Amanda Muschlitz / Picture Editor / am120306@ohiou.edu

Ohio University Opera Theater Ensemble members Michael Ward and Heather Keith sing a duet during a rehearsal Wednesday for Opera Scenes. The show is composed of various opera scenes selected and compiled by director Richard Crist and other faculty members. Opera Scenes will be showing at the auditorium at 7 tonight at The Ridges.

In tonight’s Opera Scenes production, Christian Lindsey uses three different languages to play three different kinds of lovers: one restrained, one unrequited and one fulfilled.

The Opera Theater Ensemble will perform excerpts from six full-length operas, including Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Beethoven’s Fidelio, at 7 tonight in The Ridges Auditorium.

In a scene from Bizet’s French opera The Pearl Fishers, Lindsey plays one of two men who vows to stay away from a woman they both love to maintain their friendship. Although the girl snubs his character in the Marriage of Figaro, Lindsey’s part finally prevails in a scene from Verdi’s Falstaff.

“It’s an interesting progression,” said Lindsey, a freshman vocal performance major. “He’s not exactly the hero, but he’s the one who gets the girl in the end.”

The 13 students performing in the production all perform in at least two scenes and have had about eight weeks to learn their parts, which are in English, German, French or Italian, said Richard Crist, director for the performance.

“Their job is to convey the emotional content to the audience so they can understand by feel what is going on,” Crist said. This year, more men auditioned for the ensemble than usual, so the cast was able to perform more traditional opera, such as the scene from The Pearl Fishers, he said.  

“It’s one of the most beautiful duets for two men,” Crist said of the scene when the two friends sing about the woman they both love.

Heather Keith, a graduate student studying vocal performance, also will perform in three scenes, including Gilbert and Sullivan’s comedic Pirates of Penzance.

Performing in a small venue like The Ridges Auditorium, with its 165-person capacity, can be a different opera experience than what it would be like in the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium, for example, Keith said.

“We can concentrate more on acting and more of the basics of theater production,” she said. “I find you don’t have to work as hard to get the message across.”

Performers have to be sharper and better prepared, because audience members also can see and relate better to the characters, Keith said.

“They will notice when you mess up,” she said. “It’s more intimate. They feel more a part of the action.”