Veteran choir singers know all too well that the presence of “too many sopranos” is a familiar dilemma to coed groups the world over. Since most men are not necessarily so inclined to participate in choir, this problem often arises from having too many women.
Puget Sound’s joint venture of the School of Music and the Theater department deals with a choir of a different caliber: the Heavenly Chorus.
The first act of this comic opera begins when four Divas (sopranos) ascend to Heaven, only to find that there is not enough room for all of them to be accepted into the Heavenly Chorus. Only one soprano will be accepted because there are too many tenors and basses in Hell. The sopranos are appalled that they are forced to audition, but agree.
All four have impressive auditions and St. Peter (Brent Visser, bass) is unable to reach a decision. The Angel Gabriel (Sam Faustine, tenor) mentions the “Redemptions Clause:” “If the sopranos go to Hell and do a selfless deed, they can take back to Heaven as many tenors and basses as needed.”
In order to protect the sopranos in hell, St. Peter provides them with special disguises.
The second act continues as St. Peter, Gabriel and the sopranos arrive in hell and listen to the stories of some of its tortured souls.
One of the sopranos, Just Jeanette (Lana McMullen/Libby Quam, sopranos), then meets Nelson Deadly (Jeremy Wilson, tenor) and they quickly fall in love. After this, the Sandman (Ariel Downs/Katrina Nilsson-Gorman, sopranos) arrives with the stage director, Orson (Alex Adams, bass), and they present a task to Just Jeanette and Nelson Deadly.
The comic task is as follows: if they don’t fall asleep listening to Orson, they may take as many tenors and basses back to Heaven as they wish. The couple fails but when they fulfill a selfless task themselves, they are granted the tenors and basses.
Celebration follows and the sopranos vow to St. Peter that they will never sing opera again.
Although the cast is mostly comprised of members of the Adelphian Concert Choir, the Chorus includes other students or enthusiasts of the School of Music. Mercedes Curran, Ellie Freeman, Madison Genovese, Lizzie Kittel, Laura Larson, Kyle Long, Amy Polete, Jennifer Kullby and Maggie Manire are all Chorus members.
For clarification, roles that included two different names are due to the rotating casts, each of which will perform every other night.
Although ticket sales are still TBA, the dates for Too Many Sopranos are projected to run from its opening night on Thursday, March 31 through Sunday, April 3 at Schneebeck Concert Hall.
It is also worth noting that opening night will be free of charge for students.
Although the details of the show are still hazy, it’s clear that Too Many Sopranos will be a wildly fun show. With a scope reaching all the way from Heaven to Hell, how could it not be?
Even without the crazy story, many should go to see the show just for its exceptional assemblage of singers. One can assume that they’re all going to make some seriously amazing music together.
If this comic opera sounds like something you’d like to see for yourself, keep your eyes peeled for tickets around late March.
