vaughn Williams, and Verdi based on Shakespeare's plays. In the spring of 2008, the Opera Workshop will perform an extended version of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. Rehearsals are regularly scheduled throughout the semester, and become very heavy toward the end of the semester in the two weeks leading up to the scheduled performances.