An unusually wiggly, noisy crowd filled the seats of Å·ÃÀÊÓƵ’s Frances Frazier Comstock Theatre on Wednesday, Feb. 12, bubbling over with enthusiasm for the opera they were about to see.
The 250 first- and third-graders from in Moorhead weren’t typical opera-goers, but “The Three Bears” isn’t a typical opera, either.
With just one act performed in English that clocks in at just 33 minutes long, the show featured plenty of action, with audience participation, chase scenes, and kid-friendly hijinks. It’s also a retelling of the familiar “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” fairytale, set in the Minnesota North Woods.
Å·ÃÀÊÓƵ received a grant from the to share the show with the children, who stayed afterward for a brief question-and-answer session with director Dr. Robin Griffeath, associate professor of voice, Dr. Kevin Sütterlin, conductor of The Concordia Orchestra, as well as Stinson and the Concordia students in the show.
“They were everything I wanted them to be. They were so excited and enthusiastic and curious and all the things that I wanted out of the performance,” Griffeath said of the crowd at Wednesday’s matinee. “This is what the show was intended for.”
The Q&A included audience praise as well as a question about the bears’ motivations for chasing Goldilocks, along with explanations of where the music had been coming from — The Concordia Orchestra, located in the orchestra pit and beneath the audience.
“I think they learned a lot,” Griffeath said. “I don't know how much kids of this age have heard an orchestra. I don't know how much they've heard classically trained opera singers. I don't know how much they've seen live theater. And I think that that can teach you a lot about all things in life.”
Stinson, a teaching assistant professor of voice and director of opera theater at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, had been working with Concordia students for the production as an artist in residence.
