Ruben Roy and Benjamin Wenzelberg have more in common than just their co-lead roles as Charlie in the Atlanta Opera’s “The Golden Ticket,” an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic tale “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
The boy sopranos also agree that their friends would be much more into an opera with Oompa Loompas, chocolate rivers and a floating Willy Wonka than, say, “Don Giovanni.”
“That’s really an opera for older people,” Ruben said of the Mozart masterpiece. If opera companies have any hopes of appealing to young people like him and his co-star, he said there would need to be more operas like “Golden Ticket.”
“If more operas were composed like this one, you’d have a better chance of attracting the younger generation,” Ruben said.
In fact, drawing new audiences is part of the Atlanta Opera’s goal for “The Golden Ticket.” The company is billing the production as a family experience that both adults and children can enjoy.
Composed by Peter Ash, with a libretto by Donald Sturrock, “The Golden Ticket” is still a very new work. It was commissioned by the American Lyric Theater and premiered in 2010 at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis with much fanfare. It went on to the Wexford Festival Opera in Ireland later that year to rave reviews.
Producers hope that “Golden Ticket” will evolve into an introduction to the genre for young people, much like “The Nutcracker” is for ballet and Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” is for the symphony.
If the excitement and engagement of its child stars are any indication, then the Atlanta Opera is headed in the right direction.
Playing the role of Charlie is a thrilling prospect for both Ruben and Benjamin, who loved Dahl’s book and its film versions. Their disparate personalities help to bring Charlie to life.
Ruben, 14, of Atlanta can seem to be a bit of an introvert. He’s serious, pausing thoughtfully before he speaks. The Heiskell School eighth-grader likes science and smiles just enough to reveal his green braces. He loves music but admits that he’d like to have a little more time for some regular kid stuff such as soccer.
Benjy, as he likes to be called, is 12. He’s energetic and will chatter on about music theory and composition -- and roller coasters, if you let him. The New Jersey seventh-grader does his schoolwork through correspondence. He likes math because it’s logical, like music.
“When I heard that the Atlanta Opera was going to be doing ‘Golden Ticket,' I said to my parents, ‘I have to audition for this,’ ” Benjy said. “I thought the score was edgy and so interesting, and I thought Charlie was a character I could lose myself in.”
Benjy is an experienced performer with a resume that includes the Metropolitan Opera and solos with the New York Philharmonic. He learned that he’d been cast as Charlie after his recent performances as Amahl in “Amahl and the Night Visitors” at Avery Fisher Hall.
For Ruben, becoming Charlie was a little more serendipitous. Ruben, who has sung with the Georgia Boy Choir for six years, was encouraged to audition by GBC Director David White.
The GBC was in residence at Oxford Cathedral in Great Britain during “The Golden Ticket’s” Wexford run. “Peter Ash called me and asked if I had any boys who could play Charlie,” White said. “I knew I had about 20 singers who could do it, but I immediately thought of Ruben."
White taught each of the GBC’s “top-level” singers the aria “Charlie’s Song,” and through a series of taped elimination rounds, Ruben landed the gig. Although Ruben is an experienced choral performer and was cast in Theatrical Outfit’s “Amahl” in 2009 and was once a street boy in Bizet’s “Carmen,” he will say that Charlie is his first real foray into a production of this magnitude.
“I’m much more comfortable singing choral music,” he said. “Doing an opera, and acting, is a lot of hard work for me.”
The differences in experience are assets for both boys, says director Michael Shell, who calls them both “wonderful singers with such different personalities.”
“Because this is all new to Ruben, he brings this curiosity and wonder, just as Charlie did when he explored the factory with Willy Wonka,” Shell said. Conversely, “Benjy has a tremendous amount of experience and takes direction really well. Sometimes he needs to find that innocence. So, because of those qualities, they really learn from each other.”
Shell and Ash, who will conduct the Atlanta Opera production, spent two days working with the boys before rehearsals began.
“We’d do theater games, improv and things of that nature. We wanted to be sure we created an environment where there was no competition between them.”
The nurturing works. In rehearsals, the boys cheer each other and compliment the other’s performance. During breaks they play catch with the props or tell jokes and support each other through the long days, and they marvel at their parents’ patience and encouragement.
And while staging an opera is a lot of hard work, Ruben and Benjy say they are having so much fun and love being a part of a production that is “kid-oriented.” They hope to project that sentiment on stage when “The Golden Ticket” opens Saturday, and they hope that audiences will find it joyful.
“It’s a very optimistic work. I like that it has a happy ending,” Benjy said, alluding to the long history of ill-fated opera characters from Carmen to, well, Don Giovanni.
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