In a manufacturing on the Seattle Opera, an organization of dancers carries Semele away, whereas the refrain watches. (Picture by Avi Loud)
Soprano Lauren Snouffer, who performs the lead, talks about this colourful new manufacturing and the timeless themes that also resonate centuries later.
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George Frideric Handel had many profitable works throughout his life, however Semele wasn’t one in all them. The usage of English within the libretto was unorthodox, and the work as a complete was considered profane by audiences of the time. As such, the opera vanished from the stage after six performances in 1744. The work would later be revived within the twentieth century.
100 years later, the Atlanta Opera launches its manufacturing of Handel’s Semele this weekend on June 7. In a chat with Lauren Snouffer, the Texas-born soprano who performs the titular lead, she reveals the manufacturing to be a mix of classical antiquity and fashionable staging.
Thematically, Semele occupies the form of historical Greek excessive fantasy that types the spine of basic theater: a narrative of lady meets Jupiter; lady loses Jupiter; Jupiter’s scorned spouse plots revenge. Snouffer says that there’s a robust element of the cautionary Icarus motif all through however notes that the piece’s actual attraction lies in its consideration to poetic particulars and impressionistic, implied storytelling.
“Tomer says that this story is a sequence of poems,” she observes, referring to Atlanta Opera Basic and Creative Director, Tomer Zvulun. “There may be actually some side of it that’s summary that we attempt to concretize. There are the weather of self-importance and flying too near the solar — turning into just a little too self-obsessed.”
These abstractions, Snouffer notes, are crucial to forming the bigger, impressionistic scope of the narrative. “The arias are extra musically colourful. The textual content isn’t telling a brilliant clear story about very advanced issues. Numerous occasions, we’re singing about very philosophical ideas.”
That impressionistic narration can typically make for difficult character improvement. “We as actors should ask ourselves what the music is saying as a result of the textual content exhausts itself rapidly.”
From what she describes, the AO’s ordinary array of multimedia accoutrements shall be helping in that narration as properly, with projectors taking part in a key function within the staging. “There are these projections on the again wall that seem like an enormous window looking on Mount Olympus,” she enthuses. “Typically our personal pictures are projected across the stage, so there’s a really dynamic technological element.”
What she describes echoes the design of the AO’s 2022 manufacturing of Madame Butterfly, which, like Semele, featured the work of scenic and projection designer Erhard Rom. Equally, Snouffer commends the costume designs of Vita Tzykun, which she describes as “revolutionary, fairly stunning and inform a narrative in and of themselves.”
As with all tales hewn within the realms of Greek tragedy, Semele’s timeless truths resonate on the human degree. As Snouffer notes, the AO’s interpretation positions the character as a pushed, bold lady seeking to escape her provincial background. Such ambition, when intersected with poisonous romance, is a recipe for catastrophe even when the pantheon of Greek gods isn’t concerned.
“I sing quite a lot of modern music,” explains Snouffer. “And with quite a lot of modern tales, it’s lots simpler to get myself into a personality as a result of the issues they undergo are much more relatable than being swept away onto Mount Olympus.”
Nonetheless, the story’s underlying themes guided her character improvement. “After I get a form of all the story, I ask myself: ‘What are the common truths? What can Lauren relate to on this character?’” The next self-examination led her to search out that the struggles of gods and their earthly amours are much more relatable than one may think. Even in mortal relationships, emotions of limerence, heartache and betrayal can really feel like lightning from the gods.
After break day this summer season, Snouffer shall be off to New York Metropolis to sing in her Metropolitan Opera debut as part of The Superb Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, the stage adaptation of Michael Chabon’s novel of the identical identify. That’s thrilling to say the least, however she emphasizes how a lot she’s loved her go to to Atlanta. “I’m renting a home over by Piedmont Park. I’ve my two canines right here, and we’ve been happening walks day by day. I can’t recover from how beautiful the park is. It’s a extremely lush and delightful metropolis.”
The place & When
The Atlanta Opera brings Semele to the Cobb Power Performing Arts Centre at 8 p.m. June 7 and June 13; 7:30 p.m. June 10; and three p.m. June 15. $25-$187. 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. atlantaopera.org
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Jordan Owen started writing about music professionally on the age of 16 in Oxford, Mississippi. A 2006 graduate of the Berklee Faculty of Music, he’s an expert guitarist, bandleader and composer. He’s presently the lead guitarist for the jazz group Different Strangers, the facility steel band Axis of Empires and the melodic loss of life/thrash steel band Century Spawn.
