IU Opera Theater to present ‘Little Women’

For Laura Thoreson, Jo March was the first literary figure she connected with as a young girl.

“This is a dream come true,” Thoreson said about having the opportunity to perform as Jo in the opera “Little Women” opening at 8 p.m. Friday at the Musical Arts Center.
Thoreson is currently pursuing her performer diploma.

“It’s unlike any other rehearsal experience I’ve had so far,” Thoreson said.
Senior James Porter, who plays Jo’s love interest, Laurie, agreed.

“Everybody is completely committed to the dramatic and musical interpretation of every measure,” Porter said.

Thoreson said the cast is also close-knit because they are portraying a family.
“Every time you come off stage, they tell you how awesome you are,” Thoreson said.
There is a Friday cast and a Saturday cast, and Porter said no one in the cast cared who was paired up with whom.

“Everyone is committed to sharing this story with the audience,” Porter said.

Porter and Thoreson agreed that conductor Kevin Noe, artistic director and conductor of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and stage director Michael Ehrman, co-artistic director of the Opera Training Institute of Chicago, both perform their “Little Women” positions brillantly.

“The stage director cares about the music, and the conductor cares about the drama, so it’s a special combination,” Thoreson said.

The composer and librettist of the “Little Women” opera, Mark Adamo, said Noe was tremendous.

“I wrote him and said he has a very lucky cast,” Adamo said. “I feel it will be a very special performance.”

Adamo said with a college performance and college audience, there is an advantage because performers aren’t far removed from the characters.

“They experience and go through what Jo is going through,” he said. “I don’t think people on Bloomington’s campus can identify with being on a Russian throne.”

Adamo first read “Little Women” as a child. His mother was part of a book club, which provided Adamo with all his basic childhood literature.

Adamo grouped the sisters in pairs; Jo is the extrovert, while Beth is the introvert, and Meg is domestic, while Amy is flirtatious. Unlike Jo and Beth, Meg and Amy fit the conventionality of a female at the time the novel was written in 1868 by Louisa May Alcott.

Second year performer diploma student Julie Wyma said she has been performing since she could talk.

Wyma, who plays Amy, said she could not ask for a better opera or better experience than “Little Women.”

“The opera itself is masterfully written,” Wyma said. “The music is beautiful, and the people I’ve worked with are so supportive.”

Wyma said Amy is girlish at the beginning of the opera but desperately wants to grow up to be like her sisters.

There aren’t many differences between Wyma and her character Amy.

“We are both very vivacious,” Wyma said. “We know what we want in life, and we’re not afraid to go after it.”

At a time when women didn’t have the opportunity to do what they wished, Wyma said Amy is proud to be a woman and a wife, and that doesn’t diminish who she is as a person.

“Whether you’ve seen one opera before or you’ve seen tons of operas, you find ways to connect,” Thoreson said.