Converse Opera Theatre
Since 1952 Converse Opera Theatre has been a jewel in the crown of the Petrie School of Music. Today’s Converse Opera Theatre continues the tradition of excellence by offering professional-quality, fully-staged productions and beautiful sets and costumes.
At Converse Opera Theatre we understand that a fulfilling and successful professional life in opera starts with rich, competitive experiences as a performer. We are committed to equipping students with a vast array of performance opportunities to build vital foundations in repertoire, style, diction, acting work, and career development.
Performance Opportunities
Winter/Spring Opera
Converse Opera Theatre presents fully staged productions chosen from the diverse operatic canon. Student talent is featured in principal roles, chorus, orchestra, and technical support staff. Converse invites nationally prominent guest artist designers and singers to work alongside our opera students.
Opera Forward
The Opera Forward Series presents intimate, innovative and experimental works that challenge the definition of opera in the 21st Century. In these productions, students engage in methods of performance that bend the conventions of traditional opera and explore cutting-edge trends in the business.
Fall Opera Scenes
Students expand their resumes with traditional repertoire in Converse Opera Theatre’s annual Fall Opera Scenes performance. This performance furnishes students with learned opera roles from a diverse range of theatrical styles and historical periods.
Curriculum
In today’s operatic landscape, the one thing that sets an opera singer apart from the crowd is the level of acting skill. Contemporary producers and directors seek the “singing actor”- an artist who can communicate and craft a role as skillfully as she can sing it.
Converse Opera Theatre’s progressive opera curriculum prepares students for these new developments in the opera business.
Opera Workshop
The Opera Workshop expands and awakens the student’s artistic work as an actor in operatic performance. Students will:
- Utilize standard acting techniques including Stanislavski, Hagen, Chekhov and Meisner
- Participate in fun acting exercises to hone in on spontaneity
- Discover career development strategies including audition techniques
- Master opera roles through aria and scene work
Opera Performance
This course provides the student singer with the tools needed to create characters who are believable, honest and compelling. Students will:
- Engage in musical and acting coachings
- Complete character and song analyses in preparation for opera roles
- Work with and learn from opera professionals in the field
- Establish a disciplined rehearsal and practice process