Outreach performances are often viewed as a rite of passage for young aspiring opera singers, in many cases involving travel to schools for 8 A.M. assembly performances. The advantage Canto Vocal Programs has is that their Midsummer Opera Dream festival takes place during the summer, so instead of traveling to schools, on Friday and Saturday last week families were invited to their late morning, 1-hour outreach show, Who’s Afraid of Opera?
For other events during the festival, the Steinway piano donated by Lindeblad Piano was front and center, but for these performances it was set off to the side to allow for room for the staging. Three chairs were all that were needed for the set, because with Artistic Director Sharon Mohar’s frankly amazing staging, not only did the performers change the positions of the chairs from time to time, but they also moved as one unit at points, practically becoming a set unto themselves.
I attended the Saturday performance and immediately loved how many children I saw in the audience. One hopes that the composers whose music made up the score for the performance would similarly delight in the attention their music commands to this day with the right performers and an audience open to something that may be new for them.
The performance opened with Rossini’s “Duetto buffo per due gatti,” the comic duet for two cats. This was an excellent choice to open the show because, as it is wont to do, the silliness of it made the audience start laughing immediately. The first “cat” to sing, Caroline Yergeau, started the performance in the stage area, and her duet partner, Brooke Studebaker, emerged from the audience to interrupt her. It was that staging that made it clear that this would be an interactive performance. Not only that, but the two actors told a story without words. That ability is the hallmark of great performers and a great performance.
After the cat duet, the actors introduced each voice part to the audience: soprano, mezzo, tenor, baritone, and bass. I very much appreciated how Mohar made no assumptions about the audience’s prior knowledge or background in writing this show. Speaking to Canto music director Lucy Arner’s comment earlier in the festival about opera companies not offering enough outreach and doing enough to expand audiences, I can say with confidence that, if more companies were to produce Canto’s outreach show, they’d probably be able to draw a full house every day. Can we please have more performances of opera that make me laugh this hard? Even as an adult, I found myself in stitches. That’s what works so well about this show: although it definitely has an aim in mind to appeal to audiences of children, adults should be just as enthralled.
The singers also showed the audience some warm-ups, which I found not only funny in the way each singer did their own routine for a few seconds, but also effective as far as connecting with the audience on a human level. In other words, the idea of singers needing to take time to prepare before a performance humanizes them.
Soprano Andrea Priscila Gutiérrez sang “Ach, ich fühl’s“ from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and not only sang it beautifully but also started a discussion about the audience understanding characters’ feelings even when not understanding the language being sung. Punctuating the singing was Samuel Oloniyo walking through the audience with tissues in hand, hilariously melodramatic in the way his “character” reeacted to the aria.
Next was “Ho capito, signor sì” from Don Giovanni, sung with perfect dancelike physicality by Andres Groza. Here again, I found myself both entertained and amazed at the coordination of the singers. At times they moved as seemingly one unit, in perfect time to the music. Clearly, each of these singers is in tune with how the music itself can and should move them physically. No doubt this is but one of the many positive results of working with Canto.
Following this bass aria, Studebaker sang “O mio babbino caro” from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. Here the performers told the audience to raise their hand when they wanted to hear the words in English instead of Italian. Remarkably, it took a bit for anyone to raise their hand, and when they did, Studebaker switched to English quickly.
The next piece, Mozart’s “Un aura amorosa,” was done only in Italian, and tenor Adelin Ilca held the audience in the palm of his hand so that, at the pause that happens in the middle of the piece, one could have heard a pin drop.
The Witch’s aria from Hansel and Gretel sung in English by Caroline Yergeau brought a little thunder to the show. In addition to an effective lighting change, Mohar’s staging and direction again came through with great reactions from the rest of the performers. This was introduced as a “villain” piece, and it felt that way to the best effect.
Baritone Samuel Oloniyo, who incidentally stood out as a narrator and emcee for the performance, sang an excellent Papageno suicide scene that led into the ever-delightful “Pa-Pa-Pa” duet from The Magic Flute with Studebaker. These were sung in German, again demonstrating the performers’ acting ability since they had no need of translations to tell their story.
To conclude the program, the cast left us with the quote: “Opera is an invitation to an awakened dream.” Apt, indeed, and even better was the final number of the show, “Vilja” sung in English by the whole cast with the singers mingling among the audience.
Who’s afraid of opera? Clearly, no one who attended the performance that morning, because they ate it up.
Maggie Ramsey
Who’s Afraid Of Opera?
Music by Gioacchino Rossini, W.A. Mozart, Giacomo Puccini, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Franz Lehár
Story by Sharon Mohar
Cast and Production Staff:
Andrea Priscila Gutiérrez – Soprano; Adelin Ilca – Tenor; Andres Groza – Bass; Caroline Yergeau – Mezzo-Soprano; Samuel Oloniyo – Baritone; Brooke Studebaker – Soprano
Piano – Liora Maurer; Staging– Sharon Mohar
Sterling, VA, July 26, 2025
Top image: (From left to right) Liora Maurer, Adelin Ilca, Samuel Oloniyo, Andrea Priscila Gutiérrez, Andres Groza, Brooke Studebaker
All photos by Matt Hardy