This Girl Can Sing

(Photo taken from cleveland.com of Olivia Savage in the role of Tytania, photographer: ROGER MASTROIANNI)


Recently I was fortunate enough to attend Westminster College of the Arts' presentation of Mozart's "Il Re Pastore (The Shepard King)." During the unexpected and charming snowstorm of this past Saturday evening, the lights went down and the orchestra took up bow and flute, leading into the opera.
When the charming shepard ran onstage and begin to splash his face in the stream, I took note that "he" wasn't a "he" at all!
The lovely and supremely talented Olivia Savage, a first year graduate student, sang sweetly in the role of Aminta, the Shepard King. Savage's singing and acting were superb. She was dressed and acted as a man, though her voice, clearly soprano, and her beauty left no doubt of her femininity and talent.
I thought this was particularly funny since it seemed to be such an inversion of history. In older times, like in the days of Shakespeare, men often substituted the roles of women in plays. Now, in Mozart's emotional opera about a poor shepard elevated to the status of King of Sidon, a woman plays the king.
How do you like that? ;)

-Kat