Arts Alive San Antonio

BY JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor —

Have you ever heard of Vinkensport?

The name implies that it is a sport but it’s like no sport you have ever heard of. It’s “played” only in the Flemish lands of Belgium and the competitors are birds – male finch birds to be precise – who are brought to the competition in small cages by their trainers. The bird that sings its call song the most times during the hour-long competition, is declared the winner.

Doesn’t sound very exciting but in the hands of talented artists, the finch sport has been reimagined as an opera, a lighthearted, comic take on people getting all gung-ho about securing victory for their birds. Composed by David T. Little with a libretto by Royce Vavrek, Vinkensport or the Finch Opera premiered at the Bard Conservatory of Music in Annandale-on-Hudson in 2010.

Now there’s a brand-new version thanks to a collaboration of three Texas opera companies: Opera San Antonio (OSA), Houston Grand Opera (HGO), and the Austin Opera. Uniting their forces, the three created a new production in an outdoor setting that was filmed for digital presentation. Director E. Loren Meeker, who is also the general and artistic director of OSA, explained the tricky setup. The orchestra was first recorded indoors but the singers sang outside, with “the music in their ears,” she said. Conducted by Austin Opera’s principal conductor, Timothy Myers, the one-act production is scheduled to premiere Oct. 23 at 7:30 p.m.

“It was definitely a new experience for us and a challenge but one that our fabulous cast was definitely up to,” noted Meeker who has frequently worked with HGO in the past.

What makes the opera fun is the behavior of the trainers, six characters who are only identified in terms of their birds. Thus, one is referred to as Atticus Finch’s Trainer, another as Sir Elton John’s Trainer, and yet another one as Holy St. Francis’ Trainer. It’s the foibles of these characters, who resort to all sorts of tricks to make their birds sing, that drives the action, so to speak. According to Meeker, trainers have been caught cheating in real-life competitions, resorting to doping their birds, or, in one case, placing a tiny recording of the song inside the bird’s cage. But there’s also the Atticus Finch’s trainer who is playing for the last time before releasing his bird into the wild. Like most human stories, it’s about people’s joys, sorrows, fears and the desire to win. “So, we get that balance between extreme comedy and extreme emotion,” said Meeker.

The cast and creative team of the Finch Opera will be interviewed live by Meeker and OSA’s music director Francesco Milioto on Facebook at noon on Oct. 23. At 7 p.m. the same day, there will be a pre-show Facebook watch party with HGO’s managing director, Perryn Leech, Meeker and a couple of other opera personalities.

 A few weeks later, Vinkensport will be followed by Impresario, another one-act opera albeit from an earlier time. Composed by Mozart for an occasion at the court of Austrian Hapsburg emperor Joseph II, Impresario also makes fun of eager competitors but this time they are human competitors, specifically overzealous operatic divas. The composer described the piece as “comedy with music.”

“It’s something completely different from the Finch Opera,” noted Meeker. “We took Mozart’s Impresario and updated it. In the original, an opera company owner is holding an audition to fill upcoming roles in his season. The update is putting us in the pandemic and the auditions are taking place via Zoom. The “impresario” is a woman who runs a company called Texas Grand Opera, and she is holding the audition. That allowed us to develop this wonderful film showing the magic of creating art during a pandemic. The real message of the piece is that art is alive and we are innovating and finding ways to hold art up as something that can be healing during this pandemic.”

The adaptation is as comedic as the original, “something that you can laugh at and enjoy.” The new version is kind of tailored to Texas audiences with Texas colloquialisms and other cultural references. Impresario will be streamed Nov. 27 at 7:30 p.m.

Both productions as well as future collaborative projects are being made easier thanks to the recent creation of the Texas Opera Alliance, which, in addition to the companies mentioned above, also includes The Dallas Opera (TDO) and the Fort Worth Opera. The mission of the new collaborative effort “is to advance and diversify the operatic art form through innovative production partnerships, audience-building initiatives and collaborative investments in new works, ensuring that opera continues to thrive in the Lone Star State,” states the press announcement. In addition to streaming new video content, TOA will provide other services to member companies, helping each to extend its reach.

Though planning for the Alliance started before the pandemic, COVID-19 accelerated and extended the focus of the alliance to include digital projects.

“I think the digital work and the support for each other will continue into future seasons even when COVID rules and regulations begin to relax,” said Meeker. “Once that happens, the conversation about physical, live performances will become part of the collaboration as well. And it’s a way for Opera San Antonio, which is the smallest company in the group, to look at projects, whether digital or live, that we could not produce on our own. So, it’s really wonderful to have that network of support.”

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You can watch for free for 30 days after the premieres on the Houston Grand Opera’s website, www.houstongrandopera.org or through Marquee TV, marquee.tv. You’ll need to create an account at both places. For help you call call HGO at 713-228-6737 or email customercare@hgo.org

To see the movie trailer: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j0vvn60xaybhxyh/Vink%20Trailer%20edits%205.mp4?dl=0