A choir gathers around a grand piano in downtown Norfolk, belting powerful, operatic tunes. The singing sounds like traditional opera, but it is bluesier, with syncopation, vocal texture and a beat. The singers, whose vibratos emanate down the hallway, are teens.
They’re rehearsing for “Factotum: The Groom & Glow Lounge,” a twist on the classic opera “The Barber of Seville” infused with soul, R&B and hip-hop. The Governor’s School for the Arts will present the production at The Wells Theatre on Friday and Saturday.
Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” is an 1816 Italian comedy that follows the clever barber Figaro, who uses tricks and disguises to outwit his opponents.
“Factotum” is about two sisters who run a barber shop. The older sister, Chantal, is so burdened with responsibilities that she works to the point of exhaustion; her unreliable younger sister, Monica, has to then step up to save their family’s business in her sister’s absence.
The production’s creators, Will Liverman and DJ King Rico, have forged successful careers in music. Liverman, an operatic baritone, has earned a Grammy and five nominations; Rico is an award-winning DJ, producer and multi-genre artist.
Two decades ago, however, the boys met in these same practice rooms, cracking jokes and singing hip-hop in an operatic style to impress the girls in their class.
But their love of opera was always earnest.
“I grew up with my grandmother in a Baptist church. And so you get the power of a full choir, church choir, and it’s usually unmiked, so it’s very similar to operatic chorus, and just the tone of the texture of their voices as well,” Rico said about his upbringing in Virginia Beach.
The Rico and Liverman lost touch when they graduated — Rico moved to New York to produce music and Liverman moved to Chicago to pursue opera.
Virginia Beach-native Liverman performed in "The Barber of Seville" early in his career. Before each show in a new place, “I always got to go find the Black barber shop in town.
“The idea sort of hit me then like, man, someone should flip ‘Barber’ and put it in a Black barbershop.”
Liverman sat on the idea for years. While Rico was living in New York, Liverman was about to make his Metropolitan Opera debut, and the two reconnected.
“It’s like we’re speaking the same language,” Rico said. “We both grew up in church, on R&B, and with this intense operatic training. Why can’t those things go together?”
The project started as a mixed tape but quickly expanded to a full production.
“We lock in on what we want to say, then the music always kind of finds itself,” Liverman said.
The show debuted at Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2023 and received high praise from critics. But the pair said the story’s setting was originally written to take place in Hampton Roads.
They’ve reworked aspects of the production to fit the cast, including changing the leads to female because there were more female students and working with the teens' unique voices.
“If they want to lean more into the soul, if they want to add riffs and runs like in church, you know, just utilize the gifts that you have and the sound,” Liverman said.
Loryn Rodgers, the 18-year-old senior who plays Chantal, said it’s been fun using a different color in her voice for this production, and working with Rico and Liverman has been impactful.
“They started here, they started where I am now, and seeing them do such amazing things is really inspiring,” she said.
Liverman said that’s one of the goals: To show the students that a career in music, especially for new stories and sounds in fields that have been traditionally inaccessible for Black voices.
Rico said the characters are composites of real aunts, uncles and cousins and give the students a chance to play on stage someone they might recognize.
“Their existence matters and is worthy of being, you know, seen in audiences on stages."
Liverman added, “It doesn't all have to be like Black pain and sadness, which has its place. Just being able to tell a wholesome story of community and people coming together is a lived experience too.”
Visit gsarts.org for tickets and more information.
