Joshua Thomas’ bass-baritone voice is as rich when he speaks as when he sings the part of Balthazar on stage.
He’ll be playing that character when Opéra Louisiane opens its Christmas production of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Manship Theatre.
The performance will mark the second time Thomas will sing the part of the Wise Man for Opéra Louisiane, which he likens to a homecoming.
“I went to LSU, and Opéra Louisiane was where I performed in my first opera,” he said. “I was a freshman, and I was in the chorus for the operetta ‘H.M.S. Pinafore.'”
Bass-baritone Joshua Thomas, a graduate of LSU’s opera program, returns to Baton Rouge for a second round of singing the role of Balthazar in Opéra Louisiane’s ‘Amahl and the Night Visitors.’
Then came his sophomore year, when Thomas was cast in “Amahl” and eventually stepped into the role of Balthazar, one of the three Wise Men who stop for the night at the home of Amahl and his widowed mother.
The boy and his mom are poor, but they offer what little they have to these royally dressed men who say they’re being guided by a star to the birthplace of the newborn savior.
The opera is a one-act production by Gian Carlo Menotti. It was commissioned by the NBC television network, where the NBC Opera Theatre premiered it on Dec. 24, 1951, in Studio 8H. Yes, the same Studio 8H, in New York’s Rockefeller Center, that’s been home to “Saturday Night Live” since 1975.
The main character of the live production back then was Amahl, a disabled boy who walks with the aid of a wooden crutch.
His mother fears that he will become a beggar after her eventual death. That’s when she notices the bright star lighting up the sky. And the star brings the Magi, who, in turn, bring Amahl to the newborn Christ, where the boy witnesses a miracle.
Singer Thomas lives in Houston these days, where he not only grew up but now teaches at the University of Houston while working on his doctorate degree. In the spring, he’ll be singing the part of Sarastro in the university’s production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.”
A scene unfolds in a past production of Opéra Louisiane’s ‘Amahl and the Night Visitors.’
“We’ve been rehearsing on the Manship Theatre stage (for ‘Amahl’), and tonight (Monday) we’ll be rehearsing in costumes,” he said. “I know the part, but a couple of days before coming here, I was reviewing the music, there were some things that I didn’t remember. I said, ‘Let me get this back in my brain.'”
But things seemed to click once he joined the cast in stage rehearsals. Thomas’ rich bass-baritone immediately brought Balthazar to life in a story that’s special to him.
“I’d say it’s special because of the story,” he said. “It’s the storytelling of it. When you have an opportunity on stage to tell a story as special as this one, which has all these in intricacies in this journey from the beginning, where you meet this curious little kid that just doesn’t have much, to the climax of the mother trying to take the gold just to be able to feed her family, to Amahl’s giving up the one thing he has, to the story of a miracle unfolding. It’s just one of the most beautiful stories you could tell in opera. There’s just nothing like it.”
Meanwhile, Thomas is enjoying his time in Baton Rouge in the days leading up to the performances.
“It feels so good to be back,” he said. “It’s been four years since I’ve been able to come back to Louisiana. I’ve been doing a lot of traveling and performing in other places, but coming back to Baton Rouge feels just like home. To come back as a professional singer and just seeing the old stomping grounds, it’s really a blessing to be back.”
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