WT Opera to Stage New Opera about Plains-Region Settlers

Copy by Chip Chandler, 806-651-2124, cchandler@wtamu.edu

CANYON, Texas — A contemporary opera about the travails of homesteaders facing the torments of the Dust Bowl-stricken Plains will get its area premiere from West Texas A&M University Opera.

“Proving Up!” by composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek will be staged at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28 and 30 and 2:30 p.m. Nov. 1 in Mary Moody Northen Recital Hall while WT Opera hosts the Texoma regional conference for the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Also planned for the conference is a guest recital by soprano Jennifer Rowley and pianist Anthony Manoli at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 29, also in Northen Hall.

“The opportunity to sink our teeth into an American opera about a truly American experience has been thrilling,” said Dr. Sarah Beckham-Turner, assistant professor of music and WT Opera director for WT’s School of Music in the Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts and Humanities.

The 80-minute opera is based on a short story by author Karen Russell, whose most recent novel, “The Antidote,” recently was awarded the Bonney MacDonald Award for Outstanding Western Book by WT’s Center for the Study of the American West. Mazzoli and Vavrek’s most recent work, an opera based on George Saunders’ “Lincoln in the Bardo,” is being staged through Nov. 14 by the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

“Proving Up!” follows the Zegner family, who is struggling to “prove up” in order to earn the deed for the land upon which they have settled. In the story and original opera, the Zegners are living in Nebraska in the late 1800s, but Beckham-Turner moved the action to the Dust Bowl-era Texas Panhandle.

“The homesteaders had all these requirements that they had to meet,” Beckham-Turner said. “They had to have a house of sod. They had to have five years of harvest. They had to have a window of glass, and that’s the major complication, because no one can get any glass.

“But also, they have to face a constant need to prove something—to prove up. What does that do to a person and how does that wear down on a person?” Beckham-Turner said.

Music director Leesa Kellerman, who was in the cast of Opera Omaha’s premiere production of the piece in 2018, said the student performers are doing “amazingly well.”

“It is a difficult piece,” Kellerman said. “They’ve been incredibly dedicated.”

The music is “very challenging, but it’s a lot of fun,” said Joshua Moreno, a graduate student in music from Canyon who plays Miles Zegner.

“It’s tricky because there’s really only one recording that we can reference,” Moreno said. “Anything else is just kind of in our own hands.”

The opera is a collaboration with Chamber Music Amarillo, and George Jackson, the Amarillo Symphony’s music director and conductor, will serve as the production’s conductor.

“Proving Up!” also is produced in partnership with CSAW, and its director, Dr. Tim Bowman, held a workshop for students to give them a crash-course in homesteading.

“It was so helpful and very interesting,” said Paige Preston, a graduate student in music from Amarillo, who plays one of the Zegners’ daughters. “It’s so brave that people were willing to move and settle in the west. I feel very privileged.”

Before the Oct. 30 performance, the WT Electronic Ensemble will offer a “sonic haunted house” in the atrium of Northen Hall. Between 6 and 7 p.m. Oct. 30, attendees will be led through the building, where members of the ensemble will be scattered and performing ghostly music, said director Dr. Ryan Ingebritsen, assistant professor of music. The experience will end with a dance party in the Dord Fitz Formal Art Gallery.

The “Proving Up!” cast also includes Kelton Harbison, a senior music major from Canyon, as Pa Zegner at the Oct. 30 performance; Kyler Hilton, a senior music major from Amarillo, as Pa Zegner at the Oct. 28 and Nov. 1 performances; Abigail Hite, a graduate student in music from Nashville, as Ma Zegner; Emily Hinds Lafferty, a senior music and music education major from Amarillo, as a daughter; Grayson Wesbrooks, a junior music education major from Canyon, as Peter Zegner; and Oscar Hample, a graduate student in music from Wasilla, Alaska, as the sodbuster.

Chorus members and understudies include Anya Brown, a sophomore music major from Quinlan; CJ Hernandez, a sophomore music education major from Amarillo; Mamie van Meter, a junior music therapy major from Belfair, Washington; Korbin Cole, a senior music education major from Pampa; JP Galib, a graduate student in music from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania; and Isaac Joiner, a freshman music education major from Pampa.

Electronic Ensemble members are Xander Aleman, a senior music technology major from Hereford; Fredd Davila, a junior music technology major from Amarillo; Aaron Hernandez, a freshman music technology major from Amarillo; Keegan Massingill, a junior music technology major from Amarillo; Kasen Moon, a sophomore music technology major from Weatherford; Marissa Portillo, a graduate student in music from Lubbock; Noah Portillo, a graduate student in music from Lubbock; and Lucas Wright, a freshman music technology major from Amarillo.

Opera tickets are $15 plus fees for general admission or $30 plus fees for premium seating. Visit cur8.com/22281/project/141595 or call 806-651-2780.

Recital tickets are $25 plus fees. Visit cur8.com/22281/project/142110 or call 806-651-2780.

About West Texas A&M University

West Texas A&M University is a Regional Research University in Canyon, Texas, on a 342-acre residential campus, as well as the Harrington Academic Hall WTAMU Amarillo Center in downtown Amarillo. Established in 1910, the University has been part of The Texas A&M University System since 1990. WT boasts an enrollment of about 9,000 and offers multiple options for students to graduate and succeed: 65 undergraduate degree programs, including eight associate degrees; and 41 graduate degrees, including an integrated bachelor’s and master’s degree, a specialist degree and three doctoral degrees. WT recently earned a Carnegie Foundation classification as a Research College and University. The Buffaloes are a member of the NCAA Division II Lone Star Conference; WT offers 16 men’s and women’s athletics programs.

Photo: Pa Zegner (Kelton Harbison, left) faces off with the Sodbuster (Oscar Hample) in “Proving Up!”, a contemporary opera to be staged Oct. 28 and 30 and Nov. 1 by West Texas A&M University Opera.

—WT—