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'Falstaff' — For the love of opera |
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Written by Kurt Brighton
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Thursday, 28 February 2008 |
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 For many students, college can be a time of opening oneself up to new experiences, new forms of expression, new ways of communicating the heretofore hidden essence of one’s soul. For most — thankfully — this awakening will begin and end with learning a Jack Johnson or Dave Matthews song and singing it at sorority girls until they either take off their clothes or slowly back out of the room.
But for a few, self-expression takes on a deeper meaning than convincing the opposite sex you’re actually sensitive. For Deven Shaff, who is appearing in Colorado State University Opera Theater’s production of “Falstaff,” his love of opera emerged as a result of being told to stay away from another starving-artist means of expression.
 “My parents told me not to major in theater because I wouldn’t make any money,” Shaff said. “But I went and saw my first opera, ‘La Boheme,’ and fell in love with it. I started majoring in opera, and pretty soon I couldn’t get away from it. I had to sing it, I had to see it. I try to explain it to people, to say, ‘Just go see a show—it’s amazing.’ Sometimes they get it—sometimes they don’t.”
A graduate of the College of Idaho with a degree in vocal performance and secondary music education, Shaff has pursued his calling fervently ever since he discovered it at that long-ago performance of “La Boheme.” He came to Fort Collins half a year before he was to start at CSU to take vocal lessons on his own. And although the program usually is limited to two years, he has stayed to continue honing his skills. But the 26-year-old said the payoff has been well worth the extra dedication.
“I stayed for a third year to get more experience and work out a few things,” Shaff said. “It was kind of a plan I had with my vocal instructor, but there’s been a lot of good that has come out of it. I was hired by Central City Opera for the summer as their production coordinator, and next fall I’m singing with Opera Fort Collins in “La Boheme.” Since that was the first opera I ever saw and fell in love with, it’s pretty cool that it’s coming full circle and I’m getting to perform in it.”
For now though, the focus is on “Falstaff.” And as a third-year graduate student at CSU looking to get some more experience, Shaff couldn’t have asked for a better role than that of Ford in Verdi’s final opera. And, as with most opportunities, the show is not without challenges as well.
“I didn’t think I’d be doing ‘Falstaff’ this quickly,” Shaff said. “It’s a bigger orchestra—35 in the pit—and that can make it more difficult. One of the first temptations with a bigger orchestra is to push, to try to get over the orchestra. Another challenge is that it’s scary to hear this huge sound come out of the pit, and thinking, ‘Wow, it’s only me and my voice going up against that.’”
Still, according to Shaff, the cast and orchestra are up to the challenge.
“This show came along at the right time,” he said. “We have some great singers who are graduating, and it’s a very funny opera with a lot of humor in the libretto, and in the music as well. Verdi as a composer wrote this exactly the way he wanted it. He wrote everything you would ever need to know.”
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