Opera at Harvard

Francesca Reindel, Class of 2011,

Eliot House, Neurobiology Concentrator

The first night of pre-frosh weekend is thrilling, but also somewhat daunting.  Finding your way to Agassiz House to pick up your t-shirt, the calendar listing the hundreds of events, and your host’s information, and then appearing at your host’s doorstep with your sleeping bag—it’s exciting but slightly unnerving.  Some pre-frosh may not arrive until the next day, and it is normal to feel a little lost.

I was lucky enough to be, quite literally, rescued by a group of undergraduate members of the Lowell House Opera (the details of this rescue could rival any fairytale).  It was my good fortune that a friend-of-a-friend was involved in this incredible organization and invited me to come watch a video of the opera Othello with them, an opera we would eventually produce in full  and perform in the Lowell House Dining Hall in 2009!

As an opera singer, the last thing I would have expected at pre-frosh weekend was to find myself immersed in a group of opera lovers.  Most of my friends from music school had moved on to conservatories or universities with large opera performance programs in order to fulfill their dreams of one day singing at the Met.  I was more interested in broadening my horizons and attending a liberal arts college, while also pursuing opera.

Harvard has a myriad of performing opportunities and a strong, active, and welcoming community of people who love to sing, direct, produce, and listen to opera.  We have FOUR companies which annually mount full scale productions!  I performed in my first full opera this February in the Dunster House Opera (DHO)’s production of Albert Herring.  Each year DHO’s undergraduate cast and orchestra energetically perform an opera in English.  With the Lowell House Opera, which performs larger-scale works in their original language, I’ve had the opportunity to work on many of the behind-the-scenes aspects of opera, and LHO’s unique community of students and semi-professionals from around the Boston area is very exciting.  If you prefer early music, check out the Harvard Early Music Society (HEMS), or for quick-paced English operetta, explore the Harvard Gilbert and Sullivan Players (HRGSP).

Photo: Francesca Reindel in a Master Class with Renée Fleming at Harvard

There are also opportunities to learn from experts in the field through the Harvard Music Department and the Office for the Arts.  I recently had the opera-tunity (pun intended) to sing in a master class for international opera star and three-time Grammy award winner Renée Fleming!

At Harvard, even novice singers can get involved!  There are also programs, such as the Lowell House Opera Scenes concerts, which allow singers and directors to develop their craft in smaller-scale productions.  Most productions have a chorus as well, which is a great way to begin learning about opera!

We’d love to have you share your fresh ideas and talent with us! Join us at the Opera Aria Concert at Lowell House on Saturday, April 24^th at 1 PM to hear undergraduate opera singers and learn more about our incredible organizations!

Harvard Queer Students and Allies (QSA)

Antonio Iglesias, class of 2010
Adams House, Earth and Planetary Sciences Concentrator

There are few things in life better than becoming comfortable with yourself.  As a gay, male student who once struggled with his sexual identity, the Harvard community, particularly, the Harvard Queer Students and Allies (QSA), aided in my personal transition from questioning and confused to confident and comfortable, and has become my second family.  The QSA creates a supportive community through celebrations of queer culture such as an annual drag night, dance/mixers, and guest speakers and discussion panels on the intersectionality between sexual orientation and other social constructions.

My transformation happened during freshman year.  Now a senior, I have been the treasurer of the QSA for the past two years.  As much as I have grown since my first year, more so have I seen the organization grow.  The main development I have seen is acknowledgment of the real need for inclusivity. In a society concerned with queer rights, the needs of gay and lesbian individuals tend to dominate the conversation, yet we know that there are also many other individuals who are questioning their sexual identities and seeking the comfort that I gained a few years ago   Thus, whether you identify as transgender, intersexual, bisexual, gender queer, (and the list goes on and on), the QSA strives to offer all of these different identities the resources and confidence to live happy, secure lives.

All in all, what I’ve enjoyed most about being a member of the QSA and Harvard in general is that I have never been a part of a more accepting community. This is not just limited to acceptance of another’s sexual identity, but acceptance of every individual for every facet of their identity.  Such an open environment truly promotes a healthy dialogue between students from astoundingly different backgrounds and encourages us to mature and become wiser people than we were when we first set foot on campus.

The Harvard Showroom is open

Maxwell L. Child, class of 2010

Former president of the Harvard Crimson

      My first big feature for the Harvard Crimson required serious manpower to put together.  As a freshly-minted news reporter covering the faculty, I wanted to get something big.  Something exciting. Something Harvard’s professors would be embarrassed to reveal to the public.  

      I wanted to know which cars Cambridge’s biggest brains drove.

      I was able to harness the efforts of 20 or so writers who were trying to get elected—“compers” in Crimson lingo—to take on my pet project.  I drew up huge e-mail lists of professors from all departments for them to blitz until we got the information we needed.  I had them searching across campus for Porsches with Harvard permits.  We mounted the biggest Crimson investigative effort since the election of President Faust.

      In the end, operation “Crimson Showroom” was a success.  We were able to sniff out a few of the luxury-car owners (BMWs only, sadly, the Porsches remained a mystery). Renowned professors Mankiw (economics) and Mansfield (government) gave me up-close-and-personal access to their distinctive rides. Green-friendly Prius driving profs and a Suburban fan gave impassioned defenses of their auto choices.  And, surprisingly, our survey found that the most popular faculty car was the sensible, midrange Subaru Forrester.  

      While my automobile exposé was hardly Woodward and Bernstein material, the fun I had reporting and writing it pulled me further into the hard-working and high-spirited world that is The Crimson.  I was hooked on the camaraderie of the building, and stuck around for three-and-a-half years.  A number of the aspiring editors I conscripted to help me with that story are great friends of mine today.   

      My experience writing the story exemplified two opportunities ever-available at The Crimson—the chance to make friends and to bother incredibly important people with trivial matters.  I was lucky enough to get to do both a number of times at The Crimson, and I hope prospective writers, designers, photographers, and businesspeople make sure to factor the options at 14 Plympton in their college decision.

Check out Max’s feature “The Harvard Showroom is open” at http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2007/11/13/the-harvard-showroom-is-open-what/