It’s difficult for second-year master’s student Megan Brilleslyper to pick her favorite memory from her three-week trip to Florence, Italy, with several other voice students from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.
“Opera was born in Italy,” Brilleslyper said. “Whether you speak the language or not, it was amazing to just be in the region and feel the history.”
Sifting through memories of Italian lessons at the Michelangelo Institute, day trips, cooking classes and wine tours, Brilleslyper got emotional recounting the recital she and the other Shepherd School students performed for their Michelangelo colleagues.
“There we were after three weeks of learning the language, singing some of the biggest Italian arias for a roomful of people who know nothing about opera,” Brilleslyper said. “And yet every single person in the room was touched by it. Everyone was crying. Everyone was cheering. I get emotional thinking about it, but that is why I perform: for moments like that.”
“This trip made me realize how much bigger the world is — not that my life is insignificant, but there are billions of people with stories and experiences as complex as mine,” said Adam Catangui, another second-year master’s student. “How lucky are we to be in a profession that threads those stories together?”
The trip is possible thanks to the late Margaret Pack, whose generous gift funded the Margaret Pack Language Institute for Singers. For more than a decade, the institute has provided Shepherd School students with a special opportunity unique among its peer institutions: to travel to Italy and immerse themselves in the country’s culture and teachings of the Michelangelo Institute.
“Imagine the nicest group of people from all over the world coming together to learn Italian,” Catangui said, adding that the program offered a balanced approach that featured structured learning with dedicated grammar sessions and opportunities to interact with fellow students through conversation classes. “It was in the conversation portion that I got to learn so much about the lives and cultures of my classmates.”
The program extended well beyond the classroom. For example, a weekend trip to Lucca, Italy, the birthplace of composer Giacomo Puccini, offered a tangible connection to the Shepherd School students’ artistic heritage.
“We got to see his house where he grew up,” said Brilleslyper. “All the plaques and information in the museum were in Italian, so we were practicing our Italian and learning about what we were seeing.”
Brilleslyper and Catangui said understanding the language helped them unlock a deeper appreciation for the music they perform.
“It doesn’t really matter how much you memorize translations,” Brilleslyper said. “If you don’t know the language, you can’t truly convey the essence of the character or the story.”
Beyond artistic growth, the experience fostered strong bonds between the students, forging connections that promise to have lasting benefits in the competitive world of opera.
“Being there with not only eight of the most talented people I’ve ever met but just wonderful people, we just had such a good time together,” Brilleslyper said with Catangui adding, “The fact that I got to experience this with my best friends is something that I will hold on to for the rest of my life.”
Just as they’ve returned to Houston with strengthened friendships, Brilleslyper and Catangui agreed that they’ve also brought back a continued commitment to maintaining Italian fluency.
“All of my Italian music now has a deeper meaning for me because I know the words I’m saying,” Brilleslyper said.
That is the goal of the program, said Joshua Winograde , director of opera studies at the Shepherd School.
“Opera is an art form that begins and ends with the expression of text,” Winograde said, expressing his gratitude for Pack’s generosity. “Most students at Rice will spend much of their professional lives singing primarily in languages that they had to learn as adults, and so dedicated immersive language study, such as this trip to Italy, is a crucial part of the education we provide.”
It was an experience Catangui described as “the opportunity of a lifetime,” and one Brilleslyper said has inspired her to apply for young artist programs overseas.
“That just wasn’t something I had really thought of before because of the language barrier,” Brilleslyper said. “Now I’m a little less scared about the idea of trying to have an international opera career. It showed me, ‘OK, you could do it. You can get through it.’”
The Shepherd School’s 2024-25 season will be announced this summer. Sign up to receive the full lineup via email.
