COMPANY INTRODUCES YOUNGSTERS TO OPERA

Chris Webb has spent the last decade quietly trying to get the younger generation interested in opera.

Webb, 53, is the artistic director of Orange County Opera Inc., a low-budget, five-member company that for the past 10 years has performed scenes from operas in elementary schools throughout the county.

Performances start in late October and continue through the school year.

“Generally, we do three shows a day,” Webb said after a recent performance. “Last year we did about 190 performances, but this year we have around 250.”

Webb estimates that more than 100,000 children will see his group during 1986.

The basic ingredients of Webb’s show are simple:

“We try to find a scene that is self-contained and has a beginning, middle and end,” he said. “We don’t want to do a string of separate items strung together.

“We concentrate on comedy and make things very visual to keep the kids’ eyes focused up here. But we want to do the best singing we can possibly do.”

The performance--in English to piano accompaniment--lasts about 30 minutes. The company performs in costume and uses folding screens as sets.

“Everything fits into my 1979 Volvo station wagon,” Webb said. “We can tear down and set up a set in about five minutes.”

Before each performance, packets are distributed to teachers by the county Department of Education containing brief summaries of the show, librettos, opera terms and even a crossword puzzle.

The company was founded by Ralph and Margaret Bassett in 1976 and still rehearses in the G. Willard Bassett Voice Studios in Santa Ana. Webb, one of the original members, took over in 1979 when Ralph Bassett moved to New York to sing with the New York City Opera.

Other current members include soprano Nancy Moyer Wilson, tenor Scott Blois, baritone John McConnell and pianist Charles Perlee.

“The company was set up with two principal ideas in mind,” Webb said, “one, to bring opera to schools and expose kids early, giving them the idea (that) opera is fun and not scary, and, two, to give singers a chance to perform and hopefully learn in front of live audiences.”

Since its inception, the company has been funded by Las Campanas of Orange County, a 70-member local philanthropic group formed in 1963 to provide fine arts enrichment to local young people. Money is raised through a debutante ball that Las Campanas holds each July. Last year, Las Campanas gave Webb’s group $24,000.

(Las Campanas also supports the Pacific Symphony youth concerts, the newly formed Orange County Youth Choir and the Imagination Celebration held at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.)

The singers are paid, but not at union scale rates.

Funding has allowed the company to perform at no charge in schools for the last 10 years. However, because of increased demand for shows, the company this year has switched to a matching fund effort: The school must pay half; Las Campanas the balance. The cost to the school is $80 for a first performance; $60 a second.

“We were apprehensive about how the schools would accept (the new fee schedule),” Webb said, “but the initial response has been wonderful.” This year’s budget is projected at about $40,000.

The company has rotated three productions: the shaving scene from Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” Pergolesi’s “La Serva Padrona” and the first act of Offenbach’s “The Tales of Hoffmann.”

Singers in the production of “The Tales of Hoffmann” tell of the benefits of performing before young audiences.

“I like to work with elementary school kids,” tenor Blois said. “The younger ones have fewer preconceptions and react directly. It’s quite wonderful from a performer’s point of view.”

Soprano Wilson said that the work challenged her:

“When you do 200-plus performances day after day, it really makes the artist draw on your own creative abilities to keep the show interesting to yourself, so you continually work on your character,” she said.

Baritone McConnell agreed: “I love the things I’ve learned. You do a bit and talk about it, and in that way you learn and grow.”

Webb summed up: “We have limited visibility because we don’t do public performances. The original concept was that the company could grow larger, but I personally do not aspire to take it onto another step.

“I really like performing for the kids. It’s not like performing anywhere else. And, hopefully, they appreciate it.

“Our goal is to have six different shows so that theoretically kids could see a different opera every year they’re in grade school.”