by Sarah Rae
Staff Writer

Performers from SCC’s talented vocal program recently presented their annual Opera Workshop for a three-night engagement on campus.

Before a packed house, four scenes from distinguished classic operas and an adapted one-act interpretation of The Magic Flute were performed.

The first of the four brief pieces was a scene from Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, which featured an especially evocative performance by Jenn Evora as Senta, the sea captain’s daughter.

The scene was set as a group of Norwegian women, lament over their toils at home while their men are away at sea. Mary, Senta’s maid, admonishes her as she daydreams. Senta confides that she has fallen in love with the legendary ghost, the Dutchman himself.

The second scene was from The Legend of Poker Alice, a new opera by locals Dr. Gloria Swisher and Dr. Willy Clark. The fun, nostalgic piece is based on the American legends of the real “Poker Alice”, an old-west icon by the name of Alice Ivers.

Ivers came to Deadwood, North Dakota to teach but there were no schools. She married a man named Frank and learned to play poker and win . . . but never on a Sunday.

Poker Alice was brilliantly brought to life by Sara Stejskal, with Frank played by a steady but less impressive Brandon Peck. While The Legend of Poker Alice was both entertaining and enjoyable, any old-west opera in which one character wears jeans comes off as awkward.

Next was a scene from Pique Dame, otherwise known as The Queen of Spades. Composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and based on the short story by Alexander Pushkin, this rendition of Pique Dame was sparse, simple and effective. As friends Lisa and Pauline, played by Jenn Evora and Rachel Oliver, respectively, entertain a small crowd at a party with a duet, Pauline’s light-hearted song turns dark and melancholy.

Part four brings to the stage a vignette from Dvorak’s Rusalka, a Slavik legend of a sirenlike water nymph, elements of which are included in Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid.

Heartsick Rusalka, daughter of a water goblin, turns to the moon as she sings of her love for a human prince. While the performances by SCC’s cast were relatively solid, this excerpt from Rusalka fell flat.

It’s all about Puccini’s Tosca! Even if you’re not an opera fan you’ve heard it, or at least heard of it. This most challenging fragment was brief but elegant; concise, engaging and very well performed.

It was a bit overwhelming to transition from the simplicity of the previous four selections to the grandeur of opera performers and the Shoreline Chamber Chorale, but it worked.

A quick intermission and it’s off to Egypt for Mozart’s spectacular opera, the Magic Flute. The men are stupid, the women are calculating, everyone else is condescending and rape is a big, fat, hairy joke.

While exorbitantly well done, The Magic Flute loses something in its translation into English, and when performed in a one-act format. Though as enchanting and humorous as ever, something seemed to be missing, through no fault of the performers.

One noteworthy performance is that of Dan Powers, SCC’s Spring Quarter Course Catalogue cover boy himself, in the lead as Sarastro.

The environment at the Opera Workshop was relatively casual. The sets and costumes were uncomplicated, some of the performed work was obscure, but in general the cast performs. I mean performs.

Without the distraction of huge sets or flamboyant costumes, they entertained with success. Whether you are a seasoned authority of the opera or a relative newbie, the artists still deserved respect for their talent.