Sarasota Youth Opera

By Ryan G. Van Cleave | Photos by Rod Millington for Sarasota Opera

Every fall, the Sarasota Youth Opera (SYO) puts on a fully-staged performance where every performer on stage—except perhaps one or two—are youths ranging from 8 to 18 years old. “The pieces they’re doing have been written specifically for young voices, too,” says Ben Jewell-Plocher, Director of Education, who the students all call Mr. Ben. “And the works are in English. Plus we don’t just take established operas like Mozart’s The Magic Flute and rework them to fit young performers. We prefer pieces that are designed to showcase young voices.”

While there are other youth opera programs in the US, what makes the SYO different is that these youth performances have, as Mr. Ben explains, “All the bells and whistles of a main stage production.” This means that the production value is as high as it gets. The sets, the props, the costumes, the makeup, the wigs, and the orchestra are all from the same team of pros that work with the main stage performances for the regular company. “It’s a professional environment from top to bottom. We’re very lucky that the Sarasota Opera is behind us such that we can go this far and offer such a rare experience for the young performers.” That’s quite likely why the number of young participants ranges from 80 to 100 each year, with the higher numbers typically happening when the scheduled opera has serious built-in appeal like The Hobbit.

Sarasota Youth Opera’s production of “Little Sweep”

Because the SYO has been around since 1984, thousands of students have participated in the after-school choruses, summer workshops, Sarasota Opera mainstage productions, and, of course, annual SYO full-stage productions. Youth Opera Music Director Maestro Jesse Martins points out that a deliberate shift has been made in recent years to choose works for those full-stage SYO productions that are more clearly from an opera tradition than that of musical theater. He explains that while they’re all connected, opera came first, then operetta, and then came musical theater, which really took off with a pop music feel after the 1960s rock revolution. One of the biggest differences between those is that opera does not use amplification for the singing—it all comes from the human voice. This necessarily requires a different approach to singing. That’s one of the many things the students are taught, says Maestro Martins. “We show them how to use their voices and be able to project without getting tired or hurting their instrument.”

Maestro Martins admits that one of the biggest challenges they face is the preconception that opera is only for wealthy people. “Totally incorrect,” he says. For one thing, opera is—and has long been—for regular people. In Elizabethan times, it was the most exciting form of entertainment that there was. It wasn’t just for the elites—it was regular people who packed the houses. Today, opera still remains affordable, with seats at the Sarasota Opera House starting at $19. But students can also purchase a Student Pass for $25 that allows them to see unlimited opera all season long. Some who’ve gone this route have estimated that they’ve seen $1000+ of opera during a single season as a result of that $25 investment and showing up before shows to get last-minute seats.

Mr. Ben, Maestro Martins, and the entire SYO staff believes that opera is for everyone, and that’s why their year-round program does not require auditions for young people to participate. Why? The goal is to teach young people about music, other cultures, and teamwork—not to prepare future opera singers, though a few have gone on to study music in college and beyond, though not always purely in the opera arena. Plus, participating in the SYO teaches important things such as respect, responsibility, and collaboration. Mr. Ben adds “Thanks to today’s media and culture, people have this misconception that instant success is an option. Success takes hard work. Our students learn that, and they really get something out of the experience [of being part of the SYO]. For them, hard work pays off.”

This fall, the SYO’s hard work will be put into a revival of Britten’s The Little Sweep, running on November 3 and 4 at the Sarasota Opera House. In this tale, a group of children aided by a kind nursery maid work to free a young chimney sweep apprentice from his horribly cruel master. Like many operas, it offers the opportunity for Maestro Martins to talk with the performers about the opera’s relevant issues and historical context—for this story, that means child labor laws. The conditions were so dangerous in those times that the laws were primarily made to protect young chimney sweeps from injury, starvation, and death.

When The Little Sweep was originally performed, it had a little dramatic piece that ran before the opera and served as a prologue, giving the audience some needed context. Maestro Martins explains that they’ve created a new prologue that instead teaches the audience all that it takes to put on a performance. “You don’t expect to go to the theater and learn all about how to put an opera together,” he says, “but that’s what happens here. And then we assemble the entire set right in front of them before performing the opera. They get to see it all come together.”

One of the most exciting opportunities for SYO members is that some are chosen to join the Sarasota Opera’s Winter Festival season in the mainstage children’s chorus, as supernumeraries (non-singing performers), and for special roles where children’s voices are required. For example, members of the SYO appeared in recent productions of The Magic Flute, La bohème, Tosca, and Carmen. Those are the sort of life-changing experiences that young performers never forget.

To help get more young people involved, the SYO is now going to offer classes at Harvest United Methodist Church in Lakewood Ranch in addition to those at the Sarasota Opera House. “Having to come all the way downtown isn’t feasible for some,” Maestro Martins says. Regardless of where the classes are taken, all singers will be able to be part of the performances.

“Though opera might have fallen out of popular culture in the past 30 or 40 years,” says Maestro Martins, “it remains one of the most uniquely thrilling experiences, combining story, stagecraft, music, and the human voice. Come out in November and witness it for yourself.”

For more information on the Sarasota Youth Opera, please visit sarasotaopera.org/educationandoutreach/youthopera or call 941.366.8450 ext. 249.

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