Discover the 9-minute interview with Joy Bechtler on “Fandango: Portrait of an Opera Workshop” at the NJ Film Festival. Transcript below. French subtitles on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLTPawji_l4
Al Nigrin: Hello every one. This is Professor Al Nigrin. I’m the executive director and the curator of the New Jersey Film Festival. We’re in our 42nd year. We have a Filmmaker Interview Series that we’ve been doing at EBTV for decades. Today we have a wonderful person here. She’s the artistic director and the co-producer of the wonderful film called “Fandango: Portrait of an opera workshop.” Her name is Joy Bechtler and she’s from Princeton, New Jersey. Welcome Joy.
Joy Bechtler: Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here and a great opportunity. Thank you.
AN: Our judges loved your film and I wondered if you could tell our audience a little bit about it.
JB: Yes, from the perspective of Operanauts, which is one of the co-producers, we have been working with Congolese artists in Kinshasa, which is the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Africa. We’ve been working for a number of years with them so I know them well. It occurred to me that we should do a workshop working towards an opera music festival, which is the big project.
So it came last summer, the opportunity to go over and do an opera workshop and then one of the hosts of that group that invited us said that there was a film director in Belgium that they had known, and worked with and liked. So I got in contact with him and we met in Brussels and took a flight to Kinshasa and did a film of all the hours and hours of rehearsal and everything that went into that.
AN: Well, you know it’s such an eye opening film in many ways. Manno Lanssens is the director of the film from Belgium.
JB: He is, yeah.
AN: And he actually wants to make it a feature and I agree wholeheartedly.
JB: Good, good.
AN: Because we get about 30 minutes of this process about the trials and tribulations of putting on this show, and interacting with the performers. And they’re so magical. I mean their voices are amazing,
JB: They are, they are.
AN: I mean, you’re also a subject of the film too, in a way.
JB: Yes, I’m a teaching artist. I’m a singer and a voice teacher. So part of building the opera there is doing voice lessons and coaching and teaching them to learn an opera role. They know many arias and even ensembles, but doing a role was new. So that was part of it.
What Manno thinks he’s missing is the real trials and tribulations they go through on a daily basis in order to even do, you know, to get to the place physically, to do the rehearsal. And that was something that was really it. I can never stay too long there because it really is. . um, a lot of problems in the city.
AN: Socio-political problems?
JB: Yes, and just in the infrastructure, the roads, water, especially electricity, lack of electricity at night, inconsistent internet. So the fact that we can even communicate with them, you know, I wanted to make sure that they saw the film before we showed it and so we did a special screening for them. I think it just really…it gave them such a feeling of confidence. And, it was really good,
AN: And you’re so wonderful with them. I mean you speak in French with them most of the time. And your French is really great. I’m a French speaker so the interaction between you and them is very, very close. And you can see that they really love you too. So..
JB: Well, thanks for noticing that. I think it’s the music actually. I feel like I talk music, more than I talk French, (chuckles) speak in French. And even in Congo it is kind of a different French because actually Lingala is their language, right? So it kind of influences. .
AN: It’s kind of patois.
JB: Yeah, exactly, exactly. And they do know English, they’re just shy about saying it.
AN: So the trials and tribulations. What did you experience for this one, for this short film? I mean it’s 30 minutes long. What was one of them that stood out to you besides the ones that you’ve already pointed out?
JB: Well, we were making contacts for sponsors and partners. . .for down the road. So the one partner was at one end of town, and then the seminary where we were filming was at the other end of town. And the potholes in the road were so deep that there was a truck that had gone in, stopping traffic on both sides. And then, we were in an unfortunate taxi that the windows didn’t go down and the doors were locked. And it was like 90 degrees. And so, the driver got out. Who knows why, to go check the hole, probably,and left us in the car.
AN: Oh, my god
JB: I’m thinking, okay, just don’t panic. We’re going to be there. We’re going to get there. Just breathe. Because it was one of those scary moments, I think.
AN: And, it is so humid there, too.
JB: So hot and humid and dirty. You know the dirt is going. ..yeah. So that was one of those moments I thought, this is really stupid Joy, You need to have thought about this a little better because this is. . .but that’s the situation that they’re in all the time, all the time.
AN: Well, I guess I wanted to ask you, the film itself leads up to this performance. And how did that come about? Was it something that you had pre-planned or was it something that was already going to take place?
JB: No, it wasn’t, it happened. So we did the little soiree preview. And then, there was already in the works, with Vincent Kunda, who is head of the Arty Live series at that hotel, was already kind of asking whether we wanted to do some music there. And then we thought, okay, we’ll do it. But, we have to do it for 3 hours. We have to do all the music, you know, all night.
AN: Oh my gosh.
JB: So that was really the challenge to get enough repertoire together. And could they do it in 2 days.
AN: Wow, crazy. But I think they’re so magical like I said before, that I could listen to them for hours. So the idea is to expand this and to perhaps do it as a larger production?
JB: Yes, we did one scene of the opera, the chamber opera, so we would do the whole chamber opera and maybe get to tour it a little bit to some other places in the city and around the city.
AN: Cool, well folks, you absolutely must see this wonderful film. It’s actually part of our opening program, and that’s a very prestigious spot, by the way. And we will be doing that on Friday, September 8th. The in-person screening is at 7 PM in our state of the art facility which is Voorhees Hall Room 105, and that’s on the Rutgers College Campus in New Brunswick New Jersey at 71 Hamilton Street. And you can also watch it online. Joy will be there at the screening so you can come and interact with her on this on September 8th. Thank you Joy,
JB: Thank you. It was my pleasure.
AN: It was lovely chatting with you.
JB: And with you.
AN: And we hope to see you at the movies.