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  • Petrie School of Music

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.

Scene from Hansel and Gretel

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

Next Steps

  • Bachelor of Music in Performance
  • Master of Music in Performance

Upcoming Events

23March
Twichell Auditorium 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Converse Wind Ensemble: Aurora Awakes

24March
Daniel Recital Hall 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

MoseleyNext: The Fourth Wall

25March
Wilson Hall – Dalton Hall Lobby 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Tao of Purity & Power: Reception

School of the Arts

In the moment of creation, each artist faces a question: “What will I make of this?”

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Visit Campus Apply Support the Arts at Converse

Dean of the School of the Arts

Christopher Vaneman

864.596.9038
chris.vaneman@converse.edu
Blackman Music Hall 202/230

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