News
Performances of The Merry Widow are April 16, 20, 22, and 24 at 7:30 p.m. and April 18 at 3 p.m., at Clark Family Auditorium, St. Mary's Academy (Lincoln Hall is in its second year of a major remodel). Tickets are $26 for the general public, $24 for seniors, and $15 for PSU students, faculty, and staff. Tickets are available through the PSU Box Office, 503-725-3307, or through any TicketMaster outlet
Lincoln Hall gets what it deserves
OPENING IN AUGUST 2010, a revitalized Lincoln Hall will usher in a new era for the performing arts at PSU. The renovation, funded through a $29.1 million appropriation by the Oregon Legislature and $1.5 million from government stimulus funds and generous donors, will include an extensive upgrade of the facility's performance space and significant enhancements in Lincoln Hall's rehearsal and lab facilities.
People who thought they were familiar with the 1911-vintage Classic Revival-style building, which began its life as the Portland School District's Lincoln High School, will hardly recognize it once the dust of the renovation clears, says Barbara Sestak, dean of PSU’s School of Fine and Performing Arts. "It's just a complete overhaul that will allow us to reclaim the best features of the old building," Sestak says. "The music and theater programs have grown so tremendously in the last 15 years, and this renovation has allowed us to create some much-needed new facilities for them as well."
Along with providing a seismic upgrade, project architects are opening up both of Lincoln Hall's original three-story atriums. And moving the building's mechanical systems to the roof has liberated space that will enable, among other things, a significant expansion of the performance hall’s orchestra pit. "We'll be able to fit a full orchestra now, which expands the repertoire of operas we'll be able to present in the future," Sestak says.
Other improvements include all-new seats in the main auditorium, a new 25-station digital music lab, and a new "black box" theater in the basement. The renovation will also create something infinitely valuable in this greenest of American cities: environmental bragging rights. "We're hoping that, when all is said and done, Lincoln Hall will be awarded LEED Gold status," Sestak says. "That's what we're striving for, so we'll see."
IN ALL OF THE PERFORMING ARTS, there is no more difficult profession than opera singer. Those who aspire to their hour upon the stage at the Met, La Scala, Covent Garden, or even at top regional opera companies from Portland to Philadelphia, must combine the acting chops of Olivier with crystal-shivering vocal fireworks unmatched in any other corner of the musical world. They must be able to summon these talents night after night, in front of a live audience, usually performing in a language not their own.
And everybody's a critic.
Tito Capobianco understands. "People are simply unaware of the sophistication, of the vocal technique involved," says Capobianco, who this spring returns for the fifth time as a visiting professor at Portland State, thanks to the generosity of local arts philanthropist Jeannine B. Cowles.
"Opera singers have to be able to sing, move, and act. The pressure is intense, because it's a live performance," he says. "And because an opera singer's entire body is their instrument, anything can affect it—the weather, what they eat, lack of rest, their sex life."
Capobianco pauses reverently. "The human voice is the most beautiful sound created by God," he says. "To use it properly requires intense study and total concentration."
Capobianco should know. From 1953 until his retirement from the professional stage in 2000, Capobianco, now 78, was one of the world's most esteemed opera stage directors. From Europe to the United States, Australia to South America, he has staged more than 300 productions starring the most incandescent stars in the operatic firmament: Plácido Domingo, Montserrat Caballá, Joan Sutherland, and the late Beverly Sills and Luciano Pavarotti.
CAPOBIANCO's WORK at PSU, where he is directing this spring's production of Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow, is an outgrowth of his lifelong love of teaching. The cofounder and original general director of Juilliard Opera, and founder of opera programs in Philadelphia, San Diego, and Pittsburgh, Capobianco has always thought of himself as a teacher at heart.
"I consider myself a gardener," Capobianco says from Philadelphia, where he was in the final stages of preparing a student production of Falstaff at the Academy of Vocal Arts. "There is such satisfaction when you see something you have nurtured so carefully suddenly grow and send forth a glorious perfume, blossoming, making people laugh, making people cry—that is a privilege. If you believe in the future, you must participate in making it."
Beginning in March at PSU, the Florida-based Capobianco will be directing an all-student cast in The Merry Widow, following up on his acclaimed PSU productions of Falstaff (2009), La Bohème (2008), Così fan tutte (2007), and Die Fledermaus (2004). Così fan tutte won the second place award in Category I at the National Opera Association's annual opera production competition. Rehearsals are intense—five to eight hours a day for six weeks—testing the student singers' commitment and vocal fortitude.
"We are so fortunate to have Tito," says Christine Meadows, music faculty and the director of PSU's Opera Program. "He got his start in Buenos Aires when it was the Paris of South America, when all the biggest names in opera were performing there. He has such an amazing wealth of experience. He's tough, but at this point in his life and career, there's also a softness and a desire to share that wealth with young artists."
PORTLAND-BASED BARITONE Richard Zeller '91, who has spent 12 seasons with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, was hired to anchor Capobianco's 2009 production of Falstaff at PSU. In addition to providing the chance to sing one of his dream roles, the assignment gave Zeller the opportunity to work with one of the opera world's most legendary behind-the-scenes figures.
Tito has seen it all, experienced everything," Zeller says. "What makes him wonderful for the kids at PSU is he's a very loving man who loves to teach. He's worked at the highest professional level with all of the biggest stars of this and the previous generation. But Tito lives for that light bulb moment, when a student suddenly gets what he's telling them and puts it into practice."
Opera has been described as "poetry, in the mortal embrace of love, dying in the arms of music." For Capobianco, this description rings true. "I worked in professional opera for almost 50 years—now I do what I want," he says. "Opera is unique—the music and the libretto combine to produce an art form like nothing else on earth. But the creation process is easy when you're working with young artists. Everything they're doing, everything they're experiencing, is something new. It's wonderful and challenging for a director."
Jeff Kuechle, a freelance writer, wrote "Creating Writers" in the fall 2009 Portland State Magazine.