(somber music)
(woman singing in foreign language)
- [Gary] Walking through Lincoln Center
and seeing the theaters all closed
is a very, very sad thing,
but coming into Juilliard and feeling this activity
and this kinda beehive
of theatrical activity in the Sharp Theater was wonderful.
(dramatic string music)
(woman singing in foreign language)
- [Megan] My standard answer about
what it feels like to be involved in a production right now
is that it's a bit of a cyclical emotional roller coaster
of extreme gratitude and excitement and thrill
that I get to walk into a theater when I know so few people,
especially in the United States, that are able to do that,
followed by frustration that it's not going the way
that it would be going in a normal time,
frustration that it really
isn't a production in the sense that we know it.
- [Gary] She's kissing and we're-
(harpsichord flourishes)
- Don't wait. - [Student] Will do.
- She can go on kissing. She can do whatever she wants.
She's over there.
Well, I've spent, I don't know,
going on 40 years doing Handel operas
and I love them since I was a kid.
So I find them riveting and always have.
(Megan singing in foreign language)
(recitative continues)
(aria begins)
- What I love about playing Medea is
it's really fun to play a villain, first of all.
It's really fun to pursue her mental state
and what brings her to do these atrocious acts,
and what I've come to learn about her is that she just
wants to be loved and she wants to be accepted
and she wants to find a place
where she's appreciated and she's needed.
And I think that that's really relatable.
(Megan singing in foreign language)
- Handel was the great psychiatrist,
so he understood the human psyche
I think better than any other composer.
- You're not resolved.
You're not able to say, "Okay, lady."
You're still a little bit...
You've got this news of-
- The COVID precautions at Juilliard are extremely strict
and extremely regimented.
We're only allowed to sing if
there's only one other person in the room,
we're 20 feet away both parties are masked
and we leave the room after a half an hour
to let it stand empty for an hour.
Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine
that my singing would be considered so lethal,
but here we are.
- [Stephen] The school is trying to give
as many opportunities for the students as possible,
but also maintaining a really strict health protocol.
I was extremely worried about that
and about taking the leap and saying, "Okay, fine.
I'm just going to do this."
And then just leaving home.
I mean, making sure that you have a mask
and now we're double masked and I wore a face shield a lot
of the time, especially initially.
It was exhausting.
- We are now in one of the rehearsal rooms
where we are producing our production of "Teseo",
except it's not really a rehearsal room,
it's someone's office
- Here, we're in a funny situation
where we have two windowed inner offices
which singers can come in and take their masks off
and sing in for up to an hour.
- In this set up, we're able to put one singer
in this room and one singer in the room to the left
and through technology, they can hear each other,
and through that technology, we the instrumental group
can hear them on the outside of these two rooms.
- This is nice.
It enables us to be able to work collaboratively
and that it's live at the same time,
but what we can't replicate here or on the PJS stage
is the live collaborative acoustic experience.
(harpsichord playing)
(Gary singing in foreign language)
- [Gary] We got tested at least once a week
and they provided the testing, which was terrific.
I felt perfectly safe here.
I felt safer here than going to the grocery store.
(Megan singing in foreign language)
- [Megan] It's nerve wracking really to expose yourself
at any time in performance and then to expose yourself
to an empty stage, to instrumentalist
that you can't see sometimes,
can't even hear as well as you want to.
Not only is there no audience, but there is no one,
not a soul in the house, so I'm singing
to a completely empty theater
and the only soul in the theater.
I can't quite explain how the setup
between the orchestra and the singers worked,
because I think it was a technological feat
that should be applauded very much.
But I stood on the stage in front of the fire curtain.
The orchestra was behind the fire curtain.
I always liked before I went on the stage
to peek back and look at them and just...
because, you know, we long to collaborate with an orchestra.
(Megan singing in foreign language)
A lot of trust was involved
because you kind of have to leap off
into the unknown to make it work.
(Megan singing in foreign language)
- Orchestras played together by breathing together,
by watching each other, by watching them bow strokes,
by sensing a communal energy,
and the minute that you spread that out,
it becomes more difficult.
(Megan singing in foreign language)
The freedom of singing without a mask
in the Peter J. Sharp Theater
must have been incredibly freeing for them,
and I feel it took a few days
for the walls of the Sharp to start waking up
to what we were doing... (Gary's voice breaks)
I'm sorry.
(instruments playing recitative)
(Megan singing in foreign language)
- The idea was we don't give up because of the students
experience is the most important thing.
I offloaded the director weeks ago,
and I focused on pedagogy and on the people,
on the souls of these kids who,
as I said, are in the...
They're in a lot of flux and a lot of sometimes pain,
and you can see that moving through them in the work,
even if they put a brave face on it.
But putting a brave face on things is so important now
in COVID to get through the day.
(indistinct chatter)
- [Gary] We had a couple of COVID scares
and we had to quarantine once and we came back.
And then we had another COVID scare
and we lost our oboes and bassoon,
and we also lost the singer playing Teseo.
Luckily, everybody was fine, nobody got sick,
but they were all contacts,
and so they had to quarantine during the production.
- We had to change singers twice actually.
Teseo kind of an important role, the title role,
the cover had to step in, but just similarly
to when the violin stepped in for the oboist,
the students here are amazing.
You know, they pulled it off.
They knew the music, they stepped in,
and they totally own the situation.
And I think that's a true to life situation.
That's always exciting, I think,
and something to celebrate
when a cover comes on and nails it.
(woman singing in foreign language)
- Through persevering through the pandemic,
they can become even greater artists
and this is something that has literally happened
through out history, art has survived wars,
pandemics, illnesses, horrible tragedies,
and it has survived even stronger.
(lively instrumental music)
- I think as artists, we're no strangers to struggling
for our dreams and struggling for our artistic voice
and for finding a place for it.
We're also no strangers to the unknown.
So in a sense, nothing's changed.
(string music resolves)
- Great, great de capo, that was-
(dramatic music playing)
- [Gary] Music is the most primal art form.
Performing music increases your endorphins,
listening to music it makes you happier,
it makes you healthier.
So in a pandemic when we are so stressed
just getting up in the morning,
to have music to turn to
and to find this primal connection is so important.
So what better time to experience opera?
(woman singing in foreign language)
- [Megan] I think as artists, we want to communicate
and the past year has felt like
screaming into the void, I think.
(woman singing in foreign language)
On the other hand, I think it's important
that we draw people into the theaters
when we're able to again,
we make theaters open and accessible to wider communities.
We make theater an accessible place for people
to want to be a place for them to feel they belong.
And I think if we use digital content to that end,
it can serve a really powerful purpose.
(playful instrumental music)
- [Stephen] Live audiences, why are they important?
Because the theater serves the same function
in society as a place of worship.
It's a place where people go to confront,
to experience in some way a conversation
about the biggest things in life.
(lively instrumental music)
- [Gary] It was a really wonderful experience
that I think brought a lot of happiness to a lot of people
and points a way forward that we are going
to get out of this pandemic eventually.
- I would say when the blood and sweat
and tears are wiped away, I'm extremely grateful
to Gary and Steven and Andrew and Emily and Brian and Ari
and everyone that never said no.
I never felt given up on,
and that means so much to a young artist,
and I'm so grateful to Juilliard for that
and I really ask that of consumers of art and culture
to remember that we're here
and we are so excited to connect with you
and we can't wait to see you in the theaters again soon.
(Megan singing in foreign language)
(Megan resolves)
(music fades)