In the United States, I'd guess that the largest portion of "amateur" opera,
i.e., performers are not paid, is in colleges and universities. Performances
range from "scenes' workshops to full-scale operas. At institutions with major
opera programs, the productions are full professional-quality from top to
bottom. Other productions may appear "amateur" in terms of the quality of
performers and the production to an audience who is accustomed to professional
quality opera.
At the moment I am participating in one of the few truly amateur opera
enterprises (I can't go so far as to call it a "company") in this area - in the
chorus of La Traviata. This particular group operates in a church in
Washington, DC. The director of the enterprise (who is also singing Germont)
started doing the opera productions with his friends who, as he tells it, were
told by the director of a small east-coast professional opera company that their
voices were too small for opera. Productions happen when the folks that run it
have the time and wherewithal to put a production together. Lately it's been
averaging a production every other year. At first, there was a big emphasis on
children's participation via children's chorus, but the kids in the neighborhood
have grown too old to want to put in the time required (i.e., they have other
priorities)! However, there are two high-school aged children's chorus veterans
alternating in the role of Annina.
Peggy
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA.
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