"Opera is weird even to people who... [enjoy] it - the weirdness is part of why people like it," says author Regina Hopingardner in her book, Is She Dead Yet?: The Backstage World of Opera. Opera asks us to embrace an enhanced form of human speech. Through music, composers use extremes in pitch, rhythm, volume, articulation, texture,a nd timbre to bring a new multi-layered depth of expression to spoken word. To connect with opera, one must also suspend belief in fixed time - many years may pass in a single breath, a moment may take a quarter hour to convey, or two events separated by decades may happen simultaneously right before our eyes.

 

Pat & Emilia is a mixed-media chamber opera inspired by the lives of two Windsor women - portrait photographer, Pat Sturn (1910 - 2011) and opera singer, Emilia Cundari (1930 - 2005). In the visual art world, the term mixed media signifies the use of combinations of materials in the creation of a single work. Like the complex layers of a mixed media art piece, Pat & Emilia is a celebration of new and established musics, prose, theatre, journalism, historical/archival research, photography, and the experiences of women. In Act One, Emilia Cundari is introduced through the eyes of Pat Sturn as she recounds Emilia's career one sleepless night in her small Walkerville cottage. To create the first act, Tara Sievers-Hunt wrote a series of monologues, inspired by newspaper articles about Emilia (1952 - 1978) as well as personal interviews with Emilia's loved ones; and then connected these with significant opera arias from her repertoire. Act Two begins the next afternoon, as Pat welcomes the audience, like guests in her home, to celebrate her 100th birthday. Through words written by Marty Gervais, set to music by composer Jeff Smallman, Pat reflects on her life, examining the choices that shaped it, and considers what it truly means to be 100.

 

Pat & Emilia is a type of biofiction (biographical fiction) that strives to go beyond events and dates to tell a meaningful story from a life lived. The biggest challenge lies in the transition from fact to informed fiction, no matter how faithful on wishes to be to 'real life,' interpretation of truth can prove incredibly difficult. Often perspectives must be deciphered, circumstances translated, details edited, assumptions made, or unknowns decided by the artist involved. For example: we know that Pat took Emilia's headshots around the time the young soprano won the Grinnell Competition in 1952. We also know from Marty Gervais that Pat spoke of Emilia as a friend, and expressed frustration with Emilia's life choices. The true extent of their friendship, however, is unknown. Did they stay in touch after the photo session, or perhaps did Pat develop a feeling of connection to Emilia while listening to her recordings, and reading about her so often in the local paper? Possibly the content of our story evokes more questions: What was the real relationship between Pat and Niki, the man who was her closest friend? Was the marriage proposal made in earnest or in fun? Why did Emilia really decide to return home? Did she ever regret giving up her performance life? We may never know these things, but we can speculate, and we invite you to do so as well. 

 

Tara Sievers-Hunt