It was a Thursday night full of music and celebration on two sides of campus. On one side, Conquest commemorated the USC-UCLA rivalry in preparation for the final game of the football season Saturday. On the other side, the students of the USC Thornton Opera program gathered together in the Bing Theatre to celebrate their hard work and each other.

“Chérubin,” an opera by French composer Jules Massenet, follows a newly-turned 17-year-old boy, Chérubin (Lindsay Martin), as he struggles to understand the concept of true love. As part of his journey, Chérubin jumps from one woman to the other in hopes of finding the love of his life in this comedic, coming-of-age tale.

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“I want to support my colleagues,” said Yan Liu, a graduate student studying music performance who attended the performance Thursday. “I always enjoy seeing all the different stagings, costumes and designs of the production. I’m very curious.”

The USC Thornton Symphony, led by conductor Brent McMunn, beautifully executed Massenet’s overture. Filled with cheerful melodies and occasional somber interludes, the sounds of the highs and lows of love radiated through Massenet’s score and were successfully expressed from the pit to the audience.

“I’m a trumpet player,” said Michelle Pugh, a senior majoring in cinematic arts, film and television production who was in the audience. “I’m in a brass quintet right now and my quintet mates are in the pit, so … I’m looking forward to hearing them play.”

The show opened with the explosive energy of the chorus at Chérubin’s home which was sustained throughout the show.

“It’s very important to have the chorus members [create] strong reactions,” said Ryan Benson, a senior majoring in theatre who is in the chorus of the opera. “[The opera is] in French so … you have to collaborate with each other to make sure we’re all saying the right things.”

While the audience witnessed the raw talent of the performers directly on stage, they also had the option to follow along with a line-by-line English translation by David Anglin projected directly above the stage. However, with the dynamic range of emotions the performers displayed, audience members could easily track the direction of the plot without the superscripts.

Martin had no trouble embodying the chagrin and charisma of the opera’s namesake, as well as his childish stubbornness, nonetheless making the character instantly likable to the audience. The soaring quality of Martin’s soprano stole the show any time she opened her mouth.

Le Philosophe (David D’Ardenne) acted as Chérubin’s wise and caring teacher, aiding him along the way by introducing him to the concept of love. D’Ardenne’s clear and resonant bass tone sent chills down the spine, making him the perfect fit for the level of maturity Le Philosophe calls for.

The emphasis on power couple duos was not to be taken lightly either. The pair work and movement exchanges between La Comtesse (Isabel Fernández), La Baronne (Estefani Lopez), Le Comte (Jordan Jones) and Le Baron (Kevin Allen) instantly brought more life to the show and allowed the comedic aspects of the opera to shine through with full force.

“Most of [the performers] are already in classes with each other,” Benson said. “They’re very familiar with each other and … there’s multiple different leads that are singing.”

As a dancer in the show, Haiming Wu, who played L’Ensoleillad, brought her character to life through both the purposeful presence of her voice and her physically impressive choreographed routines aided by the chorus. Contrastingly, Nina (Chloe Sundet), Chérubin’s real love interest, made her impression on the audience with her sense of purity manifested through the delicate resonance of her soprano voice.

Due to the flexible nature of the opera, this specific production took conscious liberties to modernize the original setting to play to a more tech-savvy audience.

On multiple occasions, the show included references to a message being sent or received through a phone. Likewise, the audience saw Chérubin sending an email to his supposed love interest, L’Ensoleillad, inviting her to his birthday celebration at the top of the show and then typing his final will on a laptop towards the end.

While the change may have caught audience members off guard at first, it was easy to look past given both the piece’s comedic nature and the universality of its message of realizing that the love of your life could be right in front of you this whole time.

“While opera kind of gets pigeon-holed into specifically beautiful singing … it’s beautiful to watch even if you can’t understand exactly what they’re saying,” Benson said. “The singing quality is still able to move you.”