Connecting Operatic Dots

In “View From Another World” at the California Institute of the Arts Coffee House Theater this weekend, students will weave together characters and excerpts from 18th century opera repertoire, including Mozart, Gluck and Pergolesi.

An overall narrative structure was created to connect the variety of musical and dramatic dots.

It came about through the efforts of John Duykers, the celebrated tenor now in his second year teaching at CalArts. He developed it with Lisa Sylvester, musical director of the opera program, and theatrical director Melissa Weaver.

Duykers himself has sung in a broad range of operas but is especially noted for his contemporary work. He originated the Mao Tse Tung role in John Adam’s classic-in-the-making, “Nixon in China,” and made his Lincoln Center debut in 1988 with Michael Nyman’s “The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat.”

Closer to home, he was heard in January in a concert by the ensemble Xtet at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, performing Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ absurd “Eight Songs for a Mad King” with the right degree of irrational panache.

Yet, a modern mind-set is not the goal of his Voice Performing Project.

“I can’t help but have some contemporary leanings, but we’ve tried to absorb them as much as possible into what the 18th century was about,” Duykers said.

The performance is a natural collaboration between the music and theater departments, and Duykers said he hopes the alliance between the two departments grows.

“I think there’s a tremendous potential in this institution to really do something to evolve opera,” he said.

One of Duykers’ goals in nurturing the CalArts opera program is to advance the notion that singing and acting are critical components in any operatic success.

“The reality is you can’t act [Wagner’s] ‘Tannhauser’ if you can’t sing it, so you have to start there,” he said. “But the problem is that sometimes it stops there. People sing it and think that’s all that’s important. We need to change that.”

BE THERE

“View From Another World” will be performed Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 7:30 p.m., at the California Institute of the Arts Coffee House Theater, 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia. Free. Call (661) 253-7800.