Why REGINA?

Presenting a non-standard repertoire piece such as REGINA which is currently playing at the Capitol Theatre is always rewarding and interesting: Rewarding because it provides an opportunity for the performers, staff and audience to have a completely new discovery experience; and interesting as it can often bring in a new audience while challenging an established one. This also comes with a whole host of responses we don’t usually receive when presenting the standards.

On the whole, REGINA has been enthusiastically received by those who have attended including wonderful reviews from both the Salt Lake Tribune review  and Deseret News review. However, in all honesty, I’ve heard from a handful of people that did not care for the piece and even inferred that it was a mistake to program it in the first place.  Add to this the fact that it is often difficult for single ticket buyers to get interested in and commit to something with which they are unfamiliar, it’s not uncommon for people to inquire, “so, why REGINA?”

The answer is multi-faceted. The first is that presenting the unfamiliar is simply part of the Company’s philosophical/artistic mission. We are dedicated to bringing fine opera in all its forms to the community. While a few audience members may not have appreciated REGINA, many would passionately argue that it is not only a wonderful work (with a few flaws, to be sure) but that it is a highlight of a specific genre of American opera that had long reaching influence on future works and composers like Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim (both were staunch advocates of the composer and the opera). The other side to this is that REGINA has enjoyed presentations in most large markets in the United States and I wish to give Salt Lake City some of the same experiences one can find elsewhere.

Another reason is that the work is a vehicle to showcase not only fine American artists (very difficult for non-Americans to pull off idioms of the American South at the turn of the 20th C.) but those artists who are also fine acting singers. The title role is especially known as a powerhouse acting one and we had the opportunity to present several of this country’s fine acting singers throughout the cast.

One of the positives of presenting REGINA that was unknown at the time of scheduling this season, was the fact that the piece has been particularly well-received by younger audiences.  I’ve been delighted by the response of our younger staff members who have – across the board – expressed how much they liked it. Beyond this, the Company’s social group that is primarily made up of 20 and 30-year-olds, VIVACE, chose the production for one of their annual organized events with nearly 100 percent positive response to the work. If such operas have this kind of resonance with the audiences that can sustain us for the next forty years, then we need to consider doing more of them.

The initiative we need to be working on is how to gain the trust of our larger audiences that love our productions of the standards. We need to help everyone feel that when one comes to a Utah Opera performance, there will be something that can be appreciated; whether it is the performers, the sets, the costumes or the music. To be sure, everyone has – and is entitled to – one’s own taste which may be the staples of the repertoire. However, there are always jewels of operas that we all have yet to discover because, for one reason or another, they are less-frequently presented and we haven’t had the opportunity to experience them. For many, REGINA fit that bill.