This year marks the 30th anniversary of Opera North, an opera company serving the Upper Valley that is unique due to its largely rural audience base and its focus on developing young performers, according to Opera North Artistic Director Louis Burkot, a senior voice lecturer at Dartmouth and the director of the Dartmouth College Glee Club.
Originally founded by Burkot and David Strohmier in 1981, the year Burkot began teaching at the College, Opera North has grown from a small production group to a nationally recognized professional opera company that has been featured in Opera News, the foremost publication in the opera world, Burkot said.
After he moved to the Upper Valley, Burkot said he realized the amount of untapped local musical talent and decided to provide a performance outlet. He and Strohmier began by putting on two small, one-act operas, which were received positively by the community, he said.
"It was very successful, so based on that, we decided we would form a company that would strive to be a professional opera company," he said.
Burkot also wanted to create a program for young singers in the area, so the company began inviting student singers from Dartmouth and other colleges like Plymouth State University and Middlebury College to perform in the operas. The students were trained throughout the year for the summer performance season, he said.
"There were never any companies that were our size that had a young artist program," he said. "We were really unique in that we did this with a very small budget and very few people."
Opera North invites professional artists from across the country to play the principal roles in many of its productions but fills secondary roles with local artists and singers from the Young Artists Program, a highly selective annual program that chooses 15 talented young singers to participate in a rigorous six-week apprenticeship, according to Opera North Executive Director Pamela Pantos.
"It's really a very professional company, but we do try to keep the community involved," Pantos said.
Opera North aims to bring its performances to "traditionally under-served communities" as part of its outreach program, Burkot said. The opera company is currently performing for high schools around the area, according to Pantos.
Roughly 90 percent of the country's opera companies are in metropolitan areas, and opera companies are rare in rural settings like the Upper Valley, Pantos said.
"The reason we are able to do this is because of the support from the community," she said. "For the Upper Valley to be able to have an opera company is extremely unusual and is something I think is really wonderful for the cultural climate of this area."
Opera North performs a range of operas, from classical to modern, in English and other languages with the help of "supertitles," which project the translations on a screen above the stage, according to Burkot.
Burkot also cited the prevalence of talented musicians who teach instrumental music at Dartmouth as one of the main reasons for starting the opera. He said that many music teachers at the College were willing to play in the orchestra for the opera, which was beneficial for its development.
"I had access to all these great orchestral people, and for an opera, you need people who are not only able to play, but are good enough to listen and be flexible," he said.
Dartmouth students continue to be involved in Opera North. Amber Dewey '12, who played the lead role in Dartmouth's production of "Hairspray," performed with the company in two of its operas and sang in the chorus for "La Boheme" by Giacomo Puccini during her sophomore summer, she said.
"It was a little tough, because this is all [the Young Artists] are doing for the entire summer, but it was not all I was doing, so I couldn't really be at their beck and call for that program, but they were very understanding," Dewey said. "They are really dedicated to helping young people pursue their careers, which I think is great."
