By Sarah Brubeck
VERMILLION, S.D. – The community room at the Vermillion Public Library filled with applause when tenor Scott Piper’s final scene as Radames of “Aida” played on a small box TV set.

Thirteen adults with an interest in opera sat in a dark room in chairs circling the TV to learn from the world-renowned opera star. During this Thursday evening class, Piper explained how the look of opera plays into the entire performance.

“Let’s imagine this with no make-up and take away the stage,” Piper said of a scene in “Aida.” “This is so when you go see another opera you understand the look of opera.”

Wearing jeans and a multi-colored Southwestern-style vest, Piper walked back and forth across the room holding up books and paintings that portrayed the scene of an opera. Piper, a native of Kirksville, Mo., has performed leading roles with the New York City Opera, the Seattle Opera and the Florentine Opera. It was in Busseto, Italy in January 2001 that Piper played in a production of “Aida” directed by the famous Italian movie director Franco Zeffirelli.

In the Vermillion Public Library, Piper passed around the opera score, a book that shows the music Giuseppe Verdi wrote for each scene of “Aida,” and explained the connection of the opera score to the performer.

“This is the one connection I have to the composer himself and nobody can take that away from me,” Piper said. “I ask why this? Why not change this note in this phrase?”

The word “opera” means work and “grand opera” means great work, Piper said. When he popped in the DVD of “Aida” featuring himself with English subtitles, he explained that the first 15 minutes of production took 40 hours to rehearse.

“In this class in particular, I hope people come away with an understanding for themselves so that when they go see a show, that they understand and appreciate on a deeper level all the layers that make up an opera,” Piper said in an interview after the class. “That they understand it’s not just about singing. It’s about all the components.”

Throughout the viewing of “Aida,” Piper paused and skipped to different scenes to make comments about the production. The class stared intently at the TV screen as Piper stood to the side and watched their reactions. Though the TV was small, Piper’s recorded voice sounded off the walls of the community room. When Piper asked if anyone felt bored yet, one student responded with, “God no,” while the rest of the students shook their heads.

“I think it’s one of those stories that is so powerful,” said Piper, “and when people finally get to see it and hear the inside perspective of it, they come away appreciating the art form a little more. The story itself, the music, the composer and the director, all of that is an incredible way to show people an understanding of what that art form is about.”

In “Aida,” Piper’s character, Radames, is a captain of the guards. After he wins a battle, Radames is rewarded with the hand of the Egyptian king’s daughter, Amneris, in marriage. For Radames, this is no reward because he is secretly in love with Aida, Amneris’ slave. When Radames proclaims his love to Aida, he is overheard. Word reaches Amneris who declares him a traitor. He is ordered to be buried alive in a crypt, but comes to find that Aida hid herself in the tomb to die with him.

During a long, passionate kiss between Radames and Aida, Piper stopped to explain how it feels to kiss in opera.

“What’s it like to kiss in opera? Well there’s different ways,” Piper said while his students giggled. “In this opera I kissed two very beautiful women, and I was OK with that. What gets presented here rarely is what it actually feels like.”

When opera performers kiss, he said, they’re minds are elsewhere, thinking about such technical aspects as where their heads go. “We have to remember this is a live performance, and we have a single shot,” Piper said.

Insight to Opera is one of 12 classes Piper is holding through Camp Opera, a program that includes both vocal and instrumental classes taught by Piper throughout June.

“It’s for that one 8-year-old who knows that they are an artist at heart already,” Piper said. “It’s for the 14-year-old, Sabrina, who I found here, who’s an artist. She just needs to be nudged in the right direction. It’s for kids who are like me growing up in a small Midwestern town. The dream of it is to find that there’s talent everywhere.”

About five of the students in Piper’s Insight to Opera class are also in other Camp Opera programs. Piper’s voice projects on and off stage, and when he talks to his students they can feel the passion he shares while performing onstage.

“Tonight it was really neat to see Scott get fired up about what he does,” said Eric Wassenarr, 20, a junior at Augustana College in Sioux Falls. “A banker is like, ‘well I work at a bank’ or a teller is like ‘I’m a teller at such and such a place,’ but Scott, he says ‘No, this is my craft, this is my art form, this is what I do.’ It kind of rubs off on you a little bit and you get into it and you think maybe I could really give this a shot.”

Wassenarr, who lives in Sioux Falls, is in Piper’s Bel Canto class, an intense course that involves daily lessons for undergraduate and graduate students. Wassenarr is living in Vermillion during June to be a part of Camp Opera.

“I had no idea who the guy was,” Wassenarr said of Piper. “I heard all of a sudden that Scott Piper wants to talk to you. One day he e-mailed, and we set up a time with my teacher and Scott. I sang for him and the next thing I knew he said ‘Come on down to Vermillion in June, it’s going to be worth it,’ and here I am.”

Though Wassenarr hasn’t been in operas before, he has had singing experience.
Another Camp Opera student, Rebecca Fadell, 25, has even performed professionally. She is also in Piper’s Bel Canto class and Insight to Opera. Fadell, who will be starting her doctorate at Florida State University this fall, has performed “Turn of the Screw,” “The Marriage of Figaro” and “The Coronation of Poppea.”

“It was just an amazing production of ‘Aida,’ and getting to see Mr. Piper perform and getting to see what other stuff he has done,” Fadell said of Thursday’s Insight to Opera class.

Next Thursday, Piper plans to talk about the story of opera. Students will read through an opera and watch parts of movies and learn how a production is put together.

“It’s an open-ended class,” Piper said. “It’s designed for people to show up whenever they want. It’s growing. More and more people are showing up and inviting their friends. As with any program, it starts off small. The word ‘opera’ scares people. The goal is to make people realize it’s not as scary as it may seem.”

The next class will be at 7 p.m. at the Vermillion Public Library. To attend one class costs $15.