Alice: An Operatic Wonderland
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The Red River Lyric Opera will premiere Amy Scurria’s opera “Alice: An Operatic Wonderland,” with Zane Corriher and Kelly Balmaceda’s libretto in English, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 28 in the Fain Fine Arts Theatre at Midwestern State University.
The opera is a new and unique interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s classic “Adventures in Wonderland” and will feature “a mix of the hottest emerging artists with seasoned professionals,” said conductor Kristin Roach from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.
“Our Alice will not be like Disney nor Tim Burton,” said director Grace Edgar, an MSU theatre professor. She remembers seeing the Dali sketches of Alice in the Dali museum in Paris and said that influenced the visual concept. “We are using fragments of those sketches to make projections,” Edgar said.
Scurria said she first fell in love with the Carroll classic at the age three, when she also fell in love with music. “My mom read Alice to me, and I learned to read by reading it again and again and again. I have memories of my mom reading it to me the first time. I remember hearing how Alice spoke and how she responded and how forthright she was. It was the first time I felt that Alice was someone I could relate to.”
The composer began composing her second full-length opera after Covid hit. “We were all stuck in the rabbit hole, weren’t we?” she said with a laugh. “It was a leveling ground. It invited or forced us to look inward.”
Scurria, who had earlier been diagnosed with autism, said she was surprised how many autistic women connect with the character, Alice. “The world we developed for the play – once Alice enters Wonderland – is exploring the neurodiverse brain. Wonderland is actually her brain.”
Carroll’s book doesn’t have much drama, the composer said. “It wouldn’t literally translate to a great opera if you took it straight.” Working with her librettists, they developed a through line for the opera.
The composer first heard the music in her mind and put it on the page, before working with her director, conductor and cast to bring it into real life.
The first actual staging was in North Carolina, and Scurria said her mom heard three different people singing different parts of the opera afterwards. “That is a composer’s greatest dream is to create something and hear people singing it.”
The director is extremely excited as they stage the opera. “Last year, I met Amy at the National Women’s Theatre Festival and she told me about Alice, and I was interested. “We wanted it to be female-centric including the conductor, director, and producer, Darla Diltz, MSU professor of voice. Traditionally, they said, women in opera are not in leadership positions. Amy wanted to write an opera with a female lead with a positive turn.
Everyone is very pleased with the cast and a production that is humorous but which also has depth. While Alice may be a child, and the music will appeal to all ages, the opera is not specifically for children. The music and story is universal and will play to a large audience.
Alice is being sung and performed by Sophia Formella, originally from Dallas, who is currently living in New York City and working as a Teaching Artist at the Metropolitan Opera Guild. Isabella Cadriola, performing the role of Cheshire Cat, said that Formella is onstage for 95% of the opera. “It’s a lot for anyone to do and it’s incredible for her to be able to do it,” Cadriola said.
Cadriola, from the DC area, is “super excited” to play her role. She will also perform in Montiverdi’s “L'incoronazione Di Poppea.” “It’s super cool to be in a role in a new opera,” she said. “You never get to say to Mozart, ‘Hey what did you want here, what did you mean by that, dramatically?’"
She also enjoys playing a cat. “I get to show so much physicality and get to do growls and meows,” she said with a laugh.
Also showing this weekend at the RRLO is “L'incoronazione Di Poppea” (1642) at 7:30 July 26 and Adam Guettel’s “The Light in the Piazza” at 7:30 p.m. July 27 and 2:30 p.m. July 29. All of the operas will be performed in MSU’s Fain Fine Arts Theatre.
Scurria is currently working on full orchestra version for the University of Utah set to premiere in Spring 2024.
Alice: An Operatic Wonderland - If you go
What: Composer Amy Scurria’s opera, “Alice: An Operatic Wonderland”
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday July 25 and 7:30 p.m. Friday July 28
Where: Fain Fine Arts Theatre, 3410 Taft Blvd.
Admission: $10 general admission
Information and tickets: Redriverlyric.com
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Alice: An Operatic Wonderland
