Larry Wallach Brings Science Fair: An Opera with Experiments to Campus
The South Berkshire Concert Series will lead off the 2016-17 season with “Science Fair, an opera with experiments,” conceived by mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn. The performance
will take place on Saturday, September 10 at 8 p.m. in the Daniel Arts Center’s McConnell
Theater at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. Admission is free with a suggested donation
of $10.
Science Fair is a critically acclaimed production performed by Ms. Chinn and pianist Erika Switzer. The libretto, drawn from the words of scientists, teachers, and science writers, is set to original music to make a playful cabaret of science.
This new opera-theater work delivers a live science show with lessons and lectures in song. In a theatrical setting that celebrates the scientific—from the incredibly familiar baking soda-vinegar volcano to the intensely complicated wave-particle duality of matter at the quantum level—Science Fair tackles various concepts (aided by hand-made models of things like the solar system, atomic orbitals, molecules of DNA and more) infusing them with humor and wit, employing arresting operatic vocals to uplift the ordinary into the realm of wonder.
The opera features music direction by Erika Switzer (piano), a faculty member at the Bard Conservatory, and music by Matthew Schickele, Renee Favand-See, Stefan Weisman and Conrad Cummings. Set and video design are by Caite Kemp, lighting design by Lucrecia Briceno and costume design by Hai-Ting Chinn. The work received its world premiere in New York City this past April to critical acclaim.
Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim in the New York Times has described it as “an entertaining, sometimes poetic and unapologetically didactic concoction made up of song, science lectures and demonstrations… in a handsome production… with the precise and lucid Erika Switzer at the piano… The accessible … music echoes the sense of wonder and wit that infuses Ms. Chinn’s performance… Ms. Chinn finds passions worthy of opera in unexpected places, whether in the size-blind proton-electron attraction or within a single detergent molecule, torn between its hydrophilic head (“in love with water”) and a hydrophobic tail “that quakes in fear at H2O.”
American mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn performs in a wide range of styles and venues, from Purcell to Pierrot Lunaire (which she performed at Simon’s Rock in 2009), Cherubino to The King and I, J.S. Bach to P.D.Q. Bach. She was featured in the revival and tour of Phillip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach (2011–2015) and is currently singing the role of Belle in Glass’s La Belle et la Bête, also on tour. Career highlights include the title role in The Wooster Group's production of La Didone (music of Francesco Cavalli); the title role in Opera Omnia's Coronation of Poppea at Le Poisson Rouge and Peter Maxwell Davies's The Medium and Tarik O'Regan's The Wanton Sublime in London's Grimeborn festival. At HERE, Hai-Ting has appeared in Yoav Gal's Mosheh, a VideOpera (January 2011) and Stefan Weisman's opera Scarlet Ibis. Chinn was also co-host of the podcast Scopes Monkey Choir, a lighthearted discussion of science and music.