La Davinia: the Making of a Memory
By Travis Lott
On Feb. 24 and 25, Southern Virginia’s Opera workshop class performed La Divinia. La Divinia is a one act opera that was written by Thomas Pasatieri and was first performed in 1966 in New York City. Dr. Mackenzie Romriell, assistant professor of music at Southern Virginia University, decided that La Divinia would be the perfect performance for the opera workshop class to work on this semester, and to perform. Sadly, it only had a four part cast. From this dilemma, La Divinia: the Making of a Memory was born. The opera workshop class had twelve students, so the opera became a twelve person show.
There were three scenes added to the show; the first was from Lakmé, the second from Carmen, and the third from Cosi fan tutte. Instead of being a show that was just about the last performance of a world-renowned soprano Adelina Altina, it also included three memories of her past shows.
The show making process was very intensive and involved three hours a week of rehearsal for the first few weeks of school and turned into twelve and a half hour rehearsal weeks for the three weeks before the show. Though there was a lot of rehearsal, one of the cast members, Gracious Pack (’23) a Theater major, said “If I could go back and do it again, I would stay at rehearsals longer.”
The show went well and pulled in over 40 people each night, even though it was at the same time as some of Southern Virginia’s larger sporting events of the year. One show goer said, “I thought it was very entertaining, even though I didn’t understand all of the words in the first act.”
Hard work from both Dr. Romriell and the students involved created a great amount of growth and an engaging show.
“Being in charge of every aspect of a show is a daunting task, and I was overwhelmed at times,” recounts Dr. Romriell. “But through this process I’ve been reminded that I am capable of accomplishing hard things, especially when surrounded by a great team. I watched students struggle through learning difficult music. I coached them as they strove for correct pronunciation of French and Italian…and, sometimes, English.”
Dr. Romriell also adds, “I pushed their limits by giving them short memorization deadlines. I watched students who had little to no experience with acting, take risks and trust me when I directed them to step out of and stay out of their comfort zones. I watched the more experienced singing actors take their less experienced colleagues under their wings, encouraging them, sharing ideas and insights with them, and cheering them on throughout the entire process. I am humbled by all of them.”
I would encourage anyone who is interested to be involved in a music program such as choir or in theater so you can learn about your interests and do something that you enjoy.
