According to the Jacobs School of Music, the music school will put on a total of six stage shows in the coming year.
This is quiet the mission when according to corresponding music school webpages, big name music schools such as Carnegie Mellon University will put on three operas and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music will put on four.
“It’s wild, I can’t believe they put on six productions successfully, it’s very impressive,” said Esther Schneider, a senior studying opera at the Jacobs School of Music.
The music school’s opera program, which is renowned for its mainstage productions and highly successful alumni, according to its website, will be performing five operas this school year, as well as one musical.
"For the first time in the 69-year history of IU Opera Theater, each production will be newly built," said Timothy Stebbins, Ted Jones Executive Director of Production, in a press release.
The number of productions in this 2017-18 season is unprecedented in the opera house's history, according to the same press release.
“It is our job to get the singer ready for rehearsals and for the role,” said Louis Lohraseb, an opera coach and assistant conductor to IU’s opera theater.
Starting from rhythm and working through diction, interpretations of various pieces and ultimately singing, students are prepared by theater coaches and faculty to get them ready to perform on stage, Lohraseb said.
“Just like an opera house, while one opera is being rehearsed musically, there’s another one that will be working on staging, and at the same time as the semester gets going, there will be another opera that the coaching is starting,” Lohraseb said.
Full productions are built, designed, rehearsed and presented under one roof at the Musical Arts Center on campus, according to the music school's website.
“It’s attractive as an incoming student to hear they do that many productions, because there is like that many more opportunities to sing in a chorus or in a role,” Schneider said.
According to Lohraseb, students have the ability to sing in large roles like "Peter Grimes" by Benjamin Britten or "Lucia di Lammermoor" by Gaetano Donizetti because of the school’s ability to organize and produce all of these shows.
“The school is huge, there’s a lot of singers, there’s a lot of people working as coaches, it's a credit to the people who run the opera theater, Tim Stebbins and Kevin Murphy, the dean himself and everyone who then works underneath them,” Lohraseb said.
Crediting high-caliber opera theater specialists like voice teacher Carol Vaness and conductor Arthur Fagen, Lohraseb said that their level of comfort with doing operas like this and knowing exactly how to help students figure out these complex roles make the school lucky.
The opera programming is usually planned a year in advance with auditions for the first three shows of the fall semester held in late April. Students then work throughout the summer to be prepared for the show in the new school year, Lohraseb said.
Based on the school’s programming, this year’s opera lineup includes "Don Giovanni," "L'Etoile," and "It's A Wonderful Life" in the fall and "Ariadne auf Naxos," "Lucia di Lammermoor" and the musical "West Side Story" finishing up the season in the spring.
“In terms of scope, I don’t think there is any other school that really tries to achieve in one year what IU achieves,” Lohraseb said.
