Marckus Williams became an opera fan when he heard Sarah Bleasdale performing on the D Bus Saturday. He decided that tunes by Mozart, Puccini, and Gilbert and Sullivan could calm riders’ tensions if sung on CT Transit buses every day.
The musical triumph occurred on the 11:38 a.m. D Bus route from BJ’s Plaza in North Haven to the Green.
Williams was the first of many passengers to enjoy solos and duets presented by Bleasdale and her colleague Colleen O’Shaunessy of New Haven’s Hillhouse Opera Company.
They were performing for Exact Change, the third edition of the once-a-year event staged by the Arts Council. The Council dispatched local performers aboard CT Transit buses in order to promote exposure and access to the arts around the city.
Shortly after bus #522 driver Wilbert Ragsdale (an opera lover himself; favorites are Pavorotti, Mario Lanza, and Placido Domingo) pulled out onto Universal Drive, Williams began to listen with rapt attention as Bleasdale performed “I’m Called Little Buttercup” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore.
“Hang onto the pole,” driver Ragsdale called out gently from his backstage seat.
Bleasdale did, while holding her recorded music in one hand and performing in her heartfelt mezzo. She brought not only voice but acting as well as before a large audience.
Allan Appel Photo
“That was beautiful,” Williams (pictured above with Bleasdale) proclaimed when she finished.
He’d done a double take when he deposited his fare, turned, and first saw opera singers on the bus. Then he listened.
“I think it would ease a lot of tensions on the bus,” he said afterwards of the idea of making “Exact Change” a more regular phenomenon. “[People] upset you’re waiting, you’re late, people step on your feet, play their radio …”
“Don’t forget the overcrowding,” Ragsdale called out from the driver’s seat.
These performers came prepared with music in English, Italian, and French, along with brief explanations. As Ragsdale drove, other passengers got on. They were treated practically to a new song or aria at every other stop, a kind of opera’s greatest hits.
O’Shaunessy finished “O Mio Babbino Caro” from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, which basically says, “Let me marry you or I’ll jump off the bridge.”
“Bravo!” Williams called out.
At Middletown Avenue, the two singers performed as a duet one of opera’s most famous barcaroles, about nights of love, from Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffman.
As #522 pulled into the Wal-mart parking lot, O’Shaunessy finished a seductive version of “Habanera” from Carmen.
In front of Bella Vista she sang “Non So Piu” from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. She explained the song was about a barely in control hormonal teen. Then she demonstrated, to the delight of Changhe Wang.
He’d just arrived from China eight months ago to study public health at Yale. He considered opera on the bus a healthy phenomenon indeed.
People rarely sang on the bus in his native Beijing, he said, and usually only for money.
“In China we have not so much chance for Western opera,” he added.
At Grand and Jefferson, Bleasdale did a selection from the Mikado and O”Shaunessy, one of Cherubino’s songs “Voi che sapete” from Marriage of Figaro.
By now #522 had indeed become the Opera Bus.
Marckus Williams was struck by how full the voices were. Pointing to his stomach, he asked where the voices came from. “From way down here, yes,” O’Shaunessy answered. That’s what makes opera different from musical theater.
Williams, alas, got off the bus. Had he stayed on, he would have heard a repetition of the barcarole at Grand and Hamilton.
As Ragsdale eased the Opera Bus in at Chapel and Church, O’Shaunessy eased into the finale with “Vilia,” a selection from Franz Lehar’s Merry Widow about finally finding someone you love, only to have them disappear.
Here the singers disembarked, and the Opera Bus disappeared. At least for now.
Wilbert Ragsdale said he had particularly enjoyed the Puccini, and the explanations
The Hillhouse Opera was one of five performing groups selected by Exact Change coordinator OluShola Cole (pictured on right) because its mission is to promote and produce opera for a wider community. It certainly did that on bus #522 Saturday.
Other artists who performed on other routes on Saturday included the Afro-Semitic Experience; Carlos Hortas collective; Mariyama Shari Caldwell Dance Center; and the all-female barbershop quartet Silk n’ Sounds.
This is a double standard.If this would have been some People of color doing rap music they would have call the police to have them arrested. Also she should have been put off the bus for violation of CT Transit bus rules.
Rules for Passengers
To Keep Your Ride Safe & Comfortable, Please:
Do not eat, drink or smoke on board;
Keep the designated front seats reserved for Senior Citizens and Disabled passengers;
Do not use foul language or disturb others on the bus;
Fold strollers/shopping carts before boarding and store them out of the aisle;
Use earphones to listen to your radio or audio device;
Keep your cell phone conversations private by speaking quietly;
Keep your head, hands and arms inside of the bus;
Shirts and shoes must be worn while on the bus;
Animals, other than service animals, must be in secured containers;
Place trash in trash cans; Keep seats clean; No feet on the seats;
Cooperate with your bus operator's instructions.
CAUTION: Buses make frequent starts and stops. Please stay seated, if possible. Use available railings and handgrips while standing or moving about the bus. Wait until the bus has stopped before moving to exit.