Three years ago, Brandeis' Music Department began planning annual productions aimed at expanding the opportunities for vocal students at the University. These efforts culminated in the premiere of a folk opera this weekend titled Love in Schlossberg Village. Conceived and directed by Pamela Dellal, a mezzo-soprano concert vocalist and vocal instructor at Brandeis, the production was performed by the Brandeis University Chorus, the Chamber Choir and voice students of the Music Department, the entire performance conducted by Prof. James Olesen (MUS).

Originally scheduled for performance on Saturday evening in Slosberg Recital Hall, the production was hastily cancelled due to Winter Storm Nemo, and as road maintenance was undertaken, it was thankfully rescheduled for the following morning in the same location. The scheduling shuffle did not seem to greatly affect attendance to the production, as the recital hall bustled with students, parents and University affiliates alike. The robust attendance is a fitting testament to the anticipation of a performance of this genre at Brandeis.

Love in Schlossberg Village is the first production of its kind to have been performed at Brandeis-it is not based on an existing opera, but was created by Dellal by piecing together several works by German composer Johannes Brahms. The storyline, which follows the romantic woes and wants of townspeople in a small village in Germany in the early 19th century, emerged as Dellal re-created the lyrics of the original Brahms works. One of Dellal's main concerns in creating the production was to accommodate the need for active parts for a great number of students, which was very successfully tended. The show featured almost 20 leading roles and up to 60 performers took the stage at once during larger chorus pieces.

Technically, the production was no small feat for the performers to pull off-the entire one-and-a-half hour performance was sung in meticulously practiced and largely memorized German. Love in Schlossberg Village has no narrator, contrary to the form of many traditional operas. Rather, the production was kept fluid by slick transitions between songs, and the continuous accompaniment of a single piano, seamlessly executed by pianist Mark McNiell. To ensure that the largely English-speaking audience could keep up with the story, Dellal chose to do something novel-project a pithy English translation of the lyrics to each song onto the main stage wall. As the students performed, viewers could simply glance above their heads to read what they were singing to one another, sans the distracting flipping of program pages.

The performance itself was very well planned out and prepared for by Brandeis vocal instructor Pamela Wolfe-the stage was set and every performer was in costume. The male students wore white or blue button-down shirts, similar trousers and some even sported lederhosen-esque suspenders. The female students pranced around the stage in billowing white cotton skirts and dresses with modest corset-structure bustiers, decorated with delicately embroidered flowers. Their hair was braided and tied with ribbons while flowers and trees on the set gave the stage the charm of a small, rural German village.

Love in Schlossberg Village follows the story of two young, star-crossed couples, and the townspeople who surround them during the throes of their romances. The audience is first introduced to the slew of busybody townspeople; then as the songs change, each number lets the audience take a closer look at the dynamic between two or three performers: siblings, friends, lovers, mothers and children. The performance concludes with the resolution of all of the woes between the pairs, ending in the festive occasion of a wedding between two of the town's blossoming lovers.

As the tale of the townspeople wrapped up, the audience doled out a solid wave of applause while the cast basked in the success of their performance. Despite the technical challenges that were presented in the scheduling and showcase of the performance, Dellal and her colleagues managed to pull off quite a feat in Brandeis' musical history.