Welcome to a new year in the Shenandoah Conservatory opera calendar, and a year that promises to pack a punch as we find ways to navigate a brave new world of opera.

As we all know COVID-19 hit the arts industry especially hard, and now — more than ever — it is imperative that students are educated with wide-ranging skills that enable them to be adaptable and more flexible than ever before. The professional opera world is currently in flux, and the program here has been devised this year in order to harness students with the most valuable tools to not only survive in this system of change, but thrive too. 

I have always been motivated by trying to challenge our preconception of what opera is and to make it a better, fairer and more equitable art form, whilst maintaining the highest standards of production possible. To this extent our first Gothic Opera program is testament to my ideology that opera must combine both old and new, honor tradition and break away from it simultaneously. This show features canonical gems, paired alongside pieces written by living composers, and is tied thematically together by the conceit of a special Halloween dinner party. It is devised to introduce audiences to as many students as possible, and I believe that there is truly something for everyone in this show. 

Next semester we are delighted to announce that we will be performing Germaine Tailleferre’s 4 Opéra’s Bouffes in the main theatre space. Tailleferre is famously the oft forgotten and only female member of the Parisian compositional troupe ‘Les Six.’ Bringing this production to Winchester audiences is a feat not only because we will be the first school to perform these works, but we will also be giving these pieces their American premiere too. Shenandoah is the conservatory that does things differently and this piece is a massive wake-up call to the world that we are giving worthwhile pieces a new lease of life. 

My first semester has been incredibly busy but I have loved getting to know the students, listening to their ideas, and planning all sorts of exciting projects for the future (which I can only tease you about for now). Later this term David Butt-Phillip who is a tenor superstar and a soloist at the Kennedy Center Opera reopening will be delivering a speech and masterclass for our opera students, and there are plenty more events like this in the pipeline. 

The opera department is a playground for ideas and I plan to make this course known for furthering traditional skills, but also for innovation, creation and for nurturing the future change makers for the genre, building on the great foundation that currently is in existence here.

So without further ado, please enjoy the first show of this new chapter. 

– Ella Marchment
Director of Opera; Associate Professor
Shenandoah Conservatory