Opera company continues to delight the world
People came from South Africa, Denmark and all over the United States to live in Logan this summer.
The reasons?
“Sound of Music,” “The Magic Flute,” “Die Fledermaus” and “The Desert Song.”
The Utah Festival Opera Company presented each of these productions at the Ellen Eccles Theatre, and the performers came from all over the world.
“In the opera world, they travel a lot, so we are able to bring people from all over,” said Darla Seamons, the UFOC marketing and communications director. “They basically move in and become residents of Logan from June to August.”
The company grows to about 180 people during the summer, 60 of which are performers. The rest were involved with costumes, makeup, technical work, lighting, wigs or anything else that goes into putting together the productions, she said.
Of the performers, 30 to 40 are in the ensemble, and the rest are principal artists, Seamons said.
The members of the ensemble perform the minor roles and are typically in three of the four productions. The principal artists perform in only one show each.
Tammy Mumford, a senior majoring in vocal performance, was a member of the ensemble and was in “The Desert Song,” “Sound of Music” and “Die Fledermaus.”
“It was incredible because I’m someone who’s just from Utah, and these people are from all over,” she said. “It’s just good to get to know people who are really good at what they do and to pick their brains.”
The shows ran Wednesdays through Saturdays, and once or twice each week the members of the ensemble were in two shows per day, Mumford said.
“Sometimes I’d be in a matinée for one show and then in the evening performance of another,” she said. “It’s hard, but mostly fun because it’s what you want to do.”
When the members of the ensemble weren’t performing, they attended masters classes that were taught by experts brought in from all over the world, Mumford said.
“When I didn’t have a show, I’d go to a masters class,” she said. “It was great to be getting paid while being able to go to free classes and get free stuff.”
The performers started rehearsing June 3 and were on contract every day from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. but averaged about eight hours of practice each day, Mumford said.
“Often, I’d go to rehearsal for one show and then have a lunch break and then go to the next show’s rehearsal,” she said. “We didn’t know until the day before when we would be working.”
The shows ran from July 10 to August 10, and the 31 performances filled 23,142 seats. This was a 17 percent increase over the 2001 productions, Seamons said. In addition, the company sold 21 percent more tickets than it did the previous season.
For its next season, the company will perform “Madame Butterfly,” “Nabucco,” “The Wizard of Oz” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” The audition schedule will be posted on the opera company’s
Web site (www.ufoc.org) next week, she said. There will be 31 or 32 performances in the 2003 season.
“We hold auditions in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles – the list goes on and on as to where we go for auditions,” she said. “This year, we had people from Denmark, South Africa and South America.”
Seamons said the company often has Utah State University students in its opera program.
“We’ve had USU students in the opera program many times,” she said. “They audition like everyone else.”
However, USU didn’t make as strong a showing on the company’s roster as it has in times passed.
“It just surprises me that more music majors don’t audition,” she said. “It’s so professional that it’s amazing that it comes out of Logan. It was a great opportunity.”
The festival company performs five weeks during the summer, but sometimes will have holiday concerts throughout the year, Seamons said.
The UFOC’s first performances were in the summer of 1993, according to the Web site.
Shows are performed in the Ellen Eccles Theatre in Logan, which was built in 1923 and seats 1,100 people.
The company was ranked one of the top 20 summer opera festivals in the world by Money Magazine, according to the Web site. Ticket prices for each show range from $15 to $50.
-kcartwright@cc.usu.edu