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Show Renaissance man Aiken sings in 'Tosca' J " if o k by RICK BROUGH Record staff writer ' Richard Aiken should be exhausted. exhaust-ed. He is not only helping to produce "Tosca," presented by the Park City Summer Festival Opera Company, he sings two roles and created the English titles for the opera. Aiken also is a professor of chemical engineering at the University Univer-sity of Utah and is involved in several scientific projects everything from embryonic research to space shuttle technology. In addition, he will be entering the University of Utah medical school this fall. He is among the oldest students in his class, according to an admissions officer at the University. Aiken is involved in a number of different projects: He is working on a electrody-namic electrody-namic tether that will be used in a future space shuttle flight. The tether acts on the magnetic field around the spaceship in a way that helps to produce power on the ship. He is working on a device to levitate material through acoustic means. He is working on a way to use this to deliver nutrients to embroyos involved with in vitro fertilization. He is president of his own consulting firm, Digitron. (Aiken adds, however, that his proudest accomplishment is son, Dashiell.) For now, however, Aiken can be found every Wednesday night on the Egyptian stage, singing the "Tosca" roles of a sacristan in a Rome chapel, and the jailer who confines the opera's hero, Cavaradossi. (His wife, , Mary also is heard, but not seen, in the opera. She is one of two players who . sings the offstage role of a shepherd boy. ) A native of southern Illinois, Aiken attended opera in college, but hadn't sung in it until he came to Utah in the late 1970s. He studied with tenor Glade Peterson from 1979 to 1982. And from '79-'83, he was on the board of directors of the Utah Opera Company. "Tosca" is produced by talent from the Salt Lake Opera Companythe Com-panythe producer and star is Lee Broadhead and the director is J. Paul Broadhead. Aiken said the production's produc-tion's strongest virtue is the voices of principals Broadhead, Evan Call and Don Watts. "They are really world-class," he said. Opera singing and acting is different from more popular performing. per-forming. For instance, the voice in opera comes from the diaphragm more than the vocal chords. The performing is frankly melodramatic. "You don't have subtle acting," he said. The singers have a strong preference for singing in Italian, he said, rather than the English translations (or the gutteral sounds of operas originally written in German. ) The reason, Aiken said, is the Italian tongue emphasizes the vowel sounds, shaped in the vocal chords, rather than consonant sounds, where the tongue and teeth have to be used. But while Italian is preferred musically, Aiken understands the viewer's desire to know what is being said. That's why "Tosca" uses a method called "superscript" English titles for the dialogue, which appear on a screen over the stage. Beverly Sills introduced a similar technique at the New York City Opera Company, Aiken said, and television viewers are accustomed to subtitles from watching PBS's "Live at the Met." The Utah Opera Company also is using titles in their forthcoming season. Aiken said not every sentence is translated, and he holds the titles to a minimum during important arias, where the viewer should be watching the stage. With all that, the opera still had about 500 titles, with Aiken spending his own money to have them photographed and developed. He was aided on the titles by language coach Luciano Fuari, who is triply qualified. "He's Italian, he's musical and he has a Ph.D in electrical engineering," he said. Aiken acknowledged early performances per-formances of "Tosca" have had their glitches. Because of scheduling problems, the company only had a chance for one semi-technical rehearsal on the first two acts. The third act did not have a dress rehearsal at all. Audiences for the opera have been modest, Aiken said, but "Tosca" will continue through August and the singing talents in the company will be heard from in Park City next year, he predicted. I fl nil iniii ii m I Christopher Smart Aiken plays the sacristen (custodian of sacred objects) in Tosca." |