Tutor Leaves Soap Out of Her Opera Class

Until 10 years ago, the only opera that interested Lin White was soap opera. She played a troublesome vixen--long before Joan Collins made viciousness trendy--on the soap, “The Brighter Day,” and then mellowed into more sympathetic roles on “The Guiding Light” and “As the World Turns.” But now, the one-time teacher to “Dennis the Menace” (a role she played during the TV series’ last year) is teaching real-life students the finer skills of acting in opera.

“I used to think that opera was just a bunch of large people standing on a stage singing,” White said. “Dramatically, it didn’t do anything for me.”

But White got hooked when she moved from New York to California and “fell into” directing community productions of Gilbert and Sullivan shows. In the process, she got a glimpse of the music scores to a few opera classics.

She came to realize that the great composers fully intended their operas to be acted, as well as sung. “It’s written right in the scores,” White said. “Composers told singers exactly what to do, but we’ve forgotten to look at what they wrote down.

“And you can see why,” she added. “The singers were given so much to do. To try to give a realistic performance while singing these stratospheric notes is nearly impossible.”

But not completely impossible, White said. Frustrated that no one seemed to be working on the dramatic side of opera, she decided to fill the gap and form the Los Angeles Music Theatre Company, which will stage Donizetti’s “Elixir of Love” this month at the First Presbyterian Church in North Hollywood.

“I’m not superimposing drama on the pieces,” White said, “and I don’t touch the voice.” Instead, White takes opera students who are either studying in universities or with private voice teachers, and trains them to work out the characters as the composers intended. The students perform their roles in full productions and are videotaped so they can assess their work later.

“It’s a whole rounded experience,” White said. “By the time they’ve finished, they’ve really explored their roles, which is great for their resumes.”

White says that it means a lot to agents and opera companies when a singer has sung a specific role in a production. “It means that they are much more advanced.”

Many of her students have either gone on to apprenticeship programs with major opera companies or have traveled with opera companies in Europe. “And each year the level of students gets better,” White said.

Singing teachers from around the state have heard about the program and keep sending her students. They depend on White to get rid of bad habits that young singers often pick up--the ticks and quirks that often result in the cliched overacting that many associate with opera.

“I think of overacting as a substitute for when actors don’t have a thought in their heads,” said White. “It’s definitely one of my bugaboos.”

But if she is harsh on old-style opera acting, she is equally critical of the new-style productions that bring the 20th Century crashing into 16th Century operas.

“It gets dippy if you update operas too much,” White said. “You make the characters look like total fools.”

The Los Angeles Music Theatre Company presents its spring production, Donizetti’s “Elixir of Love,” on May 6, 8, 11, 13, 15, 18, 20 and 22. The performances will be held in Caldwell Hall at the First Presbyterian Church, 11640 Hesby St., North Hollywood, beginning at 8 p.m. Sunday performances begin at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $7, $5 for seniors and $3 for children 12 and under. For information, call (818) 509-1392.