Blanche is Not an Asset to the Abbey: Dialogues des Carmelites at the Metropolitan Opera in Review

For the first time in ten years, the Met revived its iconic production of Francis Poulenc’s opera, Dialogues des Carmelites- Dialogues of the Carmelites, which opened this afternoon. At the heart of the story is the eviction of a convent of Carmelite nuns during the French Revolution.  The nuns are from a wide spectrum of personalities, but each is subservient under the eyes of God.

As the name tells you, the opera is “Dialogues”, which means that the performance is essentially three hours of beautifully orchestrated recitatives, with maybe two or three arias throughout the entire performance. If this opera is not given a first class production or first class singers, it’s bound to be a long and miserable outing to the theater.

The 1977 production by John Dexter is one of the few Met productions that can really be called “classic”. Other examples of “classic” Met productions would be Zeffirelli’s La Boheme or Turandot. One could even debate that Robert O’Hearn’s production of Rosenkavalier is “classic”. (Fact: The Robert O’Hearn Rosenkavalier is the oldest Met production currently in rep. It is from 1968.)

The entire opera takes place on a huge, raked, wooden cross that covers a lot of the stage as seen below. The changes in scenes are marked by the lowering and raising of various set pieces that suggest different atmospheres. In a word, I would describe the production as “detached”, which is symbolic in and of itself since the nuns are “detached” from the world.

Vocally, this performance was almost perfect. It always surprises me what a wide range of singers a company needs to employ to cast this opera. You need everything from veristas to hearty mezzos to chirpy sopranos.

Today’s Dialogues was defined by the affective and gripping performances of four women: Elizabeth Bishop as Mere Marie, Erin Morely as Constance, Felicity Palmer as Madame de Croissy, and Patricia Racette as Madame Lidoine.

Bishop’s sensitive performance as one of the mothers and rule keepers of the convent was well sung and exemplified supportive technique. Singers that make me stressed when they sing just ruin the performance for me. That was nowhere near the case with Ms. Bishop whose high notes soared above the large orchestra and whose hefty low notes dominated the scenes. Bishop also gets extra props because after this performance, she sang Fricka in Das Rheingold at the Met just a few hours later.

Erin Morely was perfect as the chirpy Constance. She had a crystalline voice and a young, pious stage energy that made her walk to the guillotine the most moving. The same can be said for Patricia Racette who is a consistent pleasure onstage. It says a lot about a performer’s presence when you can identify her easily when she’s onstage wearing the same clothes as 20 other women. She guided the order with her expressive acting and passionate singing. Her voice isn’t a light voice, but it’s clear and relatively high set, which allows her to play a variety of roles very well. In fact, she sang Blanche in the production in 2003.

Finally, Felicity Palmer gave the most convicting death scene I have ever seen in opera. Vocally, she is a marvel at 69. She sang 100% audibly and with passion and duty. She was an arresting performer and her weighty voice set a standard for the low voices of the afternoon.

Unfortunately, recent Tucker Award winner Isabel Leonard was not up to the challenge. The role of Blanche, the main character who runs away from her home to join the nuns is a soprano role. While usually a charming singer, Isabel Leonard is a mezzo, and a darn good one at that. However, her voice just did not carry in the house and she made Blanche who is an enigma of a woman, into a fairly somber and one dimensional woman. She did not match Morely’s youthful energy which was a shame. However, for a mezzo, her soprano high notes were surprisingly strong. She definitely warmed up after the first half, but an emotional opera deserves an emotional performance.

Patricia Racette in Dialogues des Carmelites

Also standouts in the cast were Paul Appleby as Blanche’s brother, Chevalier de la Force. Unfortunately, her father, The Marquis, sung by David Pittsinger, spent most of his short scene strained with many of his notes, few of which were even particularly high. The guards of Scott Scully and Richard Bernstein were equally strong and Patrick Carfizzi gave a chilling performance in the small role of the jailer who reads the nuns their death sentences. Mark Schowalter was highly effective as the victimized chaplain.

Louis Langree led an expert performance of Poulenc’s complex and intriguing score. It, like the nuns, was properly detached and he kept in great tempo with the singers. Occasionally, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra would overwhelm a singer, but it was mostly a fantastic reading. Even thought the Metropolitan Opera Chorus only sings for about ten seconds-combined- in the opera, they were still very good.

While there are times where Dexter’s production, under the revival direction of Sarah Ina Meyers, sags a little bit, the good-as in rip-your-heart-out emotional- outweighs the bad. It’s a shame it wasn’t transmitted in HD this season, especially since this is probably the last revival of it unless they keep it around. David Reppa’s sets were sparse and suggestive of the convent worked well with the basic and traditional costumes of Jane Greenwood. Gil Wechsler’s dark lighting was very appropriate for the dark production. The staging of the final scene is especially evocative, as seen below:

Poulenc’s music is truly indescribable.  You can’t put a tag like “baroque” or “romantic” or “neoclassical” on it. Will there ever be a “perfect” performance of “Dialogues”? Probably not. Did today’s performance rip my heart straight out of my chest? Of course. Is that what good opera is supposed to do? Yes. Yes it is.

And that, my friend, is how you bring an opera season to a close.

All photos courtesy of Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

An Interview with Lawrence Edelson, Founder and Producing Artistic Director of the American Lyric Theater

Nobody can turn away from the fact that the economy is difficult and money is tight. In a society that doesn’t value the arts the way it used to, performing arts companies, opera companies, in particular, have suffered. However, under the skillful leadership of Lawrence Edelson, the American Lyric Theater located in New York City hasn’t just worked with the economy, but thrived. Recently, I was fortunate enough to interview Mr. Edelson about The American Lyric Theater, his business model, and the new and innovative type of opera this forward thinking company is producing. My questions and his answers are below:

 

What is the overall goal of the CLDP(Composer Libretist Development Program) and why do you believe that the libretto is such an integral part of an opera?

Almost every opera company in the country has a young-artist program for singers, and you can see the results on stages around the world. In the past 30 years, American opera singers have become some of the best-trained, most versatile singers around.  This would never have happened without the abundance of young artist programs available to mentor them. I started the Composer Librettist Development Program in 2007, because at that time, there were no programs to mentor operatic writers on the same scale as those that had become so successful at mentoring singers. 

In developing the CLDP, we took a hard look at what already exists in the field. There are programs that provide opportunities for librettists to work on their craft, but most of these do not address issues of the unique collaborative relationship between librettist and composer – which is very different than in other theatrical genres. In addition, working with librettists without thoroughly exploring the role music plays in the dramatization of a work simply does not make any sense to me.  A great libretto is not the same thing as a great play. Libretti need to have space for music to do its job, and this is a crucial element of the collaborative process we work on at ALT.  On the other end of the spectrum, there are opportunities for composers to be in residence at bigger opera companies and to learn through observation and even write small-scale works, but we did not find any opera company that has a dedicated artist mentorship faculty whose expertise is focused not on performing – but on writing.

All of the programs that existed have merit, but they tend to be isolated in their strategy. The bottom line is that we identified a real absence of integrated programs that provide an extended period of time for emerging composers and librettists to be immersed in an environment dedicated to their artistic development; and, that also helps to bridge the gap between training, workshops, and the realities of writing an opera for production at a professional producing company.

What is the CLDP audition process like?

Resident Artists are selected through a competitive application process and represent some of the most gifted emerging operatic writers in the country. The application period for our upcoming season of the CLDP, for which we will accept 4 new composers and 4 new librettists, just closed on April 1^st.  We received over 70 applications from an incredible variety of composers and librettists from around the country, and we will announce our selection of Resident Artists in June.

Applications are welcome from any emerging composer or librettist who is a U.S. citizen or legal resident. ALT defines an emerging opera composer or librettist as an artist who has acquired significant skills as a composer and/or playwright/librettist through academic study, practice and professional experience; who demonstrates a unique and important musical and/or theatrical perspective that could benefit from intensive mentorship as part of the CLDP; and who has not yet had a main stage work commissioned and/or performed by a professional opera company. Artists’ work in other genres often has been performed professionally, as ALT’s definition of emerging applies specifically to an artist’s development and career stage as a writer of opera. There are no age minimums of maximums for participation.

Applications go through three rounds of evaluation by a panel which, this season, will be comprised of me, composer/librettist Mark Adamo, composer Paul Moravec, librettist Mark Campbell, and dramaturg Cori Ellison. We are looking to see which applicants demonstrate a unique artistic voice, strong theatrical inclinations, true desire to write for the opera stage, strong collaborative abilities, and potential to add to the national canon.

 

Your three new opera commissions are all stories that are either true, or relevant to today’s audiences. Why did you choose these works?

I think relevance is very important for opera, especially if we are seeking to attract new people to opera (which is certainly one of ALT’s goals) – and we all know that opera has the stigma of being very elitist and not particularly relevant to a large portion of the population!  That being said, there are many ways an opera can be relevant – and there are many masterpieces from Monteverdi to Glass that are extremely relevant.  I think the key to the three works we’ve commissioned this season is that they are all based on subjects with which the writers have deeply personal responses and relationships – and they feel that they have something to express through these stories in an operatic context.

Operas based on topical subjects are nothing new, of course, but certainly some of what we consider topical now is different than what was topical to audiences during other periods of time.  La Reina, by composer Jorge Sosa and librettist Laura Sosa Pedroza, sheds light on violent, real life events taking place in Mexico and the United States in the ongoing drug wars. Composer Justine F. Chen and librettist David Simpatico are developing The Turing Project, which explores the life Alan Turing, one of the great geniuses of the 20th century. Perhaps best known for cracking the Nazi U-Boat code that proved crucial to the success of the allied forces in World War II, Turing was later charged with Gross Indecency for the crime of being homosexual by the British government, and was punished with chemical castration. At 41, one year after his sentence was carried out, Turing committed suicide by eating an apple laced with cyanide – according to the official coroner’s report. Many have speculated that Turing’s apparent suicide was inspired by his life-long love of the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs! For our third commission, we are deeply grateful that American veteran and author Brian Castner has entrusted us with his critically acclaimed book, The Long Walk. Composer Jeremy Howard Beck and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann were inspired by Castner’s haunting memoir, which makes the paradox of coming home from war and the near impossibility of a smooth reintegration come alive.  So, as you can see, while the three works are all relevant to today’s audiences, they really couldn’t be more different!

We actually didn’t set out to commission three works that were based on actual events or true-life stories this season, but these were the stories that the writers I was interested in were drawn to. When a writing team I want to commission approaches me with an idea for an opera, I always ask them the same questions: Why opera? What about this story, and the way you propose to tell it, begs to be told through opera? What is it about opera that you feel has the potential to bring this story to life in a more compelling way than on another medium? Would it be a better musical? Or a film? Only when both the writers and I feel that a story begs to be told through opera do we make the full resources of ALT available to them. Because, lets face it, there are many stories that can be better told in other ways. But when the right story is told through opera, I truly believe it is the most thrilling musical-theatrical experience we can have – and I want to provide gifted composers and librettists the opportunity to create works that do exactly that.

 

What would a student or an emerging artist get out of an ALT program? What programs are available to them?

ALT provides emerging operatic writers with unprecedented, tuition-free mentorship from some of the leading working artists in the country. The principal faculty for the 2013-2014 CLDP will include composer/librettist Mark Adamo, librettist Mark Campbell, composer Robert Beaser, dramaturg Cori Ellison, librettist Michael Korie, stage director Rhoda Levine, and composer Paul Moravec. Recent guest teachers and lecturers have included composers Kaija Saariaho, Ricky Ian Gordon, Nico Muhly, Stewart Wallace, Christopher Theofanidis, and John Musto, and librettists Stephen Karam, Donna DiNovelli, and Gene Scheer. 

As I mentioned, after participating in the first-year CLDP curriculum, select artists are then commissioned by ALT to write their first operas. They receive commission fees while continuing to receive extensive mentorship as they develop large scale works. ALT also promotes operas by the artists with whom we work, with the goal of introducing them and their work to company leaders across the country. Our goal is to provide the most comprehensive professional mentorship environment available, while guiding emerging composers and librettists through the creation of new works, and building their capacity for lifelong contributions of the highest artistic standards to the American opera repertoire.

Where do you see the ALT moving next?

One of the most important developments for the company is the recent national expansion of the CLDP. To date, over 30 artists from the metropolitan New York City area have benefited from the intensive mentorship provided by the program. This coming season, artists from around the country will be able to participate in the CLDP remotely through the use of HD video conferencing technology. The acquisition of this new, high speed, high-resolution technology will now enable us to invite the most exciting artists from all over the country to participate in the CLDP and to collaborate with other artists, without geographic restriction.

Of course, so much of what we do at ALT takes place behind the scenes. With that in mind, we are starting to increase the number of public events presented by ALT each season, and we are very excited to be launching the InsightALT Festival this spring. This week-long festival will offer an intimate, inside look into American Lyric Theater’s process of creating new creating new operas at all stages of their development. The inaugural Festival will take place between May 28th and June 3rd, 2013, at the Goldman-Sonnenfeldt Family Auditorium, The JCC in Manhattan’s state–of–the–art theater located at 334 Amsterdam Avenue (at West 76th Street). The festival kicks-off with a special public master class by world-renown soprano Catherine Malfitano, which will explore the challenges of creating roles in new operas.  At the center of the festival are concert readings of the three new operas recently commissioned by ALT: The Turing Project, The Long Walk, and La Reina. All three operas will feature leading singers and rising-stars from the country’s preeminent opera houses, and themes behind these works will be explored in two symposia led by ALT and Glyndebourne dramaturg Cori Ellison, one of the leading creative figures in the opera world today.

How have you handled ALT through this difficult economic time?

Fortunately, for a number of reasons, ALT has not been as seriously affected by the financial challenges of recent years as many companies. First among those reasons is that we are not a company that produces a season of regular performances. As a service organization, our entire business and operational model is different. Our focus is on providing highly specialized services to composers and librettists, and as a small company, we are able to do this with much lower overhead than large organizations that have more diversified programs. Specialization has its benefits – as does collaboration. For the new operas we develop, we are essentially two pieces of a larger puzzle. The first piece is artist mentorship. The second piece is developing and promoting the new works we commission. The third piece – and it’s the most expensive piece – is actually producing the operas. For this third piece, we partner with companies whose expertise really lies in producing. We’ve been fortunate to partner with some great companies to produce operas developed at ALT, including Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the Wexford Festival in Ireland, and The Atlanta Opera. Upcoming partnerships include Tulsa Opera, Fargo Moorhead Opera, and Fort Worth Opera.  These relationships benefit ALT because these companies have a producing infrastructure set up that we do not have.  At the same time, it benefits them, because they are able to discover new writers and new operas without the financial risk of investing in their development. When a company chooses to partner with ALT, they have the opportunity to assess a new opera at a stage far beyond a concept or idea for a new work.  If an opera company decides to produce an opera we’ve developed, they save hundreds of thousands of dollars in artist mentorship, commission fees, and workshopping costs — all of which are paid for by ALT, and which we are able to do more cost effectively than larger companies for whom new works development and artist mentorship are not their primary focus. So in some ways, I think the recent economic challenges have actually helped us, because is has forced everyone in the opera field to look more carefully at less traditional collaborative models – and this has provided an entrée for ALT to really have an impact behind the scenes of American opera.

 

 

Sing for Your Supper: La Périchole at New York City Opera

As the fourth and final presentation of the nomadic New York City Opera, the company produced Jacques Offenbach’s “sort-of-semi-heard” operetta, La Perichole, at New York City Center (It’s original home at its inception in 1944.)

Photo by Carol Rosegg © 2013 New York City Opera

The operetta  is about an impoverished duo of street singers. The girl, Perichole, becomes the mistress of the Viceroy through a series of conundrums. This is much to the chagrin of her clueless partner-turned-husband, Philippe. The piece which incorporates as much singing as it does spoken dialogue, is a romp through funny, charming music and a bucketful of Spanish stereotypes.

Much like the way that Georges Bizet composed Carmen, La Perichole is an opera that functions on nineteenth century stereotypes of the wild and crazy unknown, in this case, Peru. Similarly, that’s why Carmen’s Spain is full of gypsy fervor and toreador brilliance.

In the production by Christopher Alden, brother to director David Alden who recently directed Un Ballo in Maschera at the Metropolitan Opera, is a champion of American “regietheater”. For those who don’t know what that large, scary word I just typed means, it’s German for “director’s theater”. The concept of director’s theater is a complex one, so to explain in a few sentences, it’s going to be hard. “Regie” is the idea that, without much regard to the original music or storyline, a director can put whatever they want onstage. The concepts can be clear cut and heavily pondered, or they can be literal craziness with random objects all over the stage. The idea originated in Germany and is slowly working its way overseas to more conservative and traditional American audiences.

Christopher Alden’s madcap production of a madcap opera was the best production of any opera I have ever seen. I can say that confidently and sincerely.

Now, I’ve always been opposed to regie. I hated(and still do) the way it holds the composer’s texts, music, and intentions in such low regard. Recently, I’ve been “broadening my horizons” and taking a look at all the different types of regietheater, and while yes, there will always be the guy that stages Ballo with a string of naked men in Mickey Mouse masks (Yeah… That’s happened before…), there can be some real meat on the bone in this type of opera direction.

It’s going to take a while for the U.S. to be able to receive regie productions on the German level, but it’s a slow climb. Christopher Alden’s regie production is genuinely fantastic. While I couldn’t find a direct statement from him about the premise, I gathered from the production that it was a very stereotypical modern take on the piece. If the ink was still drying on this opera, the first production would probably look something like what I saw at City Center on Saturday. It’s an update of what the unexposed French aristocracy would have thought of Peru and South and Central America in general. It was a cynical look at the piece’s uneducated premise. In our society of political correctness, this production fits like a thought-provoking puzzle piece.

Now, I’m going to confess something. Most of the time, when I laugh at comic opera, it’s a pity laugh.

I laughed so hard on Saturday, and it was 100% genuine.

Heading the cast were two, remarkable French singers. As Perichole, Marie Lenormand sang the role’s funny passages with a comic jollity and the sensitive pieces with a vocal sympathy that rang throughout the theater. As her partner, then husband, Piqillo, Philippe Talbot matched her every step of the way. He was funny, intense and sympathetic. His high notes resonated throughout the house and this is the type of singer who will make a perfect “Tonio” in La Fille du Regiment if he hasn’t done so already. The man can play drunk pretty well to.

Photo by Carol Rosegg © 2013 New York City Opera.

Also in excellent form was Kevin Burdette as the outrageous Don Andres, the Viceroy, who’s more insecure than a sixth grade girl. The comedy was in his powerful voice, and while the relentless physical comedy antics got to be a little much, it came down to a technically sound and pleasing performance.

Other standouts in the cast were Richard Troxell as Comte Miguel and Philip Littell in the silent role of the “Old Prisoner” (Who’s onstage for the entire performance in this production.). It’s hard to do good, silent comedy, but he had me rolling in my seat and(as a further testament to his talent), didn’t look stupid for one second.

The New York City Opera Orchestra was in good form with Maestro Emmanuel Plasson leading an indulgent performance of the piece. The New York City Opera chorus was also in top form and each member of the 22 singer ensemble was unique and appealing in the theatrical aspect of it.

The sets and costumes by Paul Steinberg and Gabriel Berry, respectively, were appropriately colorful and outlandish. The colorful, vibrant lights were the work of Aaron Black. The rollicking “YMCA” stlye choreography was by Sean Curran.

The New York City Opera that sold me mountains of garbage from their production of Manon is not the New York City Opera I saw two days ago. If this is the new, thoughtful, and entertaining New York City Opera, then I think we call all breathe a sigh of relief. If this is the quality of work they keep producing, this great institution should be here to stay.

Opera Teen on the Airwaves

Hi opera friends!

Courtesy of WQXR

I come today with some super exciting news! As I have alluded to on Twitter, my “big news” is that last week I had the honor and privilege to record a piece along with my answers to some fun, opera related questions for the Tri-State area classical music radio, WQXR. My piece will during the 11:30 Eastern time this week during the “Operavore Show” on Saturday, a half hour program by WQXR that takes a look at opera around the country and even around the world. They feature interviews with figures hailing from all parts of the opera world such as singers, impresarios, playwrights, composers, and many more, as well as commentary from opera personalities of today!

I’m honored to be able to participate in such a special show, and I would be honored if you would all come to listen with me this Saturday. I hope you enjoy the show!

Also, you can listen to another interview with me here. Thank you and enjoy!

A picture of me recording in the WQXR studios! Photo courtesy of Brian Wise/WQXR

It’s Award Season in the Opera World…

Last week, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation announced that its Richard Tucker Award winner would be mezzo soprano Isabel Leonard.

Isabel Leonard is just about as charming and bubbly as it gets. I’ve never seen her live, but from all reports I hear, she’s animated and bouncy onstage and she has a great stage presence. I’ve listened to many live transmissions with her and I can account for her youthful energy and vigor to be palpable through the airwaves. She seems like the complete package for a 21^st century opera singer.

Now me being me, I have a gripe. I always have a gripe.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation honorees have always been young and promising singers on the verge of making it big around the world. In fact, their description of the award is “The Richard Tucker Award is conferred annually upon a single artist who has reached a high level of artistic accomplishment and who, in the opinion of a conferral panel, is on the threshold of a major international career.” With that statement, there’s something that implies that a singer has pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and worked all over the world, doing little things to lead up to bug debuts in big places. The problem I have with them giving the award to Leonard is that she has the massive machine(No, not The Machine) that is The Metropolitan Opera Working behind her. She did a series of Rosinas in 2010, did some more in English this past holiday season as well as The Tempest in October, and huge amounts of Mozart. That’s not all, since she’s scheduled as Blanche de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites in May. She’s obviously an artist heavily utilized by the Met, and for good reason. She is exactly the type of since the Met is trying to market to the new audiences of opera. But doesn’t Isabel Leonard already have such an established career at the Metropolitan Opera? The list of places she has sung go on and on like the Opera Nationale de Paris and the Bayerische Staatsoper. Isabel Leonard is no stranger to the world of international opera, and since most houses utilize a five year casting system, she’s probably booked in many other places as well. In fact, much of the press she’ll receive from opera companies from the Tucker award probably won’t show until three years from now at the earliest.

I’m confused by this choice because while Leonard is both a deserving and charming singer, there are many other singers of her caliber of artistry that are still working around in smaller houses, waiting for an international debut. These are the singers I thought the Tucker Gala picked.

An example that comes immediately to mind is soprano Jennifer Rowley. The American soprano has sung Musetta in Norway(With the famous Stefan Herheim production) and was recently called in as a replacement in Robert le Diable at ROH. Unfortunately, due to conflicts, she wasn’t able to perform in it. Shouldn’t singers like Jennifer Rowley be getting this extra push? Aren’t singers like Jennifer Rowley the ones who need this extra publicity? This is where I find fault in this year’s choice.

Also, the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition is happening with its finale in June. My personal favorite to win is Jamie Barton, the powerhouse mezzo from the U.S.  ut we’ll have to see how the competition progresses.

I’m writing this piece as the opera twitter powers that be tweet gaily of the “Opera News Awards”, a night organized by the Met Opera Guild, who owns Opera News, where they give out some awards to people in the opera field. Which people, you may ask? None in particular, I reply.

The fault I find in the “Opera News Awards” is that they really don’t serve a purpose beyond the joy the person who is receiving it feels. They carry no specific connotation and don’t make an operatic community member more distinguished in any way. It’s really just a fancy dinner and party with many opera greats. Would you pay extra money to see a singer who won an “Opera News Award”?

Now, if these awards had a clear goal that was expressed not only through their nominees, but also through their mission statement, I would be more at peace. However, each year, they pick five different people in the opera world and celebrate the “distinguished achievements” that has made that person a mover, a shaker, or a life time achiever in this community. This wouldn’t be a problem for me, but each year the choices of winners are erratic and not cohesive.

Image Property of Opera News

Take this year’s nominee, Eric Owens for example. Owens is currently singing Alberich in the Met’s Rheingold and has been a fixture of the company for past seasons. At 42, the bass-baritone is debatably in his prime, and if all goes as planned with singers, he should still have another 20-30 years left on the operatic stage. With that much time left, anything can happen. How do we know that his contributions to the field of opera are lasting or memorable when not even the singer himself has had the opportunity to stand the test of time? It feels like we are celebrating a career, be it a sparkling and promising one, a little too prematurely.

At the same time, the award is being given this year to Mirella Freni(my favorite Desdemona). Shouldn’t a singer like Freni, who’s already retired and been a household name for the last 40+ years, be honored specially? What about Peter Sellars, the director who won in 2011 after only directing two productions at the Metropolitan Opera? Is this event about the overall field of opera or just about the Met? There’s no way of knowing since they never really tell us what their motives are. Maybe if the awards were divided up into categories, then we would be better able to navigate the winners.

Finally, tomorrow marks the first annual Opera Awards in London. The awards are for “Promoting excellence in opera and providing funding through The Opera Foundation for the operatic community”. It seems like a noble pursuit, and I wish them the best at their gala event tomorrow.

I love a good celebration as much as the next guy, especially when it’s a celebration of great art. However, I would like to know what great art I’m celebrating first.

There, you have my musings and complaints du jour. What these competitions and contests really boil down to, is celebrating great opera, and when opera’s really great, it deserves a celebration.

An Interview with Lisette Oropesa

Hello, opera lovers. I’m sorry for the extended absence! It’s been a busy stretch and I still have a lot to tell you all about.

Photo courtesy of Jason Homa.

However, today, I’m back with a great interview for you! Recently, I had the pleasure of talking o the soprano Lisette Oropesa, a Metropolitan Opera mainstay who is singing the role of Gilda in the new, Vegas themed Rigoletto that premiered a few months ago. It was super interesting to talk to her, and you can see my questions and her thoughtful responses below. Enjoy!

How did you get into opera?

My favorite question! My mom was a singer and I started singing, but I never wanted to sing opera.I played flute and wanted to pursue that professionally. My mom entered me in a vocal competition and I auditioned. After that, I started to sing more and more and in college, I fell in love with the art form. Then, I gave up with flute.
When did you discover you wanted to be a singer?

I always wanted to sing, but I wasn’t sure it would be opera. I would write and sing songs about Disney and princesses, but the actual opera career as a choice wasn’t there immediately.
You sing roles all across the board… How do you manage your technique in each type of music?
Sing everything as bel-canto. Everything should be sung in the same technique. You have to find what works for you, not the composer. Portamenti aren’t appropriate for some musical styles. Your vowels should be in the right place and singing a clean legato line is the foundation of good singing.
Favorite role? Dream role?

I do have a favorite role. I had a great time singing Lucia. Every role in the opera (Lucia di Lammermoor) is so great and it’s not all about the soprano. Other characters are really important. The acting is fulfilling, and the whole opera is about the conflict, not just the mad scene. I would love to sing Violetta in La Traviata one day. I’ll probably have to wait another decade until I’m vocally mature enough to sing it.

Did you have a plan when you started out as a young artist?

When I first got to the Met, they told me I needed to lose weight. My first plan was to get physical health together. Vocal maturity comes with time. No problems in the beginning, except I was working with the wrong voice teacher. I would go to the Met every day. I would sit in on rehearsals, coachings and language classes amongst other things. I keep so many things I’ve learned from then with me. I learned so much in the (Lindemann Young Artists Development) program that a college could never have taught me.

How has running affected the way you sing?

I started running seriously two years ago, a little at a time. At age 14, I was the last to finish the mile and I thought I was bad at running. I was not built for it, and trained very slowly. The weight loss took seven years and I dropped more from running. If you practice healthily, running will not affect your voice in a negative way. Running helps stamina, breath control and keeps your connection with your body more intact. I didn’t wake up one day and say I wanted to run a marathon. It took me two years to do it. I love running and it’s my secret relaxation technique. Opera is stressful, and running helps relieve some of that stress.

What was it like to create the role of Miranda in the baroque pastiche, The Enchanted Island , at the Met last season?

It was interesting because Miranda exists in Shakespeare. I knew who she was, but it was a transition from the book to the stage. Our director was really into the emotion. There was not strict blocking and we could flow as people. He would call out an emotion and we would have to interpolate that into our arias and he gave his opinions on both the music and stage work. It was interesting to work with him, because some directors are very specific about cues.

What kind of say did you have with the music you were singing?

I had zero say at all in The Enchanted Island. I was fine with what I got. I had a score with a duet and an aria. I was just excited to be doing something with Joyce DiDonato and David Daniels.

Any words for young opera lovers?

Thank you for loving the art form. Thanks for your enthusiasm. Nothing is greater than young energy. Younger people have a positive outlook as opposed to some older fans who might be stubborn or stuck in their ways. I always look to see young, fresh face in the audience. It’s amazing that it can touch them and that opera isn’t elitist and you don’t have to be older to appreciate it.

I hope you enjoyed the interview! Thanks for reading and please leave your thoughts in the comments below. Also, I took tons of notes on both the opening night of La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera and the second performance of Francesca da Rimini there as well. If you want me to post reviews of those, please say so below. Thanks!

 

A Study in How We Get Young People Into Opera Houses(Without Applying Excessive Force)

As the weekend winds down, I thought you dear readers would appreciate a treat.

As an assignment in English class last month, we were assigned to write a research paper about a topic of our choice. Being the operaphile I am, my choice was to examine the way opera companies are attracting younger audiences and what they have done to do so in the past.

Some of you on Twitter have asked to read it, and I figured that some of you might find it interesting(Or at least I really hope some of you find it interesting…). So, you can read my essay on Opera and Young Audiences and as usual, please be respectful and don’t plagiarize. Contact me if you have any questions at operateenblog@gmail.com.

A special thank you for help on this essay goes out to blogger and long time opera fan, Mirto Picchi, who you can find here.

Please leave your thoughts and comments in the comments section. Comments have been a little slow recently, and don’t pretend that I don’t know all the interesting things you have to say!