A Night and Day at the Opera

"Life is an opera," Eileen Hayes, artistic director for Nevada Opera Theatre, says.

"What you learn through operas, not just as an artist but as you get mature in life, is how many of the stories come true in a person's life. You have happy times, you have tragedy, you have moments of celebration and mirth."

When the doors to UNLV's Artemus Ham Concert Hall open Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, the audience will witness love's labors and life's unlucky lot in NOT's fully staged production of "La Boheme."

Giacomo Puccini's timeless production, written in 1869, portrays the tumultuous and ultimately tragic relationship of lovers Mimi and Rodolfo, upstairs-downstairs neighbors in an early 1830s Paris apartment.

"La Boheme," NOT's first production this year, is expected to sell more than 3,000 tickets during its two-day run.

Opera "is everything that is essential to the human feelings of life," Hayes insists.

Frank Fetta, a Los Angeles opera coach who has held conducting posts with such respected outfits as the Los Angeles Opera Co. and the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, will conduct this weekend's performances.

"They will be infused with a great sense of human tenderness that they may not get in other places," Fetta says. "You've experienced this thing (in real life); you've experienced the closeness that (the actors) have felt, the tragedies they've gone through, all of this done to some of the most beautiful music that has ever been written in the history of the world."

"The music consoles me," Hayes says, explaining that when she feels overwhelmed, she can listen to "La Boheme" and lose herself in the passion of the ballads.

"The music is intoxicating," Demetra George, a soprano from Los Angeles, says. "And in this intimate theater, it complements the music, so you are really drawn in."

George plays Mimi, a woman whose fledgling happiness is sabotaged by a deadly respiratory disease. But George's portrayal isn't completely an act: She suffered debilitating asthma as a child.

"I live to die," she jokes.

During her 12-year career, George has played this character more than a dozen times, including for the New York City Opera, which invited her to play Mimi for a special tour.

George says she is calling on her personal family struggles and triumphs, transposing her life over Mimi's languid last days to fully feel the loss of love and, finally, of life.

"It's all so real," she says of Puccini's multilayered opera. "He did a wonderful analysis, the writing, the music, everything."

Opera touches all of the senses, leaving the patron breathless from its natural artistic force, Eric Ashcraft, the free-lance tenor from Chicago who portrays Rodolfo, claims.

"The pomp and grand scale of opera is not something you see in society anymore, as far as (being performed) live" without relying on technical assistance such as microphones, Ashcraft says.

"You computerize things that give the illusion (of magnitude). But to be in these great big costumes (and have) wonderful sets and beautiful music, it's an aesthetic sort of feeling that you really can't get anywhere else."

Fetta says that "La Boheme," in particular, imitates life, cutting through flesh and bone to reveal the true emotion buried in us all.

"Puccini was a rare breed, a genius," Fetta says. This opera "is so voluptuous, so sensuous, so tender, and yet it is so powerful that literally the vibrations of the music -- even if you don't exactly know what is going on -- have a way of infusing into every bone and every muscle in your body. It becomes physical.

"You can see, you can hear, you can feel what the (actors) are going through. The best thing for us is when someone gets it. It's the most amazing feeling."

Several of "La Boheme's" principal actors are traveling opera singers, conductors and directors who make the art form a lifestyle, roaming the globe to perform.

"A lot of people have the misconception that everyone is affiliated with a company," Ashcroft says. "But there are very few companies in America that employ singers for a season."

Even the national talents who sometimes grace marquee stages, such as the New York Metropolitan Opera, will appear in smaller venues in cities such as Las Vegas, which may be hungry for culture, yet 3,000 miles away from Broadway.

"The only way to do it is if you truly love it," Fetta says. "You sacrifice your rest and if you have families -- sometimes one forgets that people who are in the arts have families to take care of -- then you are gone for some time."

Typically, a fully-staged production of the Nevada Opera Theatre costs $80,000 because, as is the case with this production, sets and costumes are shipped in from as far away as the Tri-Cities Opera Company in New York.

"We are a unique family and we support each other tremendously," Hayes says of the opera community. "We work together to create the best opera and the beauty of it because that is what we are here for."

City of hope

Fetta claims that the centuries-old opera art form continues to move even the most contemporary audiences -- even those in Las Vegas, where people can be easily distracted by the cha-ching of a slot machine or a free dancing water show.

"You go to a casino in the afternoon and come to the opera at night. Why not?" he says.

Ashcraft, who has performed with Opera Northern Ireland and the Opera Company of Philadelphia, says the possibilities for a larger cultural community in Las Vegas are boundless, considering the entertainment-rich city from which it stems.

"This is an untapped area," he says. "If you look around the Strip, there's all of these great technical shows and popular music, and opera and classical music are just untapped (here). It has a potential to be huge."

Myron Martin, director of UNLV's Performing Arts Center, contends that Las Vegas soon could be coming to a cultural crossroads.

"Las Vegas has reached a critical mass in terms of art advocates and art lovers (who) are here," he says. "It has really emerged as a city that is becoming culturally rich."

Hayes says that a symbiotic relationship between entertainment moguls on the Strip and the small local theater community would be beneficial to all involved.

"I'd like to see a bridge between the Nevada Opera Theatre and casinos," she says, "because we offer a beautiful performing art form that would be very good for the casinos."

Locally, opera has a strong -- albeit intimate -- group of supporters, which could be larger if competition for the entertainment dollar wasn't lopsided in favor of the Strip, Hayes says.

"Instead of being in opposition, we could share responsibilities with each other and the community," Hayes says.

A new generation

Hayes takes opera to area streets with Opera Outreach, performing at local schools for children who may not otherwise get a chance to experience opera.

"I have kids (who) were involved with Opera Outreach five, seven years ago, and they are still here," performing with the troupe or assisting with productions, she says.

Younger opera lovers grow to become adult supporters, Hayes says, utilizing it as an outlet for their feelings and an in-road for tenderness.

The troupe plans to take an opera version of "Hansel and Gretel" to local elementary schools this year, and plan to reach approximately 6,000 children.

Opera "appeals to the young," George says. "Stories don't change that much over time. ... It's got that melodrama that people will appreciate on so many levels."

The Broadway musical "Rent" was based on "La Boheme," bringing the possibly daunting Italian production to a more understandable and popular level for today's audience, particularly children.

"They are singing the ('Rent') songs and saying, 'Have you heard this?' and I say, 'I've been singing this for years!" George shouts, shaking her head in wonderment of all that non-opera-goers are missing.

"Let's hope some of these children hear these opera singers do these wonderful, athletic things with their throats," Fetta says, "and we will bring into the world another generation of opera fans."

It's the music, Hayes says, that effects the soul and leaves youngsters craving opera.

"Music is very important," Hayes says. "It is so integral in peoples' lives, and once they are exposed to it, they have an opportunity to have it with them for their entire life. It's so enriching."

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