Voices of love

“Opera is such a unique art,” said Christine Meadows, professor of music and opera director at Portland State. “It combines the visual arts, theater and music—that’s what I love about it.”

This Wednesday, the PSU opera program will present “Voce d’amore,” a special event on the Lincoln Hall main stage. There will be performances by students, alumni and faculty, accompanied by champagne and dessert. The event is a fundraiser and celebration of the 50-year-old PSU opera program.

PSU is the only university in Oregon that produces a full opera every year. In the last decade, the PSU opera program has won several awards from the National Opera Association.

“We’ve taken on some very difficult things in the repertoire,” Meadows said. “This last year’s production of Dialogues of the Carmelites was a very serious undertaking. I’m very proud of it and also of the growth in the department.”

The PSU opera productions draw a large crowd from the Portland community. Last year, more than 2,200 people attended the university opera.

“What is special about the PSU opera program is the teachers,” said Carl Moe, an opera student who will be performing in “Voce d’amore.” “We benefit greatly from Oregon itself just being a great place to live in, which is mostly the reason so many of our highly esteemed teachers are here in the first place.”

This is the second year the opera program has put on “Voce d’amore.” Last year the event was a huge success, bringing in $60,000 for the program.

“The funding for the opera has always been a problem,” Meadows said. “So for the last four years, we have been working at trying to fund a million-and-a-half-dollar endowment so that we can stabilize the funding for the opera. “

Opera supporter Jeannine Cowles has generously offered to give $50,000 for every $100,000 the opera program raises until it reaches that goal. “Volce d’amore” will bring the program even closer.

On the stage of Lincoln Hall, large props will be set up from previous productions as decoration. Jeff Cogen, chair of Multnomah County, will be the emcee, and the performances will include large opera numbers, a solo jazz performance and more.

“The singing is spectacular,” Meadows said. “Our faculty are incredible performers, and many of our students and alums, too.”

With his voice teacher, Richard Zeller, Moe will sing “The Pearl Fisher’s Duet” by Georges Bizet. Moe began singing in high school but also played other instruments. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to pursue singing until he auditioned for the music program at PSU. But he found out too late that he was required to audition and only had time to prepare two songs.

“So it was kind of fate that I pursued singing,” Moe said. “I discovered over my first two years here that the opera program is exceptional and decided to commit to doing all of the operatic studies and performance opportunities I could during my third year, and I’ve never looked back since.”

Meadows grew up playing the violin, and her father was a musician. When she entered college, she decided to branch out from playing the violin and take voice lessons.

“Within six months, I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” Meadows said. “I love singing. I like the physicality of my body being my instrument. That’s what attracted me to it.”

After completing a bachelor’s degree at PSU, she studied at Indiana University. After that, Meadows sang professionally around the country, a period that included a few seasons with the New York City Opera. But eventually she returned to Portland and began teaching.

“It’s thrilling to help people discover their instruments and what they can do with them,” Meadows said. “Everybody’s instrument is so different, the sound of their voices, how they express themselves. I love helping people discover that.”

Moe loves opera as an art form and is passionate about the music in opera.

“You get masterfully skillful singing and music with dramatic acting and visual spectacle. The great composers and performers of opera capture the emotions behind the stories and grant the listener the ability to feel those emotions,” Moe said. “I don’t look at what I do as merely a form of entertainment but as a way to affect people.”

Though the award-winning program has already shown tremendous growth and accomplishment, Meadows hopes it will expand even more.

“I would love to add another production someday. I’d like to do a smaller, maybe one-act opera in the fall,” Meadows said. “I think it would be fantastic to have a full-time opera director on staff, and I’d love to have more scholarship money so that we could help our students that have a difficult time affording to be here.”

“I would like to see more full-time faculty positions for voice teachers,” Moe said. “Also, the music department is strapped for rooms for teaching private lessons and for practice rooms for students. The manageable lack of space does bring all of us music majors closer together, both literally and figuratively.”