SALT LAKE CITY — Nitai Fluchel, 11, loves to shine on the soccer field, but this week the spotlight is on him as the title character in Utah Opera’s presentation of “Little Prince” at the Capitol Theater.
For the fifth-grade student at The Madeleine Choir School, performing in the opera was a first. Tai, as he is known, has participated in community theater and is a member of the Cathedral Choir but this is his first major production.
While he learned about opera in the fourth grade, the actual experience has been enlightening, he said.
“I was surprised how organized everything was,” he said. “They just got right into it.”
Last June the school’s director of music, Melanie Malinka, began working with five students she had handpicked, of whom Tai was the youngest, to prepare for auditions for the Utah Opera production of “Little Prince.” She coached them throughout the summer.
“I was surprised that of the five boys – the others all had more experience – I had been chosen,” Tai said. “I was really excited.”
Since that time, Tai and Malinka worked hard to prepare him for the part. Malinka continued the coaching sessions, joined occasionally by a coach from Utah Opera. Tai worked with the cast on staging for three days in December but since Jan. 2 has kept up a rigorous schedule rehearsing most days.
“His schedule is quite intense because the Little Prince is in every scene,” Malinka said.
The youngster has taken it all in stride.
“Tai has been a dream to work with,” Utah Opera Artistic Director Christopher McBeth said. “He caught my attention right off even before we began the audition last fall with his personality. … One of the reasons this presentation and production is so magical is because of what Tai brings to the project.”
Twenty-four Madeleine choristers join Tai onstage as the children’s chorus in the production.
“Our guest artist directors and conductors are always inspired by the extraordinary level of preparation and artistry of the chorus,” McBeth said.
The relationship between the school and the opera company has been a long and fruitful one. Malinka said the opera company reached out to the school about 15 years ago to enlist their students, and the school has been a part of every production involving children ever since.
“This is a fantastic experience for our school,” Malinka said. “It’s a priceless experience for our students to receive this hands-on learning, something I could never teach in class. They learn so many skills they will carry into their lives.”
McBeth says it has been a mutually beneficial relationship.
“I am often telling my colleagues in the industry that Utah Opera likely enjoys the best partnership with a children’s choir in all of opera,” he said. “Melanie Malinka is a fabulous collaborator and brings her and The Madeleine Choir School’s high musical standards to every project.”
“In my position as artistic director, it is liberating to know that I may confidently schedule any piece with children regardless of how many or how difficult,” he added. “I don’t think I would have ever scheduled the ‘Little Prince’ without The Madeleine Choir School. Frankly, most of my favorite memories of past productions are those where the school was included.”
Tai’s grandparents have traveled to Utah from Pittsburgh and St. Louis to see him perform in “Little Prince” and expected to take in several shows while they were here.
“I would love to do this again,” Tai said prior to the show’s opening. “It has been so fun so far.”
In keeping with the school’s tradition of providing students for local professional productions, in the upcoming Utah Opera production of “The Magic Flute” three Madeleine Choir School seventh-graders – Oliver Laughlin, Theodore Hyngstrom and Liam Khor-Brogan – will be members of the cast.
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