As the thunder roared and the wind howled, We see the light in the distance. And as the fire raged and burned, Comes the instance, Where temper is unleashed, and thoughts are telled. But the assistance is come, Yet the cries are yelled, And the mental resistance is held.
Where the Wind Walks
Come, we must go To where the wind walks. For there we can know, To where it stalks, And to where it blows. For where the wind walks, The leaves follow. And don’t talk, Until tomorrow. But keep moving Past the racks and stacks, Through the trees, And under the breeze. On the seas, But around the bees. Because where the wind walks, The seeds will follow. And we need the seeds, To feed our hungry, Because our trades south have failed, After we bailed, And sailed, To new land, And in this land, We stand, Hand in hand. So come, lets find Where the leaves follow, And the seeds go. Where the weeds sway, In dying light of day, To find what to say. Lets go, Where the wind walks The night away.
Today
What are you feeling today? Or would you rather not say? I myself am feeling a bit under the hay. So could you stay? Because I may. And I don’t know where to go anyway.
Soon after the actors and actresses first came together, staging rehearsals began. That was where they started setting the stage and working on choreography. A wonderful stage director, Omer Ben Seadia, and amazing choreographer, Gina Cerimele-Mechley, worked together at staging, setting out props and objects to really make the story come to life.
Ms. Ben Seadia, whom I had the pleasure of talking to, came in from Oakland to Bloomington for the opera. She is a world-famous director who has done numerous operas, and is also an incredible person. Her interview was so fun to do!
Aleena Haimor: What is the largest responsibility that comes with directing an opera?
Omer Ben Seadia: The biggest responsibility is to build the artistic world where the story takes place, and setting the tone of the rehearsal process, which you share with the conductor.
AH: What’s your favorite part?
OBS: My favorite part is when I convince a singer that they can do something they never imagined they could do.
AH: Any advice for young stage directors or actors?
OBS: You can make as many performances as you want. You don’t need to wait for someone to give you an opportunity.
Thank you so much, Ms. Ben Seadia!!
As you can see, directing an opera is a huge responsibility. The director is in charge of everything the audience sees on stage!
Orchestra Rehearsals:
Actors and actresses aren’t the only part of an opera. The orchestra plays a huge role in shaping the opera’s story!
Alongside the staging rehearsals with the stage director (and the conductor), there are orchestra rehearsals as well. The musicians, like the actors, first discovered they were playing for the opera around May. There are five student orchestras with IU, and the one playing for both shows was the fourth one.
At rehearsals, my dad, Fawzi Haimor, stood at the front of the room at a podium. They would start the rehearsal by reviewing notes and tuning instruments, then move on to doing a run-through of certain parts of the pieces. Since the opera was only 45 minutes long, they performed another piece, Bolero (also by Maurice Ravel) before the opera. Overall, the show was only about an hour and five minutes.
After playing certain parts of Bolero and the opera and making notes, the orchestra would do run-throughs of the entire show.
My dad agreed to speak with me about his experiences conducting where he went to school.
Aleena Haimor: What has been the most difficult thing about working on this show? What was the most nostalgic thing for you, being back at IU?
Fawzi Haimor: I wouldn’t say that anything was particularly difficult, but I’d probably say that the most challenging part is getting to the point where you’re putting all the pieces together: staging, set design, and of course the music. When you work with incredibly talented people, like I did at IU, the whole process actually went rather smoothly.
AH: You’ve conducted many orchestras over your career, what particularly stood out to you about this student orchestra at IU.
FH: I was so impressed by the level of talent these students had at such a young age. They were so hungry to play music at the highest level. They genuinely were enjoying every moment of this experience and I had so much fun working with them over the month-long project.
AH: Okay, now for a general question. What is the best piece of advice you’ve received over your career?
FH: The best advice I ever received was from my father. He said “You were born with two ears and one mouth, try to listen more than speak.”
Thank you to these incredible people for enabling me to write this article!
Chorus: Julianna Banfe, Emma DiSanto, Savanna Holley, Laura Looper, Ruby Miller, Sabrina Schubert, Lauren Smedberg, Brittany Weinstock, Issana Yaguda, Simo Brea, Tynan Butler, Robbie Erickson, Lane Harden, Gannon Hays, Xiang Li, Preston Rogers, Stephen Stavnicky, and Tyler Whitney.
Production: Fawzi Haimor, Omer Ben Seadia, Walter Huff, Lydia Spellman, Russell Long, Gina Cerimele-Mechley, Olivia Essebaggers, Virgil Fok, Katrina Keat, Rachel Rock, Jennifer Hong, Miles Swaminathan, Shuichi Umeyama, Chuck Prestinari, Janice Kim, and Elsa Quéron.
Amari And The Despicable Wonders, by B.B. Alston was a fun read. It had an interesting plot, intriguing twists, and there was well done balance between the highs and lows. For example, there are times in the book laden with suspense. But, there are also points that are straightforward and clear. The book showed good story design, with a solid start, great build up, amazing conclusion and a bitter-sweet finish. Set in a modern time, you follow teen girl Amari as she races to get “the wonders” before the villain, Dylan Van Helsing finds them. It is recommended for ages 8-12. I don’t want to give away too much information, but if you’re a fan of adventure and mystery, you might enjoy this book.
If you’ve ever made an animation yourself, or have watched a decent amount of animation yourself, you will have noticed that some animations look more lifelike than others, especially in different art styles. In this essay, I will be breaking down one of the components of an animation that makes such a difference in its believability.
I call this aspect of creating a convincing 2D illusion “slow ins and slow outs”. To help explain it, I will compare two iconic pieces of animation. One is of a character from the cartoon Steamboat Willie
In the video above, you saw Pete the Cat turning from Mickey Mouse to the wheel of the ship. You probably also saw that Pete’s body moves completely evenly through the entire motion. When you are making an animation, this can often feel like a good idea, but in reality it creates a very machine-like movement. In real life, we have the most energy in the middle of a movement, because we have the most momentum, and we have to slow down at the end of each movement to stop. Even movements that stop suddenly slow down at the end as your muscles stop your momentum.
Above is an example of an animation with a slow in and a slow out, which is noticeably more natural than the one before it. This is because it is an animation of a living creature, and therefore should imitate the behaviors of a living creature. There are exceptions to the slow ins and slow outs rule, such as a motion being interrupted un-naturally, or a mechanical creature that moves robotically, but more often than not, successful use of slow ins and outs are key to creating a convincing animation.
Overall, animation is like acting with drawings. Every movement says something to the audience, especially with the movements of a living creature. To create convincing animation, you not only need an ability to draw, but also an understanding of what we expect movement to look like. Hopefully, this information will help you bring your animated stories to life.
Far across the desolate sands lies the Verdant, rumored to be a lush land filled with what the Wastes’ deserts lack. And the only map to this idyll is branded onto the backs of Delta and her friend Asher, who has been missing for years. Delta must keep her back concealed, as many in the Wastes would go to any lengths for the map. Her life is already arduous, but when her mother and fellow villagers are captured in a raid during a storm, and her village burned to cinders, she must undertake the perilous journey across the Wastes to find her family.
In Erin Bowman’s captivating and thrilling novel, Dustborn,Delta braves travails only to find that she can trust nearly none in the Waste. Daring escapes lead to the unveiling of mysteries—the most unforeseen of them all hidden at the Verdant.
Published in 2021 by Clarion Books, Dustborn has been recognized as a Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) “2022 Best Fiction for Young Adults title,” a New York Public Library “2021 Best Teen Books” title, and is a 2022 Bank Street selection for “Best Children’s Books of the Year.”
Kirkus Reviews has commended the novel as “intense, gritty, and propulsive . . . Will keep readers turning the pages,” and the Publishers Weekly praises the plot as “absorbing world-building [that] propels this fast-paced adventure.”
A perfect read for enthusiasts of The Hunger Games, Dustborn follows a post-apocalyptic and dystopian plot. Delta’s initial callous temperament evolves into caring determination; her character arc will, no doubt, have readers cheering her on, wishing her success on a journey that will tickle your funny bone and set your heart beating. Erin Bowman wields her words to seamlessly weld together action, romance, loss, and adventure, forging a tale that will leave bibliophiles eager to peruse its pages yet again.
Dustborn is available at Barnes and Nobles, Indie Bound, and on Amazon.
Erin Bowman is a New Hampshire-based author. Her teen and young adult fiction includes the Contagion duology, the Taken trilogy, the Vengeance series, The Girl and the Witches Garden, and In the Dead of Night. Additionally, she has contributed to an historical anthology titled Radical Elements, which features tales of young women who stood up against society’s will. Visit her website at embowman.com.
I have always been fascinated by the ancient city of Pompeii and the horrible disaster that so well preserved its past. For those who are unaware of what Pompeii is and was, I will take a moment to explain. Pompeii was a Roman city that was famously destroyed in 79 AD by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, a volcano that is still active today. I watched documentaries, read books, and annoyed many people with my incessant tales of the death and doom that took place there. After years of being completely obsessed with the place, I discovered that there was a whole other story that I had been missing. That was when I found out about Herculaneum.
Herculaneum is a city located in Campania, Italy, roughly 5 miles southeast of Naples.
As is depicted in the map to the left, the placement of Herculaneum is noticeably closer to Mt. Vesuvius than Pompeii. You’ll also notice that Pompeii is south of Mt. Vesuvius whereas Herculaneum is to the west. Both of these observations will play key roles in the fate of Herculaneum.
Herculaneum is actually, believe it or not, better preserved than Pompeii in many ways. One example of this is that in Pompeii there is no preserved wood or actual skeletons. Yes, there are plaster casts that are really cool, but they can only tell us so much about the citizens of Pompeii’s last moments. In Herculaneum, there are hundreds of skeletons, 300 in the boathouses alone. The Herculaneum boathouses provide so much insight into the lives of Herculaneum’s residents.
One such insight is a look at the people’s diets. Archaeologists have used an archaeological technique known as Compound-Specific Isotope Analysis, or Stable Isotope Analysis. This basically means that a bunch of people in white coats ran tests on some bones to identify specific isotopes from different plants and animals that may have been eaten in that time period. The results showed that females in Herculaneum ate more terrestrial animals, and males ate more fish and marine life.
Another insight is through the aforementioned preserved wood. As I’ve said, there is no wood left in Pompeii. In Herculaneum, the wood and paper were carbonized, leaving behind exact carbon replicas of beds, chairs, tables, and even scrolls! This is where the positioning of Herculaneum comes into play. Pompeii was downwind, to the south of Mt. Vesuvius, so huge clouds of ash and pumice (a light, porous type of rock common at volcanic sites) covered the city. The pumice fell from these clouds, piling on and destroying the roofs of houses. This crushed the civilians sheltering underneath them, although some people survived. This meant that the wood was surrounded by porous rock, which allowed the wood to slowly rot away.
When volcanoes erupt, they spew hot magma onto the surface, which is terrifying to see if you’re too close. In reality though, the reason eruptions are so deadly is not the lava. It’s the superheated pyroclastic flows and surges that do the most damage. These are floods of volcanic ash and hot gases from an eruption. They suck oxygen from the air, cause terrible burns, and block out all sunlight. In Herculaneum, there was no pumice, just hot ash encasing everything, leaving no air to rot the wood. The superheated gases caused the wood to carbonate, protecting the wood against erosion. In Pompeii, the flows and surges had lost some heat and the wood had already been buried in pumice.
I mentioned in an above paragraph the Herculaneum boathouses. These were arched, beachside rooms where citizens waited for boats. When Mt. Vesuvius erupted, hundreds of people took shelter there. You may wonder, Why didn’t they leave the city? Why stay? The answer lies in history. A few years before the eruption, Herculaneum was struck by a terrible earthquake that destroyed much of the city. The boathouses were the perfect shelter during that natural disaster. In the days preceding Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption, there were also earthquakes as is common before eruptions. Many people hid in the boathouses under the assumption that this was another earthquake.
There is one final amazing artifact from Herculaneum that I’m going to share about. The artifact in question was found in a temple devoted to Augustus called the Collegium Augustalium. A forensic archaeologist named Dr. Pierpaolo Partone discovered the only example of a vitrified human brain there. (Vitrified means turned to glass.) The superheated temperatures, followed by a sudden decrease in temperature, turned a man’s brain to glass. He was found lying in his bed. No where else has there ever been found a vitrified human brain. This is one of the things that make Herculaneum such an important archaeological site.
Herculaneum is a treasure trove of history, and new technologies are helping to uncover more and more about this ancient city’s past. I hope that this article has imbued in you a want for more.
Giordano, G., Pensa, A., Vona, A. et al. Unique formation of organic glass from a human brain in the Vesuvius eruption of 79 CE. Sci Rep 15, 5955 (2025).
Science Advances. High-resolution dietary reconstruction of victims of the 79 CE Vesuvius eruption at Herculaneum by compound-specific isotope analysis. 25 August, 21.
Music has existed in human culture since very nearly the dawn of time. The earliest known instrument was a 60,000 year old bone flute, made from a bear femur and discovered in the caves of Slovenia in 1995. Percussion (music produced by striking something to create sound, better defined by modern instruments like drums and the tambourine) has been around for almost as long, and by the time civilizations like Greece and Egypt had emerged, the use of music for storytelling and cultural connection was hardly a new idea. Music became a craft, an art, and because of this, there was more thought devoted to the why and how of it all. Theory (the study of the principles and elements of song) was created and developed, and things like melody, harmony, rhythm and structure were conceptualized and studied. Musical notation (the way in which instrumental music is read, or “sheet music”–have you ever seen those little pointy blob things? This means those) was developed as well, and evolved over time. Through the inventions of records, radio, CDs, and eventually streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, music is now a part of most of our daily lives. It is used for relaxation, education, worship, or just to dance and have a good time!
But because the influence of it all has spread so far, it means most of us have now experienced the same thing. The feeling of listening to a song–maybe your favorite song, or maybe just something on the radio–and letting it wash over you, filling you up with emotion, with thoughts and pictures in your head, until…are you crying? Okay, for a lot of you out there it’s probably not that extreme, but there’s a near-universal experience of having a song affect you in some way. Whether it’s in the form of sadness, joy or even anger, that’s the power music can have on us. And given how long it all dates back, it’s safe to assume that this power has existed since ancient times. But why? Why does this happen, and why can almost everyone relate? Why can one person think a song is the saddest thing they’ve ever heard, and another say it’s their go-to for a dance routine?
There are a lot of theories, and their basis varies. Some use psychology, some use music theory, some use a combination of both, and still others go off emotional analysis or just, in formal terms, “straight-up vibes.” I’ll go through two of these now, and you can decide for yourself which best represents how you think of the phenomena. Note, however, that each and every one has a scientific basis behind them, and a framework supporting evidence and studies. I will link sources below for further reading–they’re very interesting, and provide deeper information than my brief overviews.
Theory 1: Music composition and psychology.
Here I’ve combined the content of several articles regarding the more scientific side of things related to music. Namely, the brain. Your brain (hopefully, at least) has several distinct areas, each for different purposes. When these areas are triggered, certain hormones are released, or certain reactions are triggered, that make us feel things like pleasure, fear, and fatigue. Scientists have found that nearly all of these systems light up when we perceive musical sound. The amygdala, the hippocampus, the limbic system and more all have expressed intense reactions to harmonic sound–and they are all centers of the brain associated with pleasure and reward. Music makes us happy on a psychology and physiological level. Being able to predict or anticipate the tempo, rhythm, and changes sends a positive charge to our brains when our expectations are met or surprisingly exceeded, and releases dopamine. Additionally, songs or sounds associated with certain memories (or even just songs we recognize) in our brains light up the reward system as well.
Another idea is less quantitative in the realms of physical biology, but has very real basis in history, psychology and human experience. In fact, that is the theory: that human experience is what leads us to connect and relate to music. I’m sure we all have songs, or even whole playlists of songs, that remind us of ourselves (I’m sure I do–looking at you, indie artist Searows and your songs that make me ugly cry.) But why can we still feel things at songs that have nothing to do with us? Some say that it really is that simple: empathy. The concept and practice of being able to share emotions with other people is one of the most important skills for us to have in life, and one that most everyone is able to cultivate over their lifetime. This skill is exactly what may cause us to experience emotional sensations when we hear certain songs. In fact, scientific studies have shown that more sensitive people show higher levels of connection when listening to “sad” instrumentals, and even find music more pleasurable in general than someone with lower levels. There are even studies that show that listening to music helps us grow our own empathy in general. Emoting at instrumental changes and lyrics can develop an individual’s sensitivity and enhance their ability to relate to others. This is because music is a highly personal art form that conveys a very intimate look at the artist’s feelings. As a songwriter and composer myself, I can say for certain that the process of writing songs is definitely one of the most soul-bearing activities I’ve engaged in. Artists communicate their pain, anger, frustration, love or joy in their songs, with the intention of their listeners coming to understand what they’ve experienced by the end of the track. And despite what you may think if you’re only familiar with lyrical songs (as most people usually are), the same is true for classical or instrumental pieces. The act of creating music and using instruments and composition to reflect a theme or feeling is incredibly personal and unique, and sometimes can have even more depth to them than lyrical pieces. Either way, when someone’s heart is presented proudly in their art, we can see it. And in terms of music, we can feel it ourselves, too.
Now that you’ve read through both of these different ideas, which one do you think is true? Which one is the real reason behind this universal phenomena? Well, the answer is both! Both theories have accurate scientific groundwork in the scientific community, and are widely accepted as true. And there are even more reasons you may feel things at certain songs: your culture, background, past experiences, or even your music taste, all affect the ways you view the things you listen to! Every human on this earth is unique and has lived a unique life compared to every other, and we are all bound to see things differently. Maybe Shape of You is your favorite song because you think it’s romantic. Or you like the music. Or it reminds you of your traumatic childhood. Or maybe you hate it! (I wouldn’t blame you.) For each scenario there is someone here that can relate, and for each and every song, it is someone’s favorite and least favorite. Humans are so diverse and no two of us are the same, but the power of song has united us throughout the ages and continues to have an almost mystical effect in our daily lives. And for a species that can hardly ever see eye-to-eye–I think that’s pretty beautiful. Don’t you?
Recommendations from the Lighthouse Staff and Friends!
Olive Pea recommends the song ‘Wild’ by Woodkid! It makes her feel determined and motivated, like she can accomplish anything. The drums are like a military march, and the strings feel like looking at the clouds.
Lydia Martinov suggests ‘7 Years’ by Luke Graham and ‘Time in a Bottle’ by Jim Croce. They make her think about the passage of time, and its effect on us all.
Lucas David puts his stamp of approval on ‘We’ll See You, Opal (Reprise)’ from the Jack Stauber musical short film “Opal.” It’s a claymation indie film that’s very cool and free on YouTube, go check it out!
Aleena Hamior enjoys the songs ‘Hellbent’ and ‘Royal We’ by Janani K. Jha.
Kieran Smith said the song ‘Rule #4’ by Fish in a Birdcage is epic, and then said he thought epic wasn’t a fancy enough word. I told him it was, but we’ve agreed to disagree. Maybe he meant extraordinary? Inspiring? Monumental? Either way, this song makes him feel it.
Fincher Smith, age six, tells us that ‘Bodies’ by Drowning Pool makes him feel “dance.” Who could argue with that? Harper Smith (that’s me!) recommends the song ‘Never Love An Anchor’ by the Crane Wives for its lyrics and guitar style, and vibes that perfectly encapsulate fall. This song is one of their all-time favorites and always makes them cry, and they would love to have you suffer with them.
Animation is like lying to your eyes. Every second, your brain processes a certain number of images and strings them together into a perceived movement. When you make an animation, you create a series of flat images resembling a 3 dimensional object and flash them in front of someone so fast that your brain performs its motion recognition process on the flat images. This creates a powerful illusion that can be entertaining, educational, and expressive.
To make a drawing really feel like a living being, you not only have to create a visually unique and consistent character, but animate it to move like a breathing, seeing, hearing, feeling creature that reacts to its environment even when the viewer might not be paying attention. Unless they are standing unusually still in the scene, they should almost never stop moving completely. Even if the character is standing still, you still want to redraw it each frame, or have enough drawings on a loop to produce a similar effect. Here’s an example of an idle character that still reacts to its environment and does not rest on one drawing:
I find it likely that you, like me, are much more interested in animating an active character than an idle one, which we will explore in more depth next month. Creating a character in the process of performing something more exciting than standing, such as walking, (unheard of, I know), is easy to overcomplicate if you put unnecessary difficulty on yourself. It may appear robotic at first if you aren’t careful. One of the easiest errors for me is to start thinking about the character as a three dimensional object that holds its dimensions when rotated.
This is a mistake because all that matters is what the viewer sees, and they see one angle. Even in 3D animated films, the characters would not look as natural if you turned the camera to view them from a different side. Our eyes see things differently in reality than when we see things on a screen, so the change is necessary and should come naturally as you animate more. This also means there is no need for you to correct it in your animations. In fact, “correcting” your imperfect character drawings will equate to shooting yourself in the foot over time, something I do rather frequently out of perfectionism.
Another tidbit to keep in mind is that no animal moves with perfect smoothness. This means that characters start movements slowly, speed up in the middle and end slowly again. If a movement is constant the whole way through, it causes your animation to look mechanical, and your characters to appear less alive to the viewer. If a piece of animation is feeling difficult to get started or you are having trouble deciding how to represent it, acting it out in front of a camera a few times and watching the recording can help remind your brain what the movement is supposed to look like, and make it easier to get going again.
Animation takes a lot of time and energy, and it’s not difficult to burn yourself out, especially when working on an ongoing project. One way that I avoid burnout is, on a particular day, if I notice I do not feel like animating, I try to assess whether I actually don’t want to animate or if I just need to work on a different part of my project. If I just don’t feel like animating, or feel like working on a short side project for a while, I let myself pursue the whim. You don’t have to force yourself to work on your project every single day, and in doing so you run the risk of turning it into a chore that you feel obligated to complete and find no joy in, which in my personal opinion is worse than quitting.
The last thing I will talk about today is how to manage your time effectively so that you can create more art in the time you have available. The biggest thing to keep in mind, especially in the context of ongoing animations, is that you don’t need it to be perfect, just good enough. Your art is usually better than you think, and NEWS FLASH you are not required to pump out pixar-level animations during your time as a student, or during any time for that matter. If you want to make the most beautiful animations ever, that’s awesome, and you should focus on getting used to spending tens of hours on a few seconds of art. If you’re more interested in the storytelling and narrative aspects, however, it’s helpful to be open to compromising a movement’s quality slightly because the show must go on.
Recently, my father was invited to Indiana University (IU) Jacobs School of Music at Bloomington, Indiana, to conduct a production of Maurice Ravel’s opera, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (The Child and the Spells). My dad went to IU from 2008-2009, where he completed his master’s degree in conducting. Now, he works as the Music Director of the Marin Symphony in Marin, California.
It has been an eye-opening experience for me, personally, to watch these rehearsals and see how an opera comes together, and I thought it would be amazing to share all about it!
So, without further ado, this is how an opera is made!
What is an opera?
An opera is a musical drama, where actors in costumes tell a story fully or mostly through singing, with sets and props. Opera means ‘work’ in Italian. Singers do not use microphones, and all of the music and singing is live.
About L’Enfant et les Sortilèges:
A one-act, fifty-minute French opera composed by Maurice Ravel. A naughty little boy causes mayhem and treats his toys and everything around him carelessly. Suddenly, all of the objects in his room come to life. He approaches the fire, who ‘burns the naughty and warms the polite’. He is taunted by cats, cups and armchairs. Over the course of the opera, he learns that his actions have an effect on others. The child becomes kind, treating the animals and objects well when they eventually try to attack him. All the animals and objects praise his new wisdom.
The Early Stages:
Every opera needs a cast. This opera, performed by a university-age cast (ranging from 18 to 27 years of age), has about eighteen characters aside from the chorus. I had the great privilege to speak to many people who are part of the two casts performing the same opera on different days.
The play will be performed on October 17th and 18th, and the two cast lists came out way back in May. The actors and actresses rehearsed for hours on ends, almost every day, practicing on their own for weeks before starting rehearsals together. They also managed to keep their grades up from the many other university classes they were taking. I was able to interview some of the cast, and here is a short conversation I had with Sarai Burgos, who plays the protagonist in one of the two casts. Even though the character is a boy, many child male roles are played by girls, because of how high pitched a child’s voice is.
Aleena Haimor: How old are you, and what year of university?
Sarai Burgos: I’m 23, and in my second year master’s.
AH: What was your reaction to getting cast as L’Enfant (The Child)?
SB: It was amongst a bunch of other crazy things. My voice teacher emailed me a bit before the cast list came out. I was really grateful and happy.
AH: Tell us a bit about L’Enfant and how you’re bringing him to life?
SB: My character is around 7 or 8, maybe a little older, maybe a little younger. He’s pretty complex. There are a lot of ways my imagination can bring him to life. To me, he really wants to be seen and understood by others, but it comes across as being naughty or mean. Deep down, he’s really sweet and cares about others.
AH: Any acting tips for young actors and actresses?
SB: Learn to put yourself to the side and fully embrace communicating to the audience.
Thank you so much, Sarai!
Sarai Burgos
Learning French Lyrics:
L’Enfant et les Sortilèges is completely sung-through in French, and the actors and actresses had to start learning French lyrics for the opera. They worked with a French dictation coach, Elsa Quéron, to make sure they pronounced the beautiful words correctly.
Rehearsal, Late September
One of the actresses, Leah Nykaza, was luckily already familiar with the French language. She is playing L’Enfant in the second cast. She did an interview with me about how it was easier, yet still difficult, to pronounce words right.
Aleena Haimor: How old are you, and what year of university?
Leah Nykaza: I’m 21, and it’s my senior year of college.
AH: What character do you play, and what was your reaction to getting cast?
LN: I’m playing L’Enfant, and when I found out, I was excited and surprised. It’s my very first time being in a university production and an opera.
AH: Was it hard learning French for the opera?
LN: Luckily, I just finished taking two whole semesters of French last year. The two hardest things are the sounds we don’t have in English, and the difference between singing in French and speaking in French.
Thank you for speaking with me, Leah!
Leah Nykaza
This is part one of a multi-part article! Part two is out next month. Thank you for reading The Lighthouse!
Thank you to these incredible people for enabling me to write this article!
Chorus: Julianna Banfe, Emma DiSanto, Savanna Holley, Laura Looper, Ruby Miller, Sabrina Schubert, Lauren Smedberg, Brittany Weinstock, Issana Yaguda, Simo Brea, Tynan Butler, Robbie Erickson, Lane Harden, Gannon Hays, Xiang Li, Preston Rogers, Stephen Stavnicky, and Tyler Whitney.
Production: Fawzi Haimor, Omer Ben Seadia, Walter Huff, Lydia Spellman, Russell Long, Gina Cerimele-Mechley, Olivia Essebaggers, Virgil Fok, Katrina Keat, Rachel Rock, Jennifer Hong, Miles Swaminathan, Shuichi Umeyama, Chuck Prestinari, Janice Kim, and Elsa Quéron.
The Lighthouse 