Westminster Opera Theater will present Debussy’s “Pelleas et Melisande” on Friday and Saturday, April 30 and May 1, at 8 p.m. in the Playhouse on the campus of Westminster Choir College in Princeton. West Windsor residents Marc Verzatt, the stage director, and Daniel Beckwith, the music director, present the production with Westminster Choir College students. Tickets are $20.
The opera is set in a demi-world of castles and forests and a crown floating at the bottom of a stream. A strange alliance between a lost girl and an older man, who is jealous of his brother’s simple and childlike relationship with his wife, causes the story to turn tragic. The two-piano reduction will be performed by Beckwith and JJ Penna. The opera will be presented in the original French, with English supertitles
Beckwith was born and raised in Chicago. His parents both sang in choirs and his mother played the violin. “My mother was always playing classical music, especially,” he says. “I knew early on I was destined for music and began music lessons at the age of five. By the time I got to high school I knew music was to be my vocation.”
He entered Westminster as an organ performance major in 1973. “My best college buddy was a Joan Sutherland fan; so I was bitten by the opera ‘bug’ and began to learn the repertoire,” he says. James Levine’s assistant at the Metropolitan Opera for six seasons, he was given his conducting debut in 1995 after Levine observed his conducting of a stage rehearsal. He has since conducted in major opera houses throughout North America and Europe.
Beckwith’s repertoire focuses on music from the 17th to 20th centuries. “I enjoy listening to light jazz when not involved with opera as that style of music has always fascinated me,” he says.
Beckwith and Verzatt met at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1990 and have done at least 20 operas and one Gilbert and Sullivan operetta together. They have lived in West Windsor for a year and a half. “We love being able to walk to the train, enjoy the farmer’s market during the summer months; and the convenience is unbeatable,” says Beckwith.
Verzatt, born and raised in East Orange, played the flute in high school, and always listened to music. When his aunt gave him a recording of Sutherland he thought “Wow, her voice can move as fast as I can play my flute.”
Verzatt, who studied drama at Rutgers and ballet with New Jersey’s Garden State Ballet, danced with the Metropolitan Opera for seven seasons. After several seasons as a soloist, he wanted to pursue his work in opera as a stage manager with the Cincinnati Opera. He soon became a stage director. For the past four years he has been teaching acting for opera in Yale’s master degree program. He maintains an active career directing opera, operetta, and musical theater through the United States and Europe.
The decision to produce “Pelleas et Melisande” is two-fold. “We are a teaching institution and it is a great 20th French opera for students to learn and there are a lot of opera buffs who enjoy the opera,” he says. “Why should someone come see it? Think Monet. Think Manet. Think impressionistic colors and images. That is exactly what the listener will hear. The storyline is perfectly set to music. There is simply no wasted words or music.”
Pelleas et Melisande, Westminster Conservatory, The Playhouse. Friday and Saturday, April 30 and May 1, 8 p.m. $20. 609-921-2663. www.rider.edu.
