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April 5-7, 2018
BPAC 7:30 Directed by Bronwen Forbay The Daughter of the Regiment seems to burst over with Gallic wit and charm. It tells a tale of young love--frustrated, then victorious--and gave the composer Donizetti ample chances to write military rhythms, pastoral mood music, and passionate love exchanges, as well as to create a role that any prima donna would fight to perform. The story centers on the waif Marie, who is adopted by a French army regiment, falls in love with a Tyrolean youth called Tonio, but is carried off to live with the Marquise of Berkenfeld, who plans to turn her into a genteel lady and marry her to an aristocrat. But at the final curtain, the Marquise (who turns out to be her long lost mother) relents and lets her marry Tonio. |
Cast List
Marquise of Berkenfield--------------------Kaleigh Huser, Sami Stewart-Ely
Hortensius the Steward--------------------Mitchell Grosso, Bobby McCarthy
Sgt. Sulpice--------------------------------------Skyler Farnay
Marie----------------------------------------------Mackenzie Smith, Ellie Shelton
Tonio----------------------------------------------Edgar Sierra
Duchess of Crackentorp-------------------Emily Chandler, Diana Hinojosa
Soldiers------------------------------------------Tommy Edds, Bobby McCarthy, Mitchell Grosso, Kaleigh Huser, Sami Stewart-Ely
Peasants----------------------------------------Mackenzie Smith, Ellie Shelton, Emily Chandler, Diana Hinojosa, Abby Roque
Hortensius the Steward--------------------Mitchell Grosso, Bobby McCarthy
Sgt. Sulpice--------------------------------------Skyler Farnay
Marie----------------------------------------------Mackenzie Smith, Ellie Shelton
Tonio----------------------------------------------Edgar Sierra
Duchess of Crackentorp-------------------Emily Chandler, Diana Hinojosa
Soldiers------------------------------------------Tommy Edds, Bobby McCarthy, Mitchell Grosso, Kaleigh Huser, Sami Stewart-Ely
Peasants----------------------------------------Mackenzie Smith, Ellie Shelton, Emily Chandler, Diana Hinojosa, Abby Roque
Production Calendar
Professional Productions
Production Notes
Our first production meeting will be Sept. 8th at 12:30. We will be building all of the soldier uniforms plus we need two duchess costumes, two marquise costumes, one duke costume, two Hortensio costumes, and peasant costumes for just four people (the off Marias and off Duchesses) because everyone else who is off-lead role that night will be a soldier. Isn't double casting fun? Not!
Soldier Uniforms:
Tommy
Edgar
Mitchell
Bobby
Sam
Skyler
Sami
Kayleigh
Mackenzie
Ellie
We will be using our free jail fabric, thanks, Jason Sanchez and ITS Jail Supplies for all the red, white, and blue fabric. I bought two patterns off of EBay from a Stitch Out of Time. Bailey Cole will be heading up the jacket construction these next two weeks with lab students. I am spending this week getting all the fabric cut into smaller sections and washed and ironed. We're hoping to do fitting of our two sizes next Tuesday.
Update: The musical has closed so now we can get busy on the opera. I spent spring break cutting all the pants out as well as the two dresses we were building for the Duchess and Marie, with more donated fabric thanks to English teacher, Lorraine Stansel. Bailey spent her time during the musical altering our pattern to make a third larger size and cutting the jacket pieces. Once the students got back, they immediately got to work stitching the pants together. I was out for a few days with sinus/upper respiratory infection, so Bailey led the students through getting the jackets pieced together. We had our first round of fittings with only one sleeve attached. Most of those went fine, but out of 10 jackets, three had to have their sleeves redone because they were both too long and not wide enough in the armseye. The seven that didn't need sleeves redone had their other sleeve put on, collars and cuffs put on, pockets flaps attached, and linings put in. We spent the Thursday before Easter having a sew 200+ buttons on party with expert help from Bronwen's mother, Priscilla, who was visiting from South Africa. First dress is Monday. Now it's just a matter of making sure the rest of the costumes that I pulled from stock are fitting properly--we seem to have a lot of missing snaps and hooks and eyes.
EXPENSES:
Patterns $68.69
Buttons $67.26
Richard the Thread $376.31
Joanne's $106.42
FINAL COST: $618.68 does not include dry cleaning
Soldier Uniforms:
Tommy
Edgar
Mitchell
Bobby
Sam
Skyler
Sami
Kayleigh
Mackenzie
Ellie
We will be using our free jail fabric, thanks, Jason Sanchez and ITS Jail Supplies for all the red, white, and blue fabric. I bought two patterns off of EBay from a Stitch Out of Time. Bailey Cole will be heading up the jacket construction these next two weeks with lab students. I am spending this week getting all the fabric cut into smaller sections and washed and ironed. We're hoping to do fitting of our two sizes next Tuesday.
Update: The musical has closed so now we can get busy on the opera. I spent spring break cutting all the pants out as well as the two dresses we were building for the Duchess and Marie, with more donated fabric thanks to English teacher, Lorraine Stansel. Bailey spent her time during the musical altering our pattern to make a third larger size and cutting the jacket pieces. Once the students got back, they immediately got to work stitching the pants together. I was out for a few days with sinus/upper respiratory infection, so Bailey led the students through getting the jackets pieced together. We had our first round of fittings with only one sleeve attached. Most of those went fine, but out of 10 jackets, three had to have their sleeves redone because they were both too long and not wide enough in the armseye. The seven that didn't need sleeves redone had their other sleeve put on, collars and cuffs put on, pockets flaps attached, and linings put in. We spent the Thursday before Easter having a sew 200+ buttons on party with expert help from Bronwen's mother, Priscilla, who was visiting from South Africa. First dress is Monday. Now it's just a matter of making sure the rest of the costumes that I pulled from stock are fitting properly--we seem to have a lot of missing snaps and hooks and eyes.
EXPENSES:
Patterns $68.69
Buttons $67.26
Richard the Thread $376.31
Joanne's $106.42
FINAL COST: $618.68 does not include dry cleaning
Prep work: Fall semester
MOck Ups and Fittings for the soldiers
Build: spring Semester
Production Photos
Waco Tribune Herald April 4, 2018
Cast members of McLennan Opera’s “The Daughter of the Regiment” Edgar Sierra (front, left), Ellie Shelton, Sami Stewart-Ely and Skyler Farney; Samuel Raines (second row, left), Mitchell Grosso, Bobby McCarthy, Diana Hinojoza; Kaleigh Huser (third row, left), Abigail Roque. Staff photo — Rod Aydelotte
McLennan Opera offers condensed
Daughter of the Regiment
By CARL HOOVER [email protected] Apr 4, 2018
Gaetano Donizetti’s 1840 comic opera “The Daughter of the Regiment” returns to a Waco stage Friday and Saturday as McLennan Opera’s spring production.
For those who saw the 2015 Waco Symphony/Baylor Opera concert collaboration, the McLennan Community College production offers a fuller cast, shorter performance time, greater costuming and a set. There’s also one major shared element: tenor Edgar Sierra, who reprises his role as the lovestruck Tonio with its jumps into the vocal stratosphere.
“We chose ‘Daughter’ because we have a wonderful tenor, Edgar Sierra,” said Bronwen Forbay, assistant professor of voice and opera and “Daughter’s” director. Sierra, an MCC graduate, was a Baylor student when he sang in the 2015 production; now, with undergrad and graduate degrees from Baylor, he’s an adjunct professor of voice at MCC.
That combination of teaching experience and vocal talent has been a valuable addition to the McLennan Opera production, Forbay noted. “He’s an incredible mentor for our students — and his nine high C’s are amazing.”
That said, there’s plenty of other reasons to tackle the challenge of a major opera, even with the younger singers of a community college. There’s the exposure to the work involved in opera, the confidence-building that performance experience brings and the historical lessons from the story and its context, she said.
Donizetti’s opera, set in early 19th century France, follows Marie (Ellie Shelton), the canteen girl adopted, informally, as an orphan and raised by a French regiment. Tonio (Sierra), who had saved her life earlier, joins the regiment to be near her, though the soldiers prove protective of their orphan charge. Love blossoms between the two, until a marquise (Sami Stewart-Ely and Kaleigh Huser) claims a family connection and takes Marie to her chateau, accompanied by Sergeant Sulpice (Skyler Farney), for a proper upbringing.
Marie later discovers the marquise has made plans to marry her off and disaster looms for her future with Tonio until a family secret is revealed, just in time for a happy ending.
Forbay said Marie, an independent woman with employment, even as canteen girl, made a statement in a time decades before women’s suffrage started to gain traction in some countries. “(Marie) was tough, a tough woman with a job,” she said.
There are lessons in musical genres and styles that the opera teaches and even the class distinctions of that time. Forbray finds her South African heritage helpful in the latter. “Being from a Commonwealth country, I can tell the difference between a countess and a duchess and a marquise, and how to curtsy properly,” she laughed.
Forbay and assistant stage director Mandy Morrison condensed the Donizetti work into roughly an hour’s running time, with changes made for children in the audience. “(The soldiers) don’t toast too much and there aren’t too many weapons onstage,” she explained. Marie’s presumed illegitimate birth also has been made legitimate through a plot tweak.
Sharing production leadership and design with Forbay and Morrison are musical coordinator Gail Wade, conductor Sharon Lavery and costumers Kathleen Laundy and Bailey Cole.
For those who saw the 2015 Waco Symphony/Baylor Opera concert collaboration, the McLennan Community College production offers a fuller cast, shorter performance time, greater costuming and a set. There’s also one major shared element: tenor Edgar Sierra, who reprises his role as the lovestruck Tonio with its jumps into the vocal stratosphere.
“We chose ‘Daughter’ because we have a wonderful tenor, Edgar Sierra,” said Bronwen Forbay, assistant professor of voice and opera and “Daughter’s” director. Sierra, an MCC graduate, was a Baylor student when he sang in the 2015 production; now, with undergrad and graduate degrees from Baylor, he’s an adjunct professor of voice at MCC.
That combination of teaching experience and vocal talent has been a valuable addition to the McLennan Opera production, Forbay noted. “He’s an incredible mentor for our students — and his nine high C’s are amazing.”
That said, there’s plenty of other reasons to tackle the challenge of a major opera, even with the younger singers of a community college. There’s the exposure to the work involved in opera, the confidence-building that performance experience brings and the historical lessons from the story and its context, she said.
Donizetti’s opera, set in early 19th century France, follows Marie (Ellie Shelton), the canteen girl adopted, informally, as an orphan and raised by a French regiment. Tonio (Sierra), who had saved her life earlier, joins the regiment to be near her, though the soldiers prove protective of their orphan charge. Love blossoms between the two, until a marquise (Sami Stewart-Ely and Kaleigh Huser) claims a family connection and takes Marie to her chateau, accompanied by Sergeant Sulpice (Skyler Farney), for a proper upbringing.
Marie later discovers the marquise has made plans to marry her off and disaster looms for her future with Tonio until a family secret is revealed, just in time for a happy ending.
Forbay said Marie, an independent woman with employment, even as canteen girl, made a statement in a time decades before women’s suffrage started to gain traction in some countries. “(Marie) was tough, a tough woman with a job,” she said.
There are lessons in musical genres and styles that the opera teaches and even the class distinctions of that time. Forbray finds her South African heritage helpful in the latter. “Being from a Commonwealth country, I can tell the difference between a countess and a duchess and a marquise, and how to curtsy properly,” she laughed.
Forbay and assistant stage director Mandy Morrison condensed the Donizetti work into roughly an hour’s running time, with changes made for children in the audience. “(The soldiers) don’t toast too much and there aren’t too many weapons onstage,” she explained. Marie’s presumed illegitimate birth also has been made legitimate through a plot tweak.
Sharing production leadership and design with Forbay and Morrison are musical coordinator Gail Wade, conductor Sharon Lavery and costumers Kathleen Laundy and Bailey Cole.