Whether it's Puccini or Sondheim, Skylark Opera fest is all about love

The opera bug can bite anyone, anywhere, at any time. Cases in point: Cecilia Violetta López and Won Whi Choi.

Growing up in South Korea, Choi had never even attended an opera when he was overwhelmed with the urge to become a singer. López was a music education major at the University of Nevada when she got swept away.

Now both are rising stars on the opera scene and featured as principals Ruggero and Magda in Puccini's "La Rondine" ("The Swallow"), one of two productions Skylark Opera is staging for its two-week summer festival beginning Friday.

"In my first two years in New York, I had 200 auditions and didn't get one part," Choi said. Then he had a "Tales of Hoffman" breakthrough, and last year, "I did five '[La] Bohèmes.' "

López, who was raised on mariachi music, wound up getting hired by Opera San Jose in California, where she won nine leading roles in quick succession.

"Opera was such a far-fetched idea for both our backgrounds," she said. "Now my mom and I nerd out listening to it together."

"La Rondine" was commissioned as a Viennese operetta, but after some disagreements and personnel changes, it wound up as Puccini's first comic opera, in Italian.

Amply supported by wealthy banker Rambaldo, Magda yearns for true love. He arrives in the form of new-in-town Ruggero, son of Rambaldo's old friend. This production is moved forward in time to the 1920s, and choreography by Penelope Freeh includes a bit of the Charleston.

As is Skylark's custom, "La Rondine" is sung in English. Most composers preferred their work to be sung in the language of the audience, said Krywosz, although only a handful of U.S. companies do so now.

"It's actually harder to sing opera in English, because there are no pure vowels," López said.

The production also features Lindsay Russell as Lisette the maid, Norman Shankle as poet Prunier and Paul Hindemith as Rambaldo.

The other half of the festival, "Putting It Together," showcases songs from several Stephen Sondheim musicals, including "The Ladies Who Lunch," "Marry Me a Little" and "Being Alive" from "Company," "Pretty Women" from "Sweeney Todd" and "Old Friends" from "Merrily We Roll Along." But it has a story all its own, against the backdrop of a Manhattan cocktail party.

The Twin Cities-based cast includes Paul Coate, Emily Gunyou Halaas, Gabriel Preisser, Vicki Fingalson and Jeffrey Madison.

Neu said the show, which has attracted stars including Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett, did well in New York and Los Angeles, and is undeservedly seen as being strictly for Sondheim aficionados when it should have bigger visibility.

The same might be said of Skylark. The company (formerly known as Northstar Opera) does some of the widest ranging repertoire in the Twin Cities.

"They're very smart to pick contrasting shows that you don't see much here, but are accessible," Neu said. "And they always have such good orchestras and high production quality."

If you've never been to a Skylark show, this could be a good time to try one.