PORTLAND, Maine — This week, Opera Maine is presenting "Aida," a classic work that has never been performed in Maine and is without question the company’s most ambitious undertaking ever.
"Aida" is opera at its grandest and most lavish, a spectacle that on stages in far bigger cities has featured live horses and even elephants.
Taylor Comstock is one of the singers who will be performing, a native of Kansas City who started out in music as an instrumentalist.
"I was a cello player through middle school and high school, even into college," he said.
Along the way, Comstock lost a bet with a friend and, as a result, had to try out for choir.
"That’s how I got into vocal music," Comstock said.
In college, he appeared in his first opera, part of a large chorus. His contributions were modest, but the experience had a big impact.
"I just fell in love with it and I knew kind of from that moment that’s what I wanted to do," he explained. "Opera is, I think, the only art form where you have all of the fine arts in one space together all at once. You have dance, visual art, music, theatre, acting, all of those in one place."
It is not breaking news to note that opera is a tough sell to a general audience. Comstock has given a lot of thought to how to win people over—or at least to try to persuade them to attend a performance with an open mind. At this point, he offers a quote from, rather surprisingly, Billy Joel.
"It’s that, 'Music is one of the most explosive expressions of humanity that you could possibly have,'" Comstock said. "And to be in [a] space like [Merrill Auditorium] and listening to the orchestra and the dancers and the singers kind of all working as one, it’s a special experience. And it’s a rush unlike anything else."
Opera Maine will present "Aida" in Portland at 7:30 p.m. on July 25 and at 2:30 p.m. on July 28.
Clarification: Starting in the 1980s, the Surry Opera Company in Hancock County mounted a few productions of “Aida.” Kate Mrozicki looked back at one of them for a project the Surry Historical Society was involved in.
“These were bare bones concerts without the pageantry of costumes, sets, or a full orchestra,” she wrote. “Most [participants] were amateurs, only a few of whom could read a note of music. Though sometimes out of key and a bit ragged, these performances were received with enthusiasm and the so-called Presumptuous Opera Company continued.”