Royal Purple

Issue date: 7/4/07 Section: Arts & Lifestyle

Media Credit: photo submitted

Summer school - a necessary evil some students are willing to endure in order to graduate from college a little bit earlier.

For two UW-Whitewater students and three staff members, their trip to class won't be right down Starin Road. Instead, they will travel to Italy where they will participate in La Musica Lirica, a workshop for opera singers and musicians.

Duncan Doherty, 24, and Terra Dill, 20, left Wisconsin on June 15 and are currently in Nova Feltria, Italy, for the workshop. They are accompanied by Brygida Bziukiewicz-Kulig, UW-Whitewater adjunct music instructor and general manager of the program; Denise Ehren, the theatre and dance departments' costume shop manager; and Brian Leeper, UW-Whitewater music lecturer.

Students from all over the world auditioned for La Musica Lirica. A select few were chosen to participate in a six-week performance boot camp, where they take classes and prepare to put on four different operas. Classes include 20 hours of Italian each week, one-hour voice lessons, recitative lessons, vocal coaching and also assignments where they are sent to local venues to perform pieces for practice.



Doherty will perform the lead role in one of the four operas, playing the title character in Pucci's "Gianni Schicchi."

Doherty began his college career wanting to be a band director at UW-Whitewater. He took an elective voice class during his freshman year and met Bziukiewicz-Kulig, who would shape his voice and future with her encouragement.

"I have been singing all my life, but Brygida was a big reason I switched to voice," Doherty said.

Although Doherty never had formal lessons, he admits singing along to the radio to help train his voice. His role of Gianni, however, will be quite different than singing along to anything in his car.

"All the operas are in Italian," Doherty said. "I've sang a song in Italian here and there, but this will be my first intensive study."

Doherty is most hoping the workshop will help him to improve his stage presence and projection in front of an audience.

All lines and music must be learned prior to arriving in Italy or the performer will be replaced, which puts a lot of pressure on students. Doherty says his lines are memorized, but he's still nervous.

"I'm on pins and needles right now," Doherty said. "I've done performances before, but this feels a lot different than everything else."

Senior Terra Dill is currently working as a soloist in La Musica Lirica. Having prepared five pieces for the six-week program, she has many responsibilities.

"I have to perform in scene as Cherubino, from the opera Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart, and also in the chorus of Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti," Dill said. "But most of all, I am here to work as a soloist. I am expected to perform every week. I sing the entire afternoon since classes are the entire morning. Rehearsals have lasted until 11 at night … so I am busy all the time."

The group will return to Wisconsin at the end of July.

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