Today we’d like to introduce you to Tiffany And Rebekah.
Hi Tiffany and Rebekah, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Rebekah and I were lovingly homeschooled by our mother and both graduated high school at age 13. Meanwhile, we studied classical singing and various dance styles. Rebekah had aspirations of being a ballet dancer, and we loved writing original ballets together, while I knew from the age of ten that I wanted to be an opera singer.
In August of 2022, our family moved to Fallbrook. I was about to be in my first professional opera, “Carmen” with the Pacific Lyric Association, in Escondido, so we were looking throughout North San Diego County. We happened to find the right house in Fallbrook, where we have lived for almost three years now. Being in “Carmen” right after I turned 21 was my introduction to the local opera scene. That fall and winter, I was in three more operas with three different regional companies in San Diego and Los Angeles Counties. In the fall of 2022, Rebekah got into San Diego Ballet at the age of eighteen, and she ended up dancing with them for two seasons.
In April of 2023, I had the opportunity to be in an opera in Santa Clarita, which is a really long drive from San Diego County. At this point, my mother, who is a classical flautist herself and the greatest mentor in our artistic development, encouraged me to really think about what I wanted for my opera career. I wasn’t satisfied with being in the chorus for show after show, yet I knew that would be all I would get for years as a young soprano.
By this point, I had had a chance to get a glimpse of the professional opera world, and Rebekah was entrenched in the life of a professional ballet dancer. Being in these companies was an interesting adventure for both of us, but we began to feel stifled by it. We were used to creating our own opportunities, coming up with programs of themed songs and especially writing our own ballets.
At the point when I decided not to be in the opera in Santa Clarita, we began thinking about putting on a show of our own in the summer. For over a year, we had talked about the idea of putting on Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Old Maid and the Thief,” since it’s a one-hour opera with only four characters. Near the end of the season, Rebekah began dancing with one of the men in San Diego Ballet outside of the company, since pas de deux (ballet partner dancing) is her passion. We came up with the idea of a ballet inspired by the 1956 film “The Rainmaker” to be a prequel to “The Old Maid and the Thief,” and we decided to put them on together as a double feature called “Stolen Love: A Chamber Ballopera” on July 29, 2023. We rented the Grand Ritz Theater in Escondido.
When we started planning this show in late May, we weren’t necessarily thinking of making it the start of a production company. We rented the theater as Brannan Productions since we didn’t even have a name for the company yet. It wasn’t until a little while into the production that I started thinking that we should make ourselves a company, instead of just two sisters putting on a random show. I wanted to choose a name which incorporated ballet and opera but also paid homage to the classic cinema which has always inspired us. I’d been playing around with a few different amalgamations of the words “opera,” ballet,” and “cinema,” and Rebekah immediately chose Cinballera. I bought a Google domain on June 13, 2022, and we were in business!
It really was a very spontaneous decision which came out of the friendships we made in those first few shows. In “Carmen,” I befriended a baritone when we realized that we’d had the same first opera teacher! He also loved “The Old Maid and the Thief,” so he was very excited to play the role of Bob in that opera. Rebekah had been looking for an inspiring dance partner for a while, and Marshall Whiteley turned out to be it. In her first show with San Diego Ballet, they noticed each other’s artistry and became friends. Among the other people I befriended in “Carmen” was John Nettles, a soloist tenor in the show who I quickly heard was also a ballet dancer as well as the conductor of the City Ballet Orchestra. During “Carmen,” I asked him to be my dance partner in a production of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” for which I’d been hired to choreograph and perform a shepherd dance. To my amazement, he said yes. We asked him to play the role of the Sheriff in that first ballet, which we called “Stella and Starbuck,” and I was the fourth character. Since then, he’s been in all our productions, since he’s the only person besides the two of us who is proficient at both ballet and opera.
Over two years later, we now are in our company’s third season. We have put on seventeen productions and started a monthly opera night at the beautiful historic mansion the Villa Montezuma. Our most recent production was Giacomo Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,” which opened Season 3 in early August. It was our biggest production to date, with a cast of 20, a full chorus, an international cast, percussion to supplement live piano accompaniment, and a full Japanese house onstage, our first time with a set of that size. Back in June, we closed our second season with two grand operas, a concert performance of Donizetti’s “L’elisir d’amore” at the Villa Montezuma and a full staging of “Le Villi.” “Le Villi” was on a double bill with the world premiere of the ballet “Wild Things” to an original tone poem by John Nettles. For this show, we collaborated with the Pacific Coast Chorale and the City Ballet Orchestra; this was our only time to date having a full orchestra.
After two years of being in business, we’ve come farther than we ever imagined we would when we first started planning that first show. We never could have done it without the support of our family and the help of our friends and colleagues. One unexpected joy that has come from running this company is the satisfaction of providing meaningful artistic opportunities for other performers.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We’ve been very blessed by how well things have gone for the company, but it hasn’t been a completely smooth road. There’s no such thing as a live production without struggles, and we were bound to encounter our fair share with how many shows we’ve done!
One struggle which the company has faced in general is accomplishing a lot with a very small team. The four members of our family have been responsible for basically all the production and administrative duties for most of our shows. As we’ve been expanding the scope of our productions, we’ve been adding more volunteers and employees to the team behind the scenes, which has helped a lot. It wasn’t something we could do immediately, though. It was a journey for us to build the team, the connections, and community before we were in a position to do so.
Another challenge has been figuring out what works and what doesn’t in terms of planning shows. We’ve always been very pleased with the artistic quality of our performances, but the behind-the-scenes production aspects are harder to plan. Choosing the right theater is a guessing game. We’ve rented many different venues throughout San Diego County, and it’s always hard to determine whether attendance (either good or poor) is a result of dates, location, show theme, or some other factor. The first two seasons involved a lot of trial and error and even more learning from practical, hands-on experience, which can only really be gained by doing. By the end of Season 2, I felt like we finally had started to see enough of a pattern to realize what works and what doesn’t.
It has been a challenge to find the right venue, dates, and performers for shows we want to do because we’ve often planned them with only a month or two of preparation time. Going into Season 3, we finally have built the team and the company’s infrastructure enough that we were able to plan and announce the whole season after the first show.
Of course, I could tell stories for hours about mishaps in individual shows!
One final challenge I’ll mention, though, is a unique one which Rebekah and I have, playing the leads in shows while also directing, producing, and doing many other jobs. We love the process of seeing our visions come to life, but it can be really stressful, especially when we have very involved or extensive roles in the shows.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My sister and I are the founders and directors of a non-profit performing arts company, Cinballera Entertainment. We put on live shows which blend cinema, ballet, and opera (hence our name). We specialize in original ballets and classical operas with a classic Hollywood inspiration. We’re known for our unique, innovative blending of classical opera and ballet in productions which are creative yet still traditional. All our shows are clean enough for the whole family to see.
We are known for the fact that we both star in all our shows, although we are very young. I was 21 when we started the company, and Rebekah was 18.
We’re known for putting on a higher amount of shows in a short amount of time than most other companies in the area.
I’m very proud of the fact that we are building a community which nurtures an appreciation for opera and ballet in people who wouldn’t necessarily like the art form. At every one of our shows, audience members will come up to us and say that this is their experience with opera, ballet, or both but that they now are fans! Introducing people to these beautiful art forms in an approachable yet traditional way gives us great joy. At the same time, we are immensely proud and gratified to hear personal testimonies of artists we’ve employed that we’ve helped them make careers, giving them fulfilling performing opportunities, and made their dreams come true.
What matters most to you?
Creating a positive experience for the performers as well as the audience matters most to us. One of the things which inspired us the most to start our company was being dissatisfied and disappointed with past performing experiences we had. We think it’s possible to create great art while treating our cast with respect and having a joyful experience. If performers are passionate about what they’re doing, the audience will enjoy it more!
Pricing:
- Our average ticket price to a show is $35.
- Admittance to our Salons is a suggested donation of $25.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cinballera.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinballera/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cinballera
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Cinballera
Image Credits
Bryan Dahl
Gregory Olive
