Friday, November 16, 2018
  Alumni, Announcements

By Amanda Taylor

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS – Expressive gestures and pure emotion are two of the major components in opera theater. Cast members are responsible for portraying a story through music, using their bodies as tools and their powerful voices to tell the tale.

The UTRGV Opera Theater has been working hard for weeks to perfect “Lucinda y las Flores de la Nochebuena,” a Christmas Mexican folktale that follows Lucinda, the main character, who is making an offering to leave at the altar with her mother.

The performance is part of the outreach theater program, in which opera students perform in elementary schools to share their talents with children.

“This is a magical Christmas story about the first poinsettia,” said Daniel Hunter-Holly, associate professor of music with the UTRGV School of Music. “The overall story is about the transformation from her offering on Christmas Eve into a poinsettia flower.”  

The student performers had the opportunity to work with the opera’s composer, Evan Mack, of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, and librettist Joshua McGuire, of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Hunter-Holly said it is rare to be able to collaborate with the composers and librettists of performance pieces, as most of the operas performed were written centuries ago.

“It’s a musical for all ages,” composer Mack said, “and I’m here to peel back the curtain a little bit for the singers on the process of writing the piece. And they get a chance to work with a living breathing composer. Most of the time we work with old dead people, so now they get to ask questions and get feedback and realize these are the things I had behind it. That helps them enhance their performances.”

For McGuire, the energy and ideas the opera students brought forth inspired him and taught him more about his own characters.

“It’s been fantastic. These guys bring such an infectious energy to the piece,” McGuire said. “They’re really committed to each character and really committed to bringing the spirit of the story, which is one of entertaining the whole family.”

For the students, who had been working on the piece since the beginning of the fall semester, being able to collaborate and get feedback on their performances was thrilling – and just a little nerve-wracking.

“I couldn’t even sleep the night before,” said Brenda Garza, a music performance major. “The feedback they’re giving us is so helpful because it breaks the barrier – this is where we actually get to be the character and build the character that brings this opera to life.” 

Hunter-Holly said the experience of working with Mack and McGuire has been invaluable to the students’ general understanding of performance opera. It was moving to see students come up with their own concepts and ideas about the play and run with their character roles, he said.

“I think what’s most impressed me is the ideas that they’ve brought to it,” Hunter-Holly said. “Not just the reacting to what the score says, but really saying, ‘This is what I thought of with my character.’ And to have somebody to just instantly give them feedback, like, ‘Yes, absolutely, what a great idea,’ or ‘You can think about it this way, as well.’ That’s a really magical experience.”

Public performances of “Lucinda y las Flores de la Nochebuena” will be at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18, at the TSC Performing Arts Center in Brownsville. 

Tickets are $5 per person. For more information, call 956-882-7025.

“Lucinda y las Flores de la Nochebuena,” an opera composed in 2014, tells the story of the miracle of the first poinsettia. The UTRGV Opera Theater will perform the opera for local school children on Nov. 16. Performances will open to the public at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, and again at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18, at the TSC Performing Arts Center in Brownsville. Faculty Daniel Hunter-Holly, and Evangelia Leontis hosted the opera's composer, Evan Mack, and librettist Joshua McGuire, who met with the student performers and gave them tips and instruction for their upcoming performances. (UTRGV Photo by David Pike)
“Lucinda y las Flores de la Nochebuena,” an opera composed in 2014, tells the story of the miracle of the first poinsettia. The UTRGV Opera Theater will perform the opera for local school children on Nov. 16. Performances will open to the public at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, and again at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18, at the TSC Performing Arts Center in Brownsville. Faculty Daniel Hunter-Holly, and Evangelia Leontis hosted the opera's composer, Evan Mack, and librettist Joshua McGuire, who met with the student performers and gave them tips and instruction for their upcoming performances. (UTRGV Photo by David Pike)



ABOUT UTRGV

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 as the first major public university of the 21st century in Texas. This transformative initiative provided the opportunity to expand educational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley, including a new School of Medicine, and made it possible for residents of the region to benefit from the Permanent University Fund – a public endowment contributing support to the University of Texas System and other institutions.

UTRGV has campuses and off-campus research and teaching sites throughout the Rio Grande Valley including in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville (formerly The University of Texas at Brownsville campus), Edinburg (formerly The University of Texas-Pan American campus), Harlingen, McAllen, Port Isabel, Rio Grande City, and South Padre Island. UTRGV, a comprehensive academic institution, enrolled its first class in the fall of 2015, and the School of Medicine welcomed its first class in the summer of 2016.