Curtain Opens on New Opera Program

One has studied opera in Italy, but a handful has never seen an opera at all.

They are among 13 Orange County students selected to study at the Orange County High School of the Arts’ new tuition-free Opera Conservatory Program. Classes started last week, and so far, school administrators say they are pleased.

“Any one of them could have a career,” program director and instructor Jim Ruggirello said. He’s quick to point out that the road to stardom is a tough one. “We’re just here to nudge them along the path.”

The students--who range in age from 13 to 17--gave their best shot at auditions in early September. Now that they’ve made the cut, they’re already well into the program’s rigorous curriculum: Mozart, Verdi and learning the international phonic alphabet--a tool for pronunciation that most university music majors don’t get until they are well into their college studies.

“They can’t sing words like pop singers do,” Ruggirello said of classical vocalists. “This group will really get a head start.”

The students will juggle their regular high school class assignments, jobs and any extracurricular activities--such as clubs, sports or love interests--around their twice-weekly opera class, which meets after school.

The performing arts high school offers either a full-day program consisting of academics at Los Alamitos High School in the morning, followed by arts instruction in the afternoon, or arts classes only, which students attend after a full day at their respective high schools.

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For all, the program requires a major commitment.

“There’s no discipline problems here,” Ruggirello said. “There’s no such thing as having to ask them to take their gum out or to stop throwing spit wads. This is not ‘Blackboard Jungle.’ These kids just want to learn what it takes to become great singers and to get better at what they do.”

Since the performing arts school was founded in 1987, 85% of alumni have continued their arts study at the university level. At least 60% are now practicing their passion in professional careers, school officials said.

Among the new students, some already had had a little operatic training. But others are pretty green--having performed only musical theater or sung in a choir. “I think they’ll see that opera is different,” Ruggirello said.

To culminate the semester, the ensemble will perform scenes from Mozart’s “Magic Flute” and “The Marriage of Figaro” in December. Essentially, it will be their final exam.

The idea for an opera component to the high school program came about 1 1/2 years ago, when students expressed an interest but had nowhere to go.

The selected students are Lindsay Boylan, 17, Capistrano Valley; Anne Marie Cantwell, 14, OCHSA; Mark Colella, 17, OCHSA, Katie Feld, 15, Dana Hills; Sara Klaus, 16, Capistrano Valley; Joanna Levin, 17, Dana Hills; Rachel Mounts, 15, OCHSA; Madyson Page, 13, St. John’s Episcopal; Michael Palmer, 16, Huntington Beach; Danielle Pizzorni, 17, Newport Harbor; Matthew Rohrig, 15, Brea Olinda; Christopher Smith, 16, Mater Dei; and Carolyn Withers, 16, University High.