Western Michigan University majors in vocal performance have been working under the direction of Susan Anthony for weeks to prepare performances of Act Two of Die Fledermaus this Thursday and Friday at the Dalton Center Recital Hall.
Ms. Anthony returned to Kalamazoo after a successful career as an opera singer, mainly in European opera houses. The work she's preparing with the WMU Opera Workshop, a Strauss operetta, is one in which she’s played a role many times.
The challenges of operetta are sometimes greater than its "bigger" cousin, grand opera. Everything from comic timing, to accents, to speaking-to-singing transitions make it especially tricky. Ms. Anthony says her students have transformed the work through the rehearsal period with professionalism as well as youthful enthusiasm.
