Inside the Fine Arts Center choir room, University of North Florida students can be seen running lines, practicing dances and sharing tech week snacks. Each member of the cast and crew spends most of their days in different classes, studying within different majors. But during the hours of 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., they come together and hone in on one thing: the show.
The UNF Opera Program’s main-stage spring production this year is “The Merry Widow”: a three-act operetta first performed in Austria in 1905. On April 11 and 13, UNF Opera, Orchestra, and Set Design will bring it to life in the Robinson Theater.
Professor and Opera Program Director Dr. John Daugherty said he chose “The Merry Widow” because of its cultural significance.
“It’s one of our artform’s most recognizable and beautiful scores. It’s packed with show-stopping tunes—It’s some of the most famous tunes in our culture.”
Daugherty also felt that “The Merry Widow” had a large impact on later artforms.
“If you really want to understand where the tastes of Broadway and movies start, you have to look at The Merry Widow and some of the pieces that are very similar to it,” said Daugherty. “So it’s an important piece culturally.”
Giselle Salinas and Cora-Grace Smith, who are double-cast in the lead role of Hannah Glavari, have found their calling on the stage.
“It took me at least a month of practicing every day or adding something every day,” she said. “And it’s probably the biggest one I’ve done at UNF,” said Salinas.
Both of the women cast in the lead role of Hannah Glavari have found their calling onstage.
“Outside I’m more of a reserved person, but when I’m on stage I just feel like I can take on the world, and I just feel so free, like nothing can hold me down. I love it, I don’t get tired of it,” said Salinas. Smith expressed similar feelings of freedom relating to opera.
“I love how it feels like the sound is coming from my entire body—like, when you’re doing it correctly, it’s the most freeing feeling in the world to be singing opera onstage with no microphone, no amplification, just your body making that sound,” said Smith.”
This is also the first time in UNF’s history that the set, orchestra, and cast of a UNF opera production have all been completely student-based. Rehearsals have included in-house miniature set tours, student-filled orchestra rehearsals, and student choreographed dance numbers.
Daugherty’s desire for this historic UNF Opera production is to break the program’s audience attendance record. His method for measurement? Two giant drums that move in order to open up extra seating in the Robinson Theater.
“The Robinson Theatre has limited seating capacity unless we rotate the drums. And it’s been my goal since I got to UNF to do a show where so many people showed up that we had to rotate the drums,” said Daugherty. “We’ve come really, really close in our last two shows. I hope that this one is the one we have to rotate the drums.”
“The Merry Widow” will be showing on April 11 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday April 13 at 3:00 p.m. in the Andrew A. Robinson Jr. Theater. The operetta is free and open to the public.
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