Opera in a coffee shop? That’s one way to hear Olympia’s new troupe of powerful singers

Molly Gilmore
·4 min read

Olympia has a new opera company, Thurston County’s first since Opera Pacifica, which hasn’t been active in a decade.

Olympia Opera Theatre, which began performing in February, is teaming up with the Olympia Chamber Orchestra for a Sunday concert featuring sopranos Hallie Schmidt and Khristy Harvey and mezzo soprano Dawn Padula. It will be at The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Olympia.

“We’re doing the finale from ‘Rosenkavalier,’ which has been one of my favorite pieces of operatic repertoire for years,” said Nickolas Carlson, the music director for both groups. “And then I asked each of the singers what aria they would like to sing.”

The opera company, founded by Carlson and Schmidt, has developed a following through monthly concerts at Rhythms Coffee in downtown Olympia. The concerts feature a rotating group of singers from Olympia and beyond.

“I love that opera is thriving once again,” said Claudia Simpson-Jones, who founded Opera Pacifica with her then-husband Bob Corl and conducted the Olympia Chamber Orchestra until she retired in 2016.

“We have had these great new audiences — including people who haven’t listened to classical music before,” Carlson told The Olympian. “It’s been a good mix of ages. I think the biggest crowd has been close to 40 people, and that included people sitting on the ground and standing at the back.”

“When we perform at Rhythms, the music we sing — the arias and the art songs — has the same kinds of themes as the music that singer-songwriters bring there,” Schmidt said. “They’re singing about their experience today, and we can sing a song about the same experience that was written 300 years ago. It makes me feel very connected to the world and humanity and the community.”

This is the second opera company for Carlson, who started Central Kansas Concert Opera in his hometown of Lindborg and has been wanting to repeat the experience since moving to Olympia in 2016.

“It’s just so incredible to me that individual singers without the aid of microphones or any kind of amplification can project their voices over an entire ensemble of instrumentalists,” he said. “And of course the music is incredible as well.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Schmidt, an Olympia native who fell in love with opera while studying music at Oklahoma City University. She graduated in 2020 and got an artists’ diploma at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, before returning to Olympia to spend time with the family she missed during the pandemic and work on launching her opera career.

In the fall, she’ll sing the part of Frasquita in Tacoma Opera’s “Carmen” — and she and Schmidt are hoping that Olympia Opera Theatre can stage at least one full production during the 2023-2024 season.

“The space at Rhythms and the environment there is the kind of atmosphere we’re wanting for our full opera productions,” Schmidt said. “You could almost equate it to dinner theater. It would be a full opera experience, but it would be all around you.”

‘The Magician’

  • What: The Olympia Chamber Orchestra and the Olympia Opera Theatre team up for a concert.

  • When: 2:30 p.m. Sunday, June 18

  • Where: The Lutheran Church of The Good Shepherd, 1601 North St. SE, Olympia

  • Tickets: $25; $15 for seniors, students and military; $5 for children 12 and under

  • More information: https://www.olympiachamberorchestra.org/event-details/the-magician

The program

  • Overture to “The Magic Flute,” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

  • “The Hollow Men,” Vincent Persichetti, played by trumpeters Keith Holder and his son Jonathan Holder

  • “O zittre nicht” from “The Magic Flute,” sung by Hallie Schmidt

  • “Mi chiamano Mimi” from “La Boheme,” by Giacomo Puccini, sung by Khristy Harvey

  • “Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix” from “Samson and Delilah,” by Camille Saint-Saëns, sung by Dawn Padula

  • Final Trio from “Der Rosenkavalier (The Rose-Bearer),” by Richard Strauss, sung by Harvey, Padula and Schmidt

  • Symphony No. 4, by Ludwig van Beethoven

Olympia Opera Theatre at Rhythms Coffee

  • What: The opera group performs monthly, with each event showcasing different singers and arias.

  • When: 7 p.m. June 30

  • Where: Rhythms Coffee, 210 Fourth Ave. W., Olympia

  • Tickets: $5 cover charge

  • More information: https://www.facebook.com/olympiaoperatheatre